Sumith Prasad
Tim Burton’s 1988 horror comedy ‘Beetlejuice’ primarily takes place in the house of Barbara and Adam Maitland in Winter River, Connecticut. After their deaths, the Deetz family occupies the house and remodels it as a work of postmodern architecture. The dark fantasy film progresses with the Maitlands’ efforts to get rid of the Deetzes so they can peacefully spend their afterlife in the house. Over the years, the establishment has garnered the attention of the movie’s fans worldwide. Burton and his crew returned to the house for ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,’ a sequel to the 1988 film. Even though the house is an exceptional property on screen, the ardent admirers of the horror comedy won’t be able to visit or live in it!
The Beetlejuice House Was a Façade Built in East Corinth
The house in ‘Beetlejuice’ and ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ is not real. The exterior of the property we see in both films is only a façade set up by Tim Burton and his crew for the respective horror comedies. The façade was built on the top of a hill in a private property in East Corinth, a quaint little town in Vermont. The property can be reached by driving through Jewell Lane in the region. For the original film, the house’s interior was built using sets in The Culver Studios, a film studio in Culver City, California, located nearly three thousand miles away from the town in Vermont.
The façade for the 1988 film was built by Bo Welch, who went on to marry Catherine O’Hara, who plays Delia Deetz in the movie series. For the sequel, Tim Burton collaborated with his ‘Wednesday’ production designer, Marc Scruton. He built the façade and the other sets in East Corinth in twelve weeks. For the interior, this time, Burton and crew went to Leavesden Studios in Watford, England, located a little over twenty miles away from London. The studio is owned by Warner Bros., the banner behind the two movies.
The studio has hosted the filming of several renowned projects, including the ‘Game of Thrones’ sequel ‘House of the Dragon,’ Greta Gerwig’s ‘Barbie,’ Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Dark Knight,’ and multiple ‘Harry Potter’ films. After the shooting of ‘Beetlejuice’ and ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,’ the respective façades were taken down from the hill in East Corinth. While filming the 1988 movie, the crew reportedly used the open interior as a basketball court. The façade’s roof was actually a painted canvas, which needed huge fans to puff up and appear as an actual roof on camera.
The bridge where the Maitlands die is located not far away from the house. The red cover on the bridge is used as a shed cover at Ski Northeast Slopes, a ski area located at 0397 VT-25 in East Corinth. Scruton had to build a new cover for the sequel since it was not in the best condition after several decades.
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