Editorials
Why It’s Possible That ‘Beetlejuice 2’ Won’t Be Terrible!
A few weeks ago Michael Keaton sorta kinda confirmed his involvement in Beetlejuice 2. Tim Burton appears to be directing. Seth Grahame-Smith is currently writing the script. While the film is still many, many steps away from a green light it’s certainly in development and there’s a reasonable chance it could happen. And, while there’s no guarantee this thing will be any good, it’s also not yet the assured disaster that Ghostbusters 3 is (should that film ever actually get off the ground).
But I’m actually hopeful it will be good. For one, Beetlejuice 2 seems to be retaining its main attraction – Michael Keaton. While you could make an argument that the concepts and worlds of both Ghostbusters and Beetlejuice have merits that would attract their respective fanbases no matter who was involved, there’s a big difference between attracting your fanbase and pleasing it. Ghostbusters 3 will be catastrophically hobbled by Bill Murray’s absence. Beetlejuice 2 may or may not bring back Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Winona Ryder or Catherine O’Hara (I seriously doubt they’d bring back Jeffrey Jones), but at least it has its marquee name. And Keaton’s recent work in films like The Other Guys suggests he still has the comic chops to pull it off.
But the main reason I’m able to be cautiously optimistic? Frankenweenie. Last year Tim Burton made a creative comeback by going back to the beginning of his career and reassessing it with new eyes and the result was wonderful. And unexpected. I honestly didn’t think he had a picture like that in him after Alice In Wonderland and Dark Shadows. Of course, like all of the best Tim Burton movies*, Frankenweenie underperformed at the box office. But I’m hopeful that he doesn’t let the sting of that perceived failure smother whatever may have reawakened inside of him.
Of course, Seth Grahame-Smith is writing the movie and I haven’t really been a huge fan of his film stuff thus far (I haven’t read his books but mashups most assuredly aren’t my thing). He even wrote Dark Shadows for Burton – which admittedly isn’t a great example of what these two are capable of when paired up. But I’m not prepared to disavow his ability to do good work just yet. Francis Lawrence, a director who has had several creative misses with films like I Am Legend and Water For Elephants, appears to have fashioned a truly great film out of the upcoming Catching Fire – so there’s always a chance for people to up their game. Plus, the world of Beetlejuice is fairly ripe with possibility.
So… yeah. There are hurdles here, I won’t lie. But if you had asked me if I thought Frankenweenie was going to be any good at this stage in its development I would have rolled my eyes. Instead, I saw the film and nearly cried them out. So while I’m not placing all of my chips on Beetlejuice 2 just yet, I at least feel semi-reasonable in my hope that it’ll work out. Every creative person has fallow periods, perhaps Burton has found a way out of his.
* Seriously. When your best film (Ed Wood) makes less than six million dollars and your worst (Alice In Wonderland) makes over a billion worldwide, that has to be a bit of a mindf*ck. Not every artist’s fallow period is so wildly successful.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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