12 Movies Like Beetlejuice You Should Watch Next

Though it just barely finished in the top 10 at the box office the year it was released, 1988's "Beetlejuice" was still considered a financial success compared to its fairly modest budget. But more importantly, director Tim Burton's underworld comedy quickly dug itself into a secure place in the cult classic pantheon and has remained there for nearly 40 years. Many people watch "Beetlejuice" every Halloween in the same way they watch "Home Alone" every Christmas.

When a "Beetlejuice" fan is looking for more movies to check out in a similar vein, the easiest recommendation is now 2024 sequel "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice," which was well-received by critics and fans alike and blew everyone away at the box office. But there are a lot of other films to watch that would make a great double feature with "Beetlejuice" or even a triple feature with the movie and its sequel. For the most part, they are all fairly family-friendly (though parents of younger kids should proceed with caution); feature a combination of dark fantasy and comedy; and showcase the worlds of the living and the worlds of the dead directly interacting with one another. 

A couple of these recommendations don't quite fit into all those parameters, but as we'll explain, they still justify their place among movies that people who loved "Beetlejuice" should consider watching next. 

When a trio of science professors — inspired by real-life paranormal investigators — have their funding pulled, they use what they have learned in their studies to start the titular Ghostbusters service. Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis), and Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) are joined by Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) as they begin taking calls for ghost-busting jobs, which eventually puts them in the path of a powerful supernatural being known as Zuul. And with that, the team quickly go from odd jobs to having to literally save all of New York City — if the EPA doesn't shut them down before they can do so.

When "Ghostbusters" was released in 1984, it was groundbreaking for multiple reasons. It is considered one of the first blockbuster comedies, a funny movie with the budget and the box office returns usually reserved for action movies and adventure epics. It is also considered the first comedy to use expensive, cutting-edge special effects, something that remains difficult for most movies to pull off. On top of all that, it ushered in a new era for comedies with horror and supernatural elements, setting the stage for not only "Beetlejuice" itself but filmmakers like Tim Burton.

Tim Burton seemed like the perfect person to make an "Addams Family" movie, but the director wouldn't work on the franchise until his 2022 Netflix series "Wednesday." Still, 1991's "The Addams Family" was pretty much the movie Burton would have made back then and feels like a natural progression of the genre following "Beetlejuice." Credit where credit is due to the actual director of the movie, Barry Sonnenfeld, who knows his way around the creepy and the kooky pretty well himself.

"The Addams Family" follows the titular clan living their very unorthodox life and reeling from the disappearance of their beloved Uncle Fester (Christopher Lloyd). When he shows back up, they believe Fester has returned — but it's actually an imposter whose mother hopes to bleed the finances of the very wealthy Addams family dry. It's an incredibly fun movie, managing to appeal to both fans of the source material and kids who are just meeting the characters for the first time. While the general consensus is that 1993 sequel "Addams Family Values" is far superior overall, we're recommending the original; it's required to fully appreciate the follow-up — not to mention being more tonally similar to "Beetlejuice." 

With a Rotten Tomatoes consensus that calls it "an affectionate callback to classic horror comedies of the '80s," "Lisa Frankenstein" is obviously right up the alley of "Beetlejuice" fans as it seeks to pay tribute to the Burton film and other movies like it. Horror fans also know they're in good hands here as "Lisa Frankenstein" was written by Diablo Cody, who also wrote the initially panned but since reappraised as a cult classic "Jennifer's Body." 

Lisa (Kathryn Newton) is a teenager whose mother was killed by an axe murderer and now spends most of her time hanging out alone in a cemetery. This is how she eventually meets the reanimated corpse of a young man who died over 150 years earlier, who the movie never names but is credited as The Creature (Cole Sprouse). The two develop a relationship, which is already dark enough — but things take an even more twisted turn as he and Lisa go about rectifying the fact that the Creature is missing some of his body parts. 

Like "Jennifer's Body," reviews for "Lisa Frankenstein" were lukewarm at best — but don't be surprised to see it receive a similar reappraisal in the years to come and eventually gain a much better reputation.

Stop-motion animation is such a great fit for spooky movies — in fact, "Beetlejuice" uses a bit of it to pretty great effect. Production company Laika has not only made a name for itself in the stop-motion category in general, but most of its output has also leaned towards a creepier vibe. "Coraline," the studio's first full-length film, is also a great pick for "Beetlejuice" fans, but we felt that 2012's "ParaNorman" has a lot more in common with "Beetlejuice," not to mention just being deserving of a larger fanbase — something that "Coraline" doesn't really need any help in achieving.

The title comes from main character Norman (voiced by Kodi Smit-McPhee) being able to both talk to and see ghosts, including those of people he knew and complete strangers. Most of the ghosts are content to just say hi and leave Norman alone, but some come to him asking for help. His friends and family don't initially believe that he's telling the truth about his ability, until a centuries-old curse placed on their town begins to have effects that are impossible to ignore — and Norman is tasked with stopping it. "ParaNorman" features a similar relationship between the living world and the spirit world as "Beetlejuice," while also centering around a rogue spirit from the latter threatening the former and a kid acting as the connecting point between the two. 

This probably shouldn't be a huge surprise given that she can do pretty much everything, but not everyone realizes that Meryl Streep is also good at slapstick comedy. Don't believe us? Then you obviously haven't seen "Death Becomes Her," Robert Zemeckis's dark comedy that pits Streep against Goldie Hawn as two women who drink a potion that gives prevents them from aging and also renders them immortal. But the problem is that it doesn't make you invincible, so the two women start to beat each other with shovels, shoot holes in one another, and do all manner of other things that would normally mean death for someone who hasn't drank a magic immortality potion.

The ways the two women attack each other — and the combination of practical and computer effects that show the damage they are doing to one another's bodies — is most of the fun of "Death Becomes Her." It's like "Tom and Jerry" or a "Bugs Bunny" cartoon in live action. The movie's wins for best visual effects from both the Academy Awards and the BAFTAs were well-earned, even if not all of the effects have aged particularly well. But don't let that stop you from checking out "Death Becomes Her," especially if you got a kick out of seeing all the inventive and gruesome ways that people's deaths are physically immortalized in "Beetlejuice." 

Before he became primarily associated with "The Lord of the Rings" movies and documentaries about the Beatles, Peter Jackson was mostly known for horror comedies. His first mainstream effort in that genre was 1996's "The Frighteners," which was his last movie of any kind before spending nearly a decade working exclusively in Middle-earth. Had "The Frighteners" been a hit, would Jackson have stayed in the business of horror comedies rather than moving onto epic fantasy franchises? It's impossible to know that for sure, but either way, more people should know and love "The Frighteners," which is one of the greatest ghost movies of all time.

Michael J. Fox stars as Frank Bannister, a man who suddenly finds himself able to communicate with ghosts following the tragic death of his wife. He initially uses his abilities in less-than-noble ways, but is soon forced to reckon with his gift and change what he does with it when murders of a seemingly supernatural nature begin to occur around him. Critics at the time were mostly impressed with Jackson's directing as well as the then-cutting edge special effects, but not much else about "The Frighteners" — though, as with several movies on this list, it is now rightfully embraced as a cult classic. 

Not only do the supernatural elements and the funny moments blend together in a very "Beetlejuice"-esque way, but "The Frighteners" also happens to have music by a certain Danny Elfman to further cement the two movies as worthy bedfellows. 

One of the movies that people can't agree on whether it's a Christmas movie is "Gremlins," as its holiday setting is arguably overpowered by the fact that it's a horror movie about creatures that brutally murder people. But putting that aside, its connection to "Beetlejuice" can't be denied. For proof, look no further than the fact that the two movies are sometimes paired together in DVD collections — and the fact that Tim Burton almost directed this classic horror film. 

When a teenager named Billy (Zach Galligan) receives a strange creature called a Mogwai as a Christmas present, there are a number of rules that must be followed in caring for the Mogwai. When his friend accidentally breaks one of those rules and gets the Mogwai wet, the Mogwai spawns a handful of offspring that are much meaner and more frightening in appearance than the original. Those offspring then cause Billy to inadvertently break more of the rules, until there are soon an entire army of gremlins terrorizing and murdering the citizens of Billy's home town. 

"Gremlins" definitely leans a bit more horror than comedy, probably more so than any of the other movies on this list, but it still represents enough of a blending of the two to appeal to "Beetlejuice" fans — so long as they are okay with it being a fair bit more violent, as well as not really having any sort of otherworldly connections. 

Most people would agree that Tim Burton's two best animated movies are "The Nightmare Before Christmas" — which he didn't direct but is responsible for its story and characters — and "Frankenweenie." Both of those movies certainly have their fair share of elements that connect them to "Beetlejuice," from being able to move between the realms of the living and the dead to reanimated corpses of deceased animals. But we went with "Corpse Bride" to represent Burton's animated efforts to check out after "Beetlejuice," as we feel the two movies are more thematically similar and have the same balance of light and dark elements. It also has multiple entries on the list of iconic Tim Burton characters.

A series of unfortunate events causes a living man named Victor (voiced by Johnny Depp) to became engaged to a dead woman named Emily (Helena Bonham Carter), with Victor seemingly stuck in the Land of the Dead. What follows is a parade of Burton staples, including whimsical characters and gothic set pieces interspersed with musical numbers courtesy of Danny Elfman. It was great to see Burton, whose career began in animation, return to the medium in a non-producer role for the first time in over a decade, and it would be another seven years before he'd do it for the third and — thus far — final time on the big screen. 

There are multiple movies that bring to life the childhood fear of monsters that live in your closet or under your bed, but perhaps none have ever taken the latter myth more literally than 1989's "Little Monsters." It imagines that all beds lie on top of portals that lead to staircases into a monster universe, and that the monsters use those secret portals to cause mischief that gets kids in trouble. The monsters are supposed to stay out of sight, but a boy named Brian (Fred Savage) is able to set a trap that successfully captures his monster, Maurice (Howie Mandell). 

Brian and Maurice become friends and spend the next few nights secretly hanging out, with Maurice eventually showing Brian the monster world. But when Brian begins to turn into a monster himself, a transformation that is permanent once it occurs, it becomes a race against time to prevent that from happening, while also trying not to run afoul of other, less friendly monsters. "Little Monsters" is by far the most kid-focused movie on this list, with little that will remotely frighten even the smallest family members, but there's nothing wrong with going lighter instead of darker for your next "Beetlejuice" double-header with the family. In fact, maybe start with "Little Monsters" as a warm-up, with "Beetlejuice" as the closer. 

The original "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" is way more awesome than it had any right to be — and has somehow managed to avoid being one of those '80s movie hits that haven't aged well. But perhaps even more surprising is that the movie spawned a seemingly gimmicky sequel that also somehow ended up being great. "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey" did what so many comedy sequels fail to do, in that it manages to be just as funny as the original, but without just feeling like a victory lap of recycled gags. 

"Bogus Journey" also brings a bit of darkness into the proceedings by seeing the titular duo killed and sent to hell — not because they deserve to be there, but thanks to an attempted séance gone wrong. This leads to Bill (Alex Winter), Ted (Keanu Reeves), and Death (William Sadler) playing a series of games in an attempt to not only escape hell but have Death forced to do their bidding. 

Being a "Bill & Ted" movie, the stakes never feel all that serious and it's a foregone conclusion that they succeed, given that we already know the pair's future. But it's still a really fun ride that showcases the excellent chemistry not only between Winter and Reeves, but also Sadler as one of the funniest versions of Death to ever be put on screen. The afterlife being a place that isn't that scary — and surprisingly easy to escape from — is definitely something the movie has in common with "Beetlejuice." 

There are multiple versions and adaptations of "Little Shop of Horrors," but it's hard to deny that the definitive and best-known version is the 1986 movie based on the off-Broadway musical from a few years earlier. Rick Moranis stars as Seymour, a shy florist who works in a really rough neighborhood and one day discovers a strange plant that appears after a solar eclipse. Seymour takes the plant back to his shop and tries to feed it, only to discover that the only thing the plant seems to want is human blood. At first, a few drops from Seymour's fingers is good enough — but soon "Audrey II," as he has named the plant, has grown large and ravenous and begins to demand human sacrifices. 

With a stellar ensemble that also includes many of Moranis' fellow "SCTV" alums, along with Steve Martin, Bill Murray, and Four Tops singer Levi Stubbs as the voice of Audrey II, "Little Shop of Horrors" is as darkly funny as its songs are toe-tappingly catchy. "Beetlejuice" might not be a musical in the traditional sense, but it features several iconic scenes of its actors dancing and lip-synching — and music is definitely a character in the movie, as it were. So it's really not a stretch at all for a horror comedy musical to appeal to fans of "Beetlejuice" — not to mention that "Beetlejuice" was eventually adapted into a stage musical itself. 

While most of these recommendations are movies that are similar to "Beetlejuice" in some way rather than just more movies directed by Tim Burton, we also have to bring up "Pee-wee's Big Adventure." It's his feature-length directorial debut and his first collaboration with Danny Elfman, plus "Pee-wee's Big Adventure" and "Beetlejuice" were released back to back, with the latter feeling like the former's spiritual successor in many ways.

Burton's first two films, when taken as a twosome, lay so much of the groundwork for what would become the various signatures of his filmography. Even when "Batman" brought him into the big leagues and made him a true blockbuster director, Burton continued to focus on the quirky characters in his films and tell stories revolving around how those characters struggle to fit into a world that doesn't seem built for them in one way or another. There are several Burton films that are more overtly gothic, spooky, and/or otherwordly, which might feel more connected to "Beetlejuice," but there is just something about "Pee-wee's Big Adventure" that makes his first two films seem bonded together.