Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is the legendary Tim Burton’s latest dark fantasy/comedy horror film, and as the follow-up to his 1988 classic Beetlejuice, it’s Hollywood’s latest legacy sequel.
Michael Keaton, who last year reprised his role as Batman in The Flash, now reprises his role as the titular politically incorrect “bio-exorcist” Beetlejuice. Winona Ryder, perhaps best known these days for Stranger Things, reprises her role as Lydia Deetz, the gothic teenager who could see ghosts, while Catherine O’Hara, perhaps best known for Home Alone, reprise her role as her artistic stepmother Delia Deetz.
New additions to the cast include Justin Theroux as Lydia’s irritating boyfriend Rory, the famously well-endowed Willem Dafoe as ghost detective Wolf Jackson, Tim Burton’s partner Monica Belluci as the “soul-sucking demon” Delores who’s after Beetlejuice, prospective Wolverine Danny DeVito as an afterlife janitor, and newly risen superstar Jenna Ortega as Lydia’s teenage daughter Astrid.
This is the 21-year-old actress’s third time headlining the revival of a dormant macabre franchise, following her titular role in the hit Netflix series Wednesday, another Tim Burton production, and her starring role in the latest Scream movies. And it’s safe to assume it won’t be her last.
The Original Film
You might appreciate a refresher on the events of the original film, though I would recommend revisiting it or checking it out if you’ve never seen it. It’s a beloved classic for a reason.
Adam and Barbara Maitland, played by Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis respectively, crash their car through a bridge and plunge into a river. They return home, where they realize that they are now ghosts, who are unable to leave the house except to go to the afterlife, or to a strange desert planet with giant sandworms. It’s all explained in the manual they receive, the Handbook for the Recently Deceased. The house is sold to the Deetz family, who turn it into a work of postmodern art, much to the Maitlands’ consternation. They travel to the afterlife, which turns out to be a massive Kafkaesque bureaucracy, and their caseworker advises them to scare the Deetzes out.
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When they turn out to be no good at house-haunting, they give up and turn to Betelgeuse, pronounced “Beetlejuice,” a professional. Unfortunately, Beetlejuice is a perverted and amoral individual, and the Maitlands immediately regret hiring him. His efforts do alert the Deetzes that the house his haunted, but instead of moving, Charles Deetz actually pitches his boss on making Winter River, Connecticut a tourist spot. (Jeffrey Jones does not reprise his role as the Deetz patriarch in the sequel, presumably due to his legal issues).
Charles’s boss wants evidence of the ghosts, so they invite him and his wife to the house, where family friend Otho attempts to conduct a séance. He successfully summons the Maitlands, but unfortunately, he accidentally performs an exorcism, causing them to age and decay. Lydia desperately summons Beetlejuice for help, but his condition is her hand in marriage, to which she acquiesces. Marrying a human would allow him to freely cause mayhem in the mortal world, without needing to be summoned. Beetlejuice saves the Maitlands, but the subsequent wedding is immediately interrupted by them: Barbara rides a sandworm into the house which devours Beetlejuice. The Deetzes and Maitlands agree to live in harmony.
The Sequel
Thirty-six years after the events of Beetlejuice, Lydia Deetz is the host of a supernatural talk show, Ghost House. Delia informs her that Charles has passed (the way he dies is quite hilarious, and is actually based on a nightmare of Burton’s.) They pick up Astrid from boarding school and they attend the funeral in Winter River. Astrid meets a friendly boy, Jeremy Frazier, played by Arthur Conti, who invites her to his home on Halloween. And that’s where I have to stop to keep this a non-spoiler review.
The sequel covers a lot less ground than the first film did: while Beetlejuice took place over the course of months, the plot of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice spans a couple of days. This may have been a contributing factor to why this film feels smaller, less substantial than the original, despite the fact that it’s actually 12 minutes longer. The passage of time in the story has a significant effect on how you experience it, even if the actual runtime is comparable, and watching these two films in close succession really made me realize that. This is not to say there’s anything inferior about a film taking place over a short amount of time – many incredible films take place within one day.
What also matters here is that there’s so much more going on in this film. There’s dealing with Charles’s death, Lydia’s relationships with Delia, Astrid and Rory, and Astrid’s hopes to contact her dead father. That doesn’t even mention Beetlejuice’s return, Wolf Jackson hunting down Beetlejuice for violating afterlife law, Delores hunting down Beetlejuice for revenge, etc.
My Review
While the original film had a very focused, contained narrative, this one has so many characters, conflicts and moving part stuffed into a slightly longer runtime and all occurring over a couple of days. It all kind of comes at you in a whirlwind, and then it’s over. Each subplot is not as fleshed out as they could have been if there were less of them, or if the film was longer.
But none of that precludes Beetlejuice Beetlejuice from being a great time at the movies. The film has some great twists and turns that keep viewers at the edge of their seats. The ghosts are as creative as ever, and it’s a pleasure to see Burton still use practical effects to bring them to life. The wizard Danny Elfman is of back with the sort of spooky, whimsical score we all love. It’s a pleasure to see Michael Keaton play Beetlejuice again – he seems to be having a lot of fun. And it’s a pleasure to see Winona Ryder revisit Lydia after all these years.
I don’t need to have been around in 1988 to feel the palpable nostalgia here. Having rented the film from Netflix in my youth is enough. (Beetlejuice was actually the first DVD Netflix ever shipped – another fun fact that’s part of its legacy.)
The sequel makes sure to pay homage to the original film in ways fans will appreciate. Perhaps most notably, with a choir singing a gospel version of Harry Belafonte’s “Day-O,” a callback to the original’s arguably most iconic scene. All in all, it’s a great film to kick off the fall with, and I highly recommend going to see it.
