$13 million and no CGI: The original ‘Beetlejuice’ VFX designer explains why the film still feels magical 3 decades later

When the original ‘Beetlejuice’ came out in 1988, it didn’t use CGI. Instead, the VFX team used in-camera trickery to make the film’s effects feel as real and creepy as possible.

Picture the original Beetlejuice. No doubt a terrifying moment comes to mind first: The open maw of a sandworm; Beetlejuice’s bug-eyed face on the body of a snake; maybe a shrunken-headed man waiting patiently for his appointment in the afterlife. Regardless of the specific image, nearly all of the most iconic scenes from the original film involve some feat of practical effects, and, remarkably, they still hold up nearly 40 years later.