Movie Review: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

When the original Beetlejuice debuted back in 1988, Tim Burton’s highly imaginative, gothic-inspired brand of weirdness was fresh and new. There hadn’t been many (or any) big Hollywood productions that looked or felt quite like what he achieved in his second feature film. Since then though that style has been thoroughly mainstreamed and copied to the point that it’s practically a genre to itself. So what would inspire Burton to return to this story 36 years later? Probably a paycheck, but as far as nostalgia-tinged reboots go this is far from the worst.

Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) now hosts a paranormal-focused talk show with her producer/boyfriend Rory (Justin Theroux) from a set designed to look like the Maitland’s old attic. During a taping she receives a string of urgent text messages from her stepmother Delia (Catherine O’Hara) asking her to come to her gallery at once, so she races over and is informed that her father has passed away in a grisly accident. Grief stricken, the group picks up Lydia’s daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega) from her boarding school and heads back to the small town of Winter River to hold a funeral service and clear out the old house to prepare it for sale.

Astrid refuses to believe in ghosts and has a strained relationship with her mother so she is less than thrilled to be stuck with her and Delia for an extended period of time. To get some peace she heads out for bike rides into town where she meets a young man named Jeremy (Arthur Conti) and tentatively strikes up a relationship. Meanwhile, Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton) is doing fairly well for himself in the afterlife when he is contacted by detective Wolf Jackson (Willem Dafoe), who informs him that a ghost who appears to be his ex-wife Delores LaVerve (Monica Bellucci) has escaped and seems set on revenge against him. Beetlejuice is of course concerned but also still pines for Lydia and so is all too eager to “help” the family when Astrid finds herself in peril.

Everyone in the cast is clearly having a blast inhabiting or re-inhabiting this world and their enthusiasm for the material is infectious. There is endless visual creativity thrown at us as well, reminding moviegoers that Burton is still an expert at picking the right people to help bring his visions to life on screen. This time around he and screenwriters Alfred Gough and Miles Millar also allow the material to lean more into its horror side with homages to scary movies and far more blood and guts than the original, seriously stretching the limits of the PG-13 rating.

It’s a shame that the script isn’t that good however. The jokes aren’t quite as successful this time around, with some even being downright hokey (an extended gag involving the “Soul Train” is as groanworthy as you’re already expecting). Where the first movie had a more focused story that allowed for more room to breathe, this one is crammed full of subplots, some of which probably could (and should) have been excised altogether. There have been several different possible sequels to Beetlejuice written over the decades and it’s hard not to think that this movie’s story was assembled from bits and pieces of each of them that were then sewn (or stapled) together.

That’s not to say this is a bad movie or that it isn’t any fun, it’s not and it is. But even though it isn’t perfect there was a certain magic to the original that largely feels absent here. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a perfectly pleasant visit with some old friends that has a few genuinely clever moments, but when the credits start to roll it’s hard not to feel like this could have been so much better than it is. ★★★