Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is the long-gestating follow-up to the 1988 cult classic that defined Tim Burton as a director and visual artist. It also introduced the world to Winona Ryder’s teenage emo/goth Lydia Deetz and cemented Catherine O’Hara as an acting powerhouse. Michael Keaton started his partnership with the director with this film followed by the two Batman films. After the first film, an animated series and a long-gestating sequel have been rumoured for years, the sequel is finally here with an inter-generational story that sets the juice loose in 2024.
As the film opens, the familiar sweeping camera shots across the New England Town of Winter River in Connecticut, with that incredible Danny Elfman score, you can’t help but get swept up in the nostalgia of it all. Lydia played by Winona Ryder has a paranormal reality TV show called Ghost House where she acts as a psychic mediator thanks to her connection to the dead. She is dating TV producer Rory played by Justin Theroux, and the white and black bandit Beetlejuice keeps haunting her dreams, her now teenage daughter Astrid played by Jenna Ortega has a similar emo tone as Lydia did in the first film. Her stepmother Delia (Catherine O’Hara) is back as her fabulous self and the three must enlist the help of Beetlejuice, once again Michael Keaton reprising his role, when Astrid is trapped in the land of the dead.
Through this mechanism, the story justifies bringing the character of Beetlejuice back, and with it the stop-motion sandworms, shrunken-head-suited creatures and of course the fantastic and definitive black and white suit designed by Colleen Atwood who is back for this sequel. Of course, a journey through the land of the dead adds some new characters with Monic Bellucci playing Dolores, Beetlejuice’s ex-girlfriend, Willem Dafoe’s Wolf Jackson who plays an afterlife police officer and Arthur Conti’s Jeremy, a ghost stuck in a tree. None of the newcomers get anywhere near enough screen presence to have a lasting impact due to the film’s tight runtime.
Keaton is still the glue that brings this film’s great ingredients together. There is definitely still a sense of craziness and a sense of not being politically correct with Betelgeuse and while he isn’t trying to marry a teenage girl in this film, he still emanates that same level of oddness that makes you feel uneasy. The character and film consistently leans into Burton’s trademark weirdness, heralding back to Burton’s roots that made him (and the first film) so successful. Ortega feels like the perfect addition to this universe, she slides easily into the family dynamic and her previous work with Burton on the TV series Wednesday, shows he can still find unique talent and bring out the best in them.
Using practical effects as much as possible helps this feel in tune with the first film. The stop-motion sandworms, musical numbers and returning principal cast in O’Hara, Ryder and Keaton hold this together. The film’s writers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, best known for Wednesday and Smallville, do unfortunately leave too many threads open with side characters and sub-plots that may be more fitting to an episodic series, rather than a 1 hour and 45 minute movie. That aside, it is a lot of fun and an enthusiastic audience who are along for the ride will enhance your experience here. Tim Burton gloriously returns to his filmmaking roots with his traditional filmmaking style and colour palette. Fans of the original will enjoy the attempt at world-building here, even if all of it doesn’t land. The goofy and beautiful practical effects elevate this visually, even if the story comes off as goofy, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a fun sequel that continues the legacy, pleasing old fans and ushering in new ones.
