This election has been a real horrorshow, and East Village costume store Halloween Adventure has made the most of it with some amazing Trump-Clinton window displays. Their latest is really a doozy. Perhaps inspired by the Tim Burton theme bar nearby, they’ve put everyone’s favorite human orange alert into the netherworld waiting room from Beetlejuice.
Tim Burton
It’s Showtime at Beetle House, the Tim Burton Theme Bar Facing a Cease and Desist
Meet your host, “Juice”(Photo: Nicole Disser)
The idea of a Tim Burton theme bar opening in the East Village is so weird on so many levels that I started to drive myself bonkers unpacking the implications of this so-called Beetle House. Would this be an ironic ode to Tumblr culture and fan fiction? A comment on how themed consumer culture has reached bizarre peaks? As it turns out, Beetle House is actually just a completely earnest theme bar and restaurant dedicated to the beloved, oh-so-spooky-creepy films of Tim Burton. Which hasn’t stopped it from getting smacked with a cease-and-desist from the director’s minders.
“I was like, ‘Why don’t we open a bar?'” co-owner Zach Neil recalls telling Brian Link, his business partner and BFF who was suffering from “massive depression” last year. “Bars are fun, it’s like having a birthday party every night. People come in, they hang out, you drink, hang out, everything’s good.”