Beware the sandworm atop Left Door’s entrance. (Photo by Mick Perrigo via Instagram)

Pass by the quiet entrance of Left Door on S Street NW and you’ll see something a little surprising: a giant striped snake sitting atop the balcony, poised to strike.

“Um, actually,” a Beetlejuice superfan might sneer, “it’s a sandworm from the planet Saturn.” The cozy cocktail bar is jam-packed with fan-friendly details like the sandworm this month, as Left Door celebrates the 1988 Tim Burton ghost story with themed decor, drinks, and events.

The team came up with the idea to transform into a Beetlejuice bar (not quite a pop-up) last year, says Left Door partner and head bartender Mick Perrigo. Normally decked out like a plush, dimly-lit speakeasy, the bar is now adorned with tombstones, cobwebs, more striped snakes, and a Beetlejuice plush doll borrowed from one bartender’s childhood toy collection.

The inflatable sandworm might be the biggest (literally) piece of the bar’s Beetlejuice-ification, but according to Perrigo, the cocktails are “the most important part.” Most are based on iconic lines or bit characters from the movie.

The Miss Argentina at Left Door (Photo by Mick Perrigo via Instagram)

The Miss Argentina, for example, is named for a receptionist in the Netherworld, who appears for only a few seconds. Her namesake cocktail is a take on a corpse reviver (makes sense), made with gin, Cocchi Americano, lemon, a rinse of absinthe, and blue curaçao to give it a blueish-green hue, and Peychaud’s bitters to mimic Miss Argentina’s swirl of bright red hair.

Then there’s the Dante’s Inferno Room, named after a nightclub that Beetlejuice visits. At Left Door, it’s a blend of mezcal, orgeat syrup, coconut cream, lime, and a house-made “fire tincture” made with jalapeno, habanero, and serrano peppers.

“It gives it teeth, but it’s not supposed to burn your face off,” Perrigo says.

Of course, there’s a drink based on the dinner scene, when one of our greatest comedic actresses, Catherine O’Hara, bursts out in a rendition of “Day-O.” The Tally Me Banana is an old fashioned riff made with Catoctin Creek rye whiskey, Plantation pineapple rum, banana syrup, and walnut bitters.

Just one line in the movie inspired the Ghosts in Designer Sheets, a mix of reposado tequila, Cappelletti, falernum, and clove tincture, and then topped with sparkling rosé.

The team watched the movie “a bunch of times” to find name inspiration, Perrigo says. (Probably for the best that the potentially problematic “Sleeping with Prince Valium” was one of the nixed ideas.)

Most of the drinks are $12-$15, but the spookiest drink is the $17 It’s Showtime!, a concoction of mezcal, amaro, yuzu pear juice, cane sugar, cinnamon tincture, vanilla, egg white, and soda. It’s topped with spices drawn in stripes, for Beetlejuice’s signature suit, and lit on fire, giving it “an amazing aroma,” Perrigo says.

The staff is adding to Left Door’s decor each day until Halloween, when they’ll host a costume contest with mystery prizes, Perrigo says. Though he says Left Door has been a bit more crowded than usual since the Beetlejuice theme took over, they still aren’t taking reservations for seats. To get in, you’ll leave your name and number with a bouncer at the entrance, and you’ll get a call when a space is free. Might we suggest making a night of it by pairing drinks at Left Door with tickets to the Beetlejuice musical debuting in D.C. later this month?

Left Door isn’t the only space getting in on the Beetlejuice action. As Barred in DC notes, McClellan’s Retreat in Dupont Circle has introduced a Handbook for the Recently Deceased cocktail menu, based on the tome that guides new ghosts through the afterlife. Drinks include the Never Trust the Living (green chile vodka, curacao, lime acid water, and simple syrup), and the I’m the Ghost With the Most, Babe (ginger apple liqueur, mezcal, Cocchi Torino, and old fashioned bitters). The menu runs through October.

This post has been updated.