After a 35-year-long slumber, Director Tim Burton has decided to resurrect the dormant cadaver of the “Beetlejuice” franchise and create a sequel to his beloved 80’s comedic cult classic. Thankfully, he has decided against developing the script “Beetlejuice Goes Hawai’ian” and instead continued the story of the first film, just without the ghostly machinations of Mr. and Mrs. Maitland and focusing only on the struggles of the Deetz family.
The plot follows Lydia Deetz, reprised by Winona Ryder, who has a strained relationship with her daughter, Astrid Deetz, played by Jenna Ortega, who returns to work with Tim Burton after they collaborated on the hit Netflix show “Wednesday.”
Astrid accidentally traps her soul in the land of the dead, and Lydia is left with no other solution but to call upon the being that terrorized her family when she was a teenager: Beetlegeuse, who is once again reprised by the great Micheal Keaton Douglas. She joins him on a journey into the afterlife in an attempt to save her daughter’s soul, and all hell breaks loose.
The rest of the cast also gave good performances, including Catherine O’Hara reprising her role as Delia Deetz, Justin Theroux as Lydia’s new boyfriend Rory, Monica Bellucci as Beetleguese’s ex-wife Delores, Danny Devito as a janitor, Burn Gorman as the town priest, and Willem Dafoe as a B-list movie star turned afterlife detective named Wolf Jackson.
Some of the best aspects of the original movie were its practical effects and wacky character designs, which helped it win the Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling in 1988. This sequel has more than managed to live up to it, becoming a strong contender in the same category for this year’s Oscars.
The gothic production design and art direction also manage to impress, allowing a ghoulish mood to permeate throughout the entire film. Another change from the first movie is that with a PG-13 rating, they can now show more gore and decomposition of the ghosts and corpses of the afterlife — adding a bit more realism to the picture, which I appreciated. While there has been some criticism of the multiple plot lines being hard to follow, I did not view it as an issue as I found the film relatively straightforward.
Something else that I noticed is how both Beetlejuice movies parody the “Dune” franchise. The original based the designs of Saturn’s worms off the ones used in David Lynch’s 1984 adaptation, and this film copied Denis Villeneuve’s depiction of vibrating sand from his 2021 remake. The last note I will make about the film is that the same comedic tone and jokes of the original continue throughout the sequel, making sure any audience members who are squeamish about horror movies can still enjoy themselves.
While I quite enjoyed this new addition to the franchise, I would not recommend it to anyone who has yet to see the original, as you would be missing out on too many references. However, if you are interested in returning to this wacky world, you are in for a shockingly good time in the theater. Overall, my rating is an 8/10.