Like an indefatigable zombie, nothing is ever truly dead in Hollywood. Franchises might stay buried for a while, but they’ll inevitably rise to the surface and lumber ahead for a new generation. Beetlejuice is a movie that a lot of people love and rightfully consider a key part of their childhoods. Those people are now 36 years older with the arrival of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, a sequel decades in the making and not at all guaranteed to become a reality, especially with the (let’s be honest) shoddy work coming out of the Tim Burton camp of late. And while the ghost with the most is back and as mischievous and grotesque as ever, this bloated, too-busy attempt to reanimate the iconic horror-comedy barely packs more laughs than a funeral.
Speaking of which, a funeral is at the center of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and it’s one of the more hilarious aspects of the film, albeit inadvertently. Winona Ryder returns as Lydia Deetz, no more the rebellious member of the family, she’s now the middle-aged host of a hit supernatural talk show, using her psychic ability to see the dead to spook audiences. Lydia is a nervous wreck, and isn’t helped by her current beau and manager, the obviously conniving Rory (Justin Theroux), who speaks to her in cheap armchair psychology using trauma language he might’ve picked up from Dr. Phil.
Returning to her hometown of Winter River for Halloween and to attend a family funeral, Lydia finds that bad mother/daughter relations are apparently a Deetz legacy. Just as Lydia tormented her stepmother Delia (Catherine O’Hara, a treasure and the film’s most reliable weapon) all those years ago, so is Lydia now treated the same way by her own daughter, Astrid, a paranormal skeptic played by Wednesday and Scream star Jenna Ortega. Astrid longs to be reunited with her dead father and Lydia’s ex-husband, resenting that his ghost is the only one she apparently can’t see.
So where is Deetz patriarch Charles in all of this? Well, since actor Jeffrey Jones is persona non grata in Hollywood, he ain’t around. And the film goes hilariously out of its way to skirt around recasting Jones, whose career might be dead but he is very much still alive. In one flashback scene he is animated in stop-motion, and in subsequent appearances Charles is kept well-hidden and voiced by an entirely different actor. The visual gymnastics are a fun side note and one of the few displays of fresh creativity.
The many years since Beetlejuice have led to the character becoming a popular fan-favorite, even though he was the villain of the original film. With a cartoon and Broadway show earning millions of adoring followers, it posed an interesting problem for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. You can’t have the Juice be quite as antagonistic as he was then. So introduced to the plot is Monica Bellucci as his soul-sucking ex-wife Delores, who is on a path of vengeance. She only exists to have a bad guy to root against who is worse than Beetlejuice, but the character doesn’t amount to much. We also see a retconned attitude that Beetlejuice has towards Lydia and the Deetz’s in general. Sure, he’s still antagonistic and relishes in making their lives miserable, but he comes across as a mildly-annoying pest and not the bane of their existence. As for the Maitlands’ absence, a quick one-liner of dialogue clues us into their whereabouts, because this sequel is ultimately about fan service and fans have questions! That in and of itself is not a bad thing.
The problem with Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is that for all of the many subplots, it scares up very little that’s new. There’s barely the semblance of a plot other than rehashing past visuals, catchphrases, and locations, such as the desert sandworms, the pin-striped outfits, and good ol’ shrunken head Bob! I love Bob, and this movie has a lot of Bobs working in Beetlejuice’s chaotic workplace. If there’s anything original on the table it’s Astrid’s encounter with Jeremy (Arthur Conti), a local boy and potential love interest with a huge secret. There’s also Willem Dafoe as a former B-movie actor now a bloviating undead cop on the hunt for Delores and Beetlejuice. An interesting movie could’ve been made more out of both, but neither are developed terribly well, and there’s always the need to divert attention to Beetlejuice’s antics, which eventually grow stale. Burton’s familiar visual flourishes come alive when he’s given new ideas and actors to showcase. While feeling a bit disconnected to the overall story, a psychedelic Soul Train-inspired dance sequence in an underground train station is a blast, showing what might’ve been with less stale material. Moving on from there, the final act is a train wreck, with botched weddings, a squad of zombie police, demon babies, a derivative dance performance, and yes, there’s more. Working in the film’s favor is the feeling that Burton is legitimately jazzed for this, because it’s been a long time since he’s done anything that felt that way. Dark Shadows, Dumbo, and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children resembled movies made by Burton copycats, not by the man himself.
Keaton, however, is more than up to the challenge of playing Beetlejuice again. He’s given the unenviable task of matching the energy and sheer lunacy of a role he played almost 40 years ago, but he pulls it off in spades. He’s got the swagger and the maniacal smirk all down pat like he never put the role aside. It’s ironic to see him coming back to Beetlejuice now after so long. In his Oscar-winning Birdman performance he played an actor who felt trapped by the one iconic role he had played. Keaton does not seem trapped in the least. He’s having the time of his life and does his best work alongside Burton. The only one who can match him is O’Hara, whose Delia is now the calming influence (!!!) of the Deetz clan, even though she’s just as egotistical as ever and happy to remind Lydia what a hellion she used to be.
Penned by Wednesday creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is overstuffed with zany plots, as if every wackadoodle idea anyone ever had was thrown in for good measure. The effect is that it doesn’t actually feel like a completed movie, but a series of unhinged vignettes. For die-hard Beetlejuice lovers, and there are many, it’s exactly the kind of crazy incoherent vibe they’ve been craving for so long. For others, nostalgia and a dose of demonic insanity aren’t going to be enough to warrant saying Beetlejuice’s name a third time, even if Burton and Keaton are up for it.
Warner Bros. releases Beetlejuice Beetlejuice in theaters on September 6th.
