Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, and Michael Keaton reunite with director Tim Burton to venture back into the whimsically macabre realm that made the 1988 classic Beetlejuice an enduring fan favorite. The long-gestating sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, appropriately takes place 30-something years after the Ghost with the Most tried to con his way back to life with designs of marriage on then-teen Lydia Deetz (Ryder).
While Lydia has grown to build a life of her own, not much has changed in the Neitherworld, a good or bad thing depending on what you want out of a legacy sequel. And this is a legacy sequel, packed with fan service and callbacks. That makes for an overstuffed narrative without much heft, but Burton’s lively, infectious return to the strange and unusual delivers a delightful enough Halloween romp all the same.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, written by Alfred Gough & Miles Millar (“Wednesday”) from the story by Gough & Millar and Seth Grahame-Smith (The LEGO® Batman Movie), revises history a smidge here and there. That’s most noticeable in Beetlejuice (Keaton); he no longer simply needs Lydia for personal gain but rather has harbored a torch for the goth queen ever since laying eyes upon her. So much so that he still haunts her whenever the opportunity arises. But Lydia’s been busy with life, particularly her career as a TV show host, her relationship with her manager Rory (Justin Theroux), and her estranged daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega). Lydia will be forced to confront her ghostly pursuer when a pair of freak accidents, one above ground and one below, sets the Deetz women and Beetlejuice on a collision course.
How do Tim Burton and crew bring Beetlejuice into the modern era? With a lot of goo, slime, and occasional blood. Michael Keaton effortlessly slips back into the iconic role, ensuring Beetlejuice hasn’t sanded down his rough edges for modern sensibilities. Neither has Burton; the inciting tragedy that reunites three generations of Deetz women is hilariously ruthless. The filmmaker and screenwriters don’t just quietly erase the blemish of Jeffrey Jones from the film’s legacy; they violently expunge it with rows upon rows of jagged shark teeth and pitch-black humor. The intentionally gruesome demise becomes a running in-joke throughout as if all the flogging or public shame in the world wouldn’t be enough punishment. It’s matched by Beetlejuice’s gooey scare tactics and an increased use of ectoplasm.
It’s that tangible slime and Burton’s commitment to doing as much practically as possible that evokes the familiar magic of Beetlejuice. Stop-motion animated sequences delight, as do the shrunken heads staff at Beetlejuice’s disposal. An expanded glimpse into the Neitherworld brings a showcase of whimsical and fun set pieces, and Colleen Atwood’s costume design heightens the ghoulish dramatics. The miniatures also make their anticipated return a requisite when calling back to the original.
It’s the craft on display that gives Beetlejuice Beetlejuice its beating heart, not the story. Catherine O’Hara still steals every scene as eccentric artist Delia Deetz, aptly capturing the audience’s sentiments at one point when she demands that Lydia find the rebellious goth teen that she once was. This Lydia is far meeker, a pale echo of her former self and Geena Davis’s more assertive Barbara Maitland. This sequel briefly mentions the Maitlands, but it doesn’t fill the void left by Davis’ absence. Lydia’s relationship with her resentful daughter is meant to provide the central emotional throughline, but it’s so stunted and superficially rendered that it gets lost in the overcrowded shuffle. The emotional apex of this plot thread falls flat in a moment so rushed that the dialogue barely registers.
Monica Bellucci’s Delores and Willem Dafoe’s Wolf Jackson mark the two newcomers and foils for Beetlejuice, yet this sequel never manages to figure out how to bring either into the fold. Instead, the pair act separately from everyone else, in seemingly different movies altogether, until an unceremonious conclusion more interested in recapturing the magic of “Day-O.”
This sequel doesn’t push forward or attempt reinvention. Instead, it’s a cozy reunion more interested in vibes and nostalgia. For most, that’ll be more than enough. Burton brings the whimsically macabre style in spades, compounded by the Halloween setting. It’s the perfect phantasmagorical mood setter to kick off the Halloween season, suitable for the whole family even when it playfully tests its PG-13 rating on occasion. Keaton hasn’t lost a step, and Burton infuses this sequel with a surprising energy. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice never veers too deep into the Neitherworld, flattening some of its emotional impact, but it still succeeds as a visually inventive exploration of mortality.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice releases in theaters on September 6, 2024.
