‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ Lets Tim Burton Run Wild With Ghoulish Glee

Alci Rengifo

Like few directors, Tim Burton has established a style readily identified as his own. He operates like German expressionism, classic horror, goth drab and Halloween goofiness all rolled into one. Because he is allowed to run wild in “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” the movie works better than it should. In yet another round of our ongoing nostalgia train, this is a sequel to Burton’s 1988 classic, “Beetlejuice.” More oddball comedy than pure horror show, it was a ghoulish good time that helped solidify the director’s style and establish Michael Keaton’s wonderfully manic performance as the titular character into a pop culture staple. This follow-up has its own charms that overcome a scattered screenplay because what drives it along is Burton basking in having fun.

It has been 36 years since the events of the original movie and some of the players are still around. Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) is now a mom and the host of a ghost hunter TV series. Her daughter, Astrid (Jenna Ortega), suffers the boredom of attending boarding school. She is also melancholic considering her father disappeared during an excursion into the Amazon. As fate would have it, tragedy strikes again when Lydia’s mother, Delia (Catherine O’Hara), informs her that her father Charles has also died, eaten by a shark. The three Deetz women, along with Lydia’s producer boyfriend Rory (Justin Theroux), journey to the home Charles loved so much (the house from the first movie) for the funeral. Lydia is, however, hiding a secret. She keeps seeing brief flashes of Beetlejuice, the rowdy demon who almost married her, and she can’t shake them off. In the world of the dead, the electric-haired troublemaker is still pining for Lydia after all these years but his ex-wife, Delores (Monica Bellucci), has just put herself back together and is coming for revenge.

Though Burton has consistently been working, this is the first film in a long time that feels like a modern update on his unique palette. It’s his first major feature since 2019’s “Dumbo,” a Disney live action remake which received mixed reviews yet still retained the director’s eye for rich images. “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” could have been a safe recycle of the original’s formula. Instead, Burton is using the familiar story to experiment and expand. Writers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, from Netflix’s big hit “Wednesday,” inject new lift into the material as well. They overreach a little by falling into a typical trend of trying to pack narratives fighting for space into the screenplay. Beetlejuice stalking Lydia traffic jams with Delores looking for him, piled atop Astrid locking eyes with Jeremy (Arthur Conti), a handsome teen who shares her moody braininess. They are those high schoolers who only live in movies, reading Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” for fun. This is all before Delia finds herself in the afterlife. 

While each of these storylines would benefit from more space, it still all works because Burton packs the screen with great sights at every turn. This is a film of images and morbid laughs. In the afterlife we meet a police chief, Wolf Jackson (Willem Dafoe), a former actor who walks around with half his skull exposed due to a fatal accident on set. Delores emerges out of some crates, patching herself together like an automatic Bride of Frankenstein to the Bee Gees’ “Tragedy.” When she literally sucks the soul out of some poor victim (including Danny DeVito as an underworld janitor), they shrivel up like a deflated balloon. Those famous shrunken head characters from the first movie are back, this time as Beetlejuice’s weary office staff. Charles wanders around as a headless torso, squirting blood out of a giant shark bite. This is the Tim Burton of “Edward Scissorhands,” “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” and “Mars Attacks!” He also plays around with a bit more actual horror, though always grinning as when a demented Beetlejuice baby makes an appearance.  You can just watch the movie for the rich framing and gothic carnival feel courtesy of cinematographer Harris Zamabarloukos. Longtime Burton collaborator Danny Elfman’s score is fresh yet has the feel of those classic melodies that made him so famous in the early ‘90s.

“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” joins some of its better recent reboot piers by wisely using the passage of time. Michael Keaton flawlessly gets back into the black and white striped suit, rotting and obnoxious, but the jokes are less sexist. The screenplay also takes on a nice, layered angle regarding the women. Lydia is a haunted person stuck with a man who feigns being the world’s most woke boyfriend, when we clearly sense he’s a narcissist. Ryder is very good in reprising her role, never feeling as if she’s trying to go over what she did in the original. She turns the character into a real persona that has seen more and changed over 36 years. Jenna Ortega likewise fits perfectly in this world. She could have easily phoned in another take on her Wednesday Adams from “Wednesday.” Astrid is the opposite. She’s a wounded young girl who loves her mother but is also embarrassed by her paranormal tabloid TV fame. What they end up sharing very much in common is attracting the attention of predatory or two-faced men. The storyline with Jeremy begins sweetly enough before it takes on a tragic, deceptive turn. If there’s a unifying thread at the end, it’s that the women all find their agency and don’t need male saviors. 

In that spirit, it is a disappointment Monica Bellucci is so underused. She is perfect as Delores and is given so few scenes. Her character becomes a walk in plot point, serving no purpose other than to provide an extra menace for Beetlejuice. Yet, her entrances are devilishly grand. We can forgive the movie’s missing corners because Burton creates and splashes outrageous moments on screen like a virtuoso. The third act becomes a wildly creative wedding from hell featuring a hilariously insane rendition of “MacArthur Park.” There will always be a wonderful joy to the ending of the original, when a young Ryder floats into the air to “Jump in the Line (Shake, Senora).” Burton knows this and prefers to go bigger now because he can. We get old favorites like the sandworms from the beyond and a funeral chorus brings back “Banana Boat (Day-O)” in another nostalgic nod. Yet, “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” is more about a director not only connecting back with a style that defined his early work, but making it feel new again. The final shot is a jump scare, not a sweet sing along. Burton proves you can go back again to a favorite place without limiting yourself to simply playing tired out notes.

“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” releases Sept. 6 in theaters nationwide.