Director: Tim Burton
Writers: Albert Gough, Miles Millar, Seth Grahame-Smith (story and script), Michael McDowell, Larry Wilson (based on character created by)
Cast: Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Jenna Ortega, Catherine O’Hara, Justin Theroux, Monica Bellucci, Willem Dafoe
Producers: Tim Burton, Dede Gardner, Tommy Harper, Jeremy Kleiner, Marc Toberoff
Music: Danny Elfman
Cinematographer: Haris Zambarloukos
Editor: Jay Prychidny
Cert: 12
Running time: 104mins
Year: 2023
What’s the story: When her father dies, Lydia Deetz (Ryder) must return to her childhood home to handle affairs. When the afterlife comes crashing into her life, Lydia must once again deal with Beetlejuice (Keaton).
What’s the verdict: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice arrives 36 years after Tim Burton’s cult classic original. Although the plan may have been for it to arrive on the 35th anniversary of that first movie; reportedly this sequel was a day and a half away from completing principal photography when last year’s actors’ strike hit.
What with The Flash and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny proving nostalgia can sour like six-month milk, perhaps the Universe decided we didn’t need another shrug of a follow-up to a beloved movie. Yes, The Flash is part of the DC-verse, but is also a sequel to Burton n’ Keaton’s Batman movies.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice rises above both those movies. But it does leave you asking the same question as at the end of Indiana Jones’ latest outing: you waited that long to tell this story? Stitching the original Beetlejuice to a leaden story of familial dysfunction, this has lots of plot but little charm or fizz.
Occasionally you detect a shimmer of the first movie’s madcap brilliance out the corner of your eye, but when you turn to look it’s gone. And Hollywood, can we put a moratorium on making lega-sequels that totally undo the predecessors’ happy endings and slather on unimaginative character crises? Here, following the death of her husband the spectre-spotting Lydia Deetz (Ryder, putting the Win into winning) has grown into a pill-popping host of a trashy Most Haunted-style TV show.
She and her estranged daughter, Astrid (Ortega, truly her generation’s Winona) are forced home following the death of Lydia’s dad (not Jeffery Jones for Google-able reasons, and the film does imaginatively work around that problem). Joining Lydia and Astrid are Lydia’s stepmum Delia (O’Hara, ace as always) and Lydia’s wastrel manager-cum-beau Rory (Theroux, acting mode set to snivelling).
Astrid is soon being a-wooed by sensitive boy-in-a-treehouse Jeremy (Conti, suitably Burton EMO). Meanwhile, Lydia is troubled by fleeting visions of her old arch-nemesis, Beetlejuice (Keaton, the film’s ace and joker, still delivering ghost-with-the-most energy at seventy-three years old). Beetlejuice (or Betelgeuse to give his in-film name) is having his own “mid afterlife crisis.” He is tormented by Delores (Bellucci, underused), a demonic figure from his past, literally well put-together… Pursuing all of them is actor turned afterlife detective Wolf Jackson (Dafoe, wringing laughs out of a role that feels like it was one more draft away from being jettisoned).
The absence of Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis’ characters is explained away in a perfunctory side note about finding a loophole for that whole having to spend 125 years on Earth post-death thing. But, nostalgia fans will be happy to read that the shrunken-headed Bob has more to do this time around.
You will laugh at Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, particularly if you are a fan of the original. But, the nagging sense of a missed opportunity materialises early on and will haunt you until the midway point. At which time that nagging sense turns into an absolute certainty.
A couple’s counselling session conducted by Mr. B for Lydia and Rory is the film’s standout moment, raising hopes it has found its gear. In five minutes Burton, Keaton, Ryder and co. unleash a torrent of gags, imaginative splatstick, and crude, high energy mayhem that brushes up against the greatness of the 1988 outing. But, that spark fades when the scene ends, replaced by the sense of an overdue obligation being half-heartedly fulfilled.
Elsewhere are diverting moments of Burton indulgence: a flashback made in the style of legendary Italian director Mario Bava, a riff on the closing moments of Brian De Palma’s Carrie. And the lo-fi, practically designed afterlife always has some fun incidental background detail at which to chuckle. Come a climax that cleaves too close to the original for any surprise though, and you’ll be hoping that no-one involved thinks Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a clever idea.
Rob Daniel
Letterboxd: RobDan
Podcast: The Movie Robcast
