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As Popverse's resident horror hound, I was of course in the audience for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice this past weekend, contributing to its already impressive box office numbers. In one sense, I was thrilled: the movie felt like an introduction to Halloween season 2024, and I'm a big fan of Michael Keaton. But in another sense, I also felt a little forlorn about a second Beetlejuice being in theaters, and since I (still!) don't have a therapist, we're going to talk about why.

I saw Beetlejuice too late for it to be a part of my own childhood, but whenever I'd meet a Beetlejuice kid as I was growing up, odds were that I'd like them. They, like me, were into something scary, something dark, something "older" than the cookie-cutter, mass-marketed Toys 'R' US fare we were "supposed" to like. More than that, they were into something different. I liked different. And unfortunately, there's only so much "different" that a sequel to now-ubiquitous film can achieve.

Here begins my gloomy outlook.

I understand that, these days, it's hard for viewers to find something truly different than what they've seen before. Part of that is the level of access virtually every person has to virtually every piece of media in the internet age (I challenge you to find some movie or TV show that doesn't have a dedicated subreddit). Another part of is the much-bemoaned fact that, of the many options for new entertainment out there, much of them are tied to some pre-existing fanbase or franchise.

Hold on - I don't want you to think is that this a rant against sequel culture. Sure, I think Hollywood relies too much on nostalgia (don't you?), but I also think there are studios who regularly produce uncanny and challenging entertainment to an enthusiastic audience - A24, Neon, and some of Blumhouse's stuff come to mind. But you know what all those creepy and kooky movies have in common? They're all for adults.

Yes, there's entertainment out there for spooky kids, but in most of those cases, nostalgia is the drive. Netflix's Wednesday, Five Nights at Freddy's, even Beetlejuice Beetlejuice itself all rely on a pre-existing macabre fanbase to get their PG-13 horror to viewers. The off-kilter chances some studios are willing to take with adult scary stories are apparently too risky for teens. It all leads me to wonder: is there no longer a market for younger fare that is both phantasmic and original? Is the age of the weird goth kid over?

I called this piece Twilight of the Oddballs, a title that hurts me on a personal level. Even for the slight ostracization of my childhood, I like that I was a little weirdo. I don't think I'd be the curious, spooky, wonderlusted adult I am today without that. And though it wasn't Beetlejuice that did that for me, I had other movies like it, movies that made me feel excited about the weird and the taboo. In so many different ways, I had my own Beetlejuice.

Doesn't every little freak deserve theirs? 

In the immortal words of Danny Elfman, "Life's no fun without a good scare." We couldn't agree more, which is why we think you should check out horror aficionado Greg Silber's list of the best horror movies of all time. Or, if you've already seen those classics, check out our list of the most underrated horror movies from the past couple years. And if you've already seen all of those, Let us tell you what to look forward to (or dread) in Popverse's list of upcoming horror movies.