Burton, Keaton, Ryder and the rest prove that they’ve still got it in sequel 36 years on from the original
Thirty-six years after the original, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice sees three generations of the Deetz family return to the Winter River house after a death in the family. But when the young Astrid Deetz accidentally sets the devious 'ghost with the most' loose, macabre mayhem ensues.
We have seen more and more legacy sequels fail than succeed in recent years, and that worry was present for a good chunk of this one. The first film was a fairly simple story that allowed for a lot of creativity. This one initially struggles to recapture that energy, ironically too concerned with story and feeling convoluted in all the story threads it’s setting up. It is good to see Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara back as Lydia and Delia Deetz respectively, and Jenna Ortega fits right in as the younger Deetz. But the film feels too terrestrial for a good while as it throws a load of earthly storylines at you.
Once it gets going though, it really gets going. Director Tim Burton unleashes three decades’ worth of suppressed imagination and creativity in this long-awaited sequel, expanding on the weird and wonderful afterlife established in the first film with the same dark sense of humour. Michael Keaton doesn’t miss a beat as Beetlejuice, bringing the same manic energy he did when he was in his mid-30s. Even the elements that make the film feel overstuffed are good in their own right: Monica Bellucci as a soul-sucking witch is an intriguing concept, Willem Dafoe is having the time of his life as a noir-inspired ghost detective, and even Ortega’s storyline comes together by the end.
Did we need a second Beetlejuice? No. Does it always work? Not really. Does it still have what you come to a Beetlejuice movie for? Absolutely. It’s overly concerned with easing audiences into its strangeness, in contrast to the original which asked you to get on board or get left behind, but Burton, Keaton, Ryder and the rest all eventually prove that they’ve still got it.
Rating: 6/10
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