In 1988 Beetlejuice hit the movie screens and fast became a cult classic. Leading to a 3-season cartoon and live stage adaptions, Tim Burton’s horror-comedy told the story of the ghosts of a dead couple being trapped with the family who bought their home, inevitably involving the hijinks of Beetlejuice, the ghost-with-the-most anti-hero.
Well 36 years later we finally have the sequel. Say it once, say it twice – Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
Warning – this is a movie review so SPOILERS AHEAD.
The movie picks up 36 years after the original. Lydia hosts a reality TV show about ghosts that is produced by her exploitative boyfriend, whilst step-mother Delia has become a successful artist. Beetlejuice himself has taken his bio-exorcist business to the next level, even having offices where his shrunken-headed minions answer calls from the dead wishing to scare the living from their homes.
Straight off you notice that Michael Keaton who plays Beetlejuice does not have the same vigour he had in the first movie. And quite rightly so, he is literally twice the age he was when making the original film. At 73 he is not leaping about the screen as he once did, though he does an admirable job reprising the role and it is impossible to imagine anyone else playing the character – this is not Batman.
Winona Ryder is perfection in the role of Lydia. Lydia has been traumatized from a lifetime of being able to see the dead, and obviously suffers from PTSD from her first run in with Beetlejuice decades earlier. Ryder plays her perfectly, Lydia is determined to do right by her daughter, but is dominated by her boyfriend/producer and seems mentally and emotionally frail, not a character archetype one often sees in a comedy.
Catherine O’Hara also reprises the role of Delia splendidly, showing what the character has evolved into from years of success, throwing herself into any artistic whim that takes her, and using the death of her husband to explore new artistic (and narcissistic) challenges.
New to the cast is Jenna Ortega who plays Astrid, Delia’s daughter, and whom the storyline revolves around. Bitter at the death of her father, estranged from her mother whom she believes to be a fraud, Astrid is dragged from school to attend the funeral of her grandfather and clean out the family home, the very house where the first movie was set. While there she begins a tentative relationship with a boy in town, never suspecting that he himself is a ghost who plans to trick her into swapping places with him so that he can rejoin the living.
This plot twist will take many viewers by surprise, as until it is revealed that the boy is a ghost one assumes the main plot is the return of Beetlejuice’s first wife out for revenge, and that the budding teenage romance is merely a side plot to make the movie more amenable to a wider audience. Until it is revealed, only the most savvy would guess that there is anything untoward, and quite quickly the main story proceeds to be set primarily in the afterlife rather than Winter River.
The movie balances the old and the new quite well. Having 3 of the main cast of the first movie return creates an excellent level of continuity, and there are lots of call backs to the the original; Winter River, the house on the hill, the afterlife’s waiting room are all familiar locations, and there are Easter Eggs for fans such as the Delia thinking she spots Maxie Dean in a crowd and Day-O being sung at Charles’ funeral. There is plenty new here as well, introducing the concepts of heaven and hell to the afterlife, the afterlife having their own police department and of course the plots revolving around new characters. As stated, it’s very balanced movie, giving you equal helpings of new and familiar territory.
Is it the perfect successor to the first Beetlejuice movie? No. The visual gags have shifted in tone towards the more gross and graphic than the cartoony. Keaton plays Beetlejuice very well, but you can tell there’s a guy in his 70’s underneath that makeup. The two main villains of the film – the teenage love interest and Beetlejuice’s ex-wife – are both dispatched too easily. One of the great parts of the original was the build up and excitement of other characters trying to stop Beetlejuice from marrying Lydia, sadly no such build up happens here. In fact the ex-wife plot falls flat at the end; all that build up over the movie featuring her sucking souls, yet when she finally finds Beetlejuice she just stands there doing nothing until taken out by a Sandworm. Given she began dismembered at the start of the movie, I would have liked to see her try and reclaim the finger that Beetlejuice had in his pocket from the first film.
Overall however, this is a fun film and a worthy sequel to the original. I saw it with my family and they all said the same thing “I liked it, but I liked the first one better”. It’s possible that no matter what movie they made it would not illicit a better reaction from fans, the first movie being so beloved. This movie does stand on its own, with an interesting, well paced story acted by a superb cast that will keep the viewer entertained throughout.
So get out and see ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’, a title that practically screams for there to be at least one further instalment.
RIP Bob.