Tim Burton is back with his much-anticipated sequel to his 1988 movie “Beetlejuice,” but does the sequel live up to its predecessor? As a fan of the original 80’s film, I approached the sequel with as much hesitation and trepidation as I would the attic in the Deetz’s ghost house. With its dark humor, eeriness, and all-around quirky feel that any Tim Burton movie needs “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” brings back the feel that the 80’s movie gave while captivating a new generation of moviegoers. Warning for those who haven’t yet seen the movie but plan to in the near future this article will contain spoilers.
The sequel brings back the original cast members Cathrine O’Hara, Winona Ryder, and the famed and beloved Michael Keaton as the crazed impish demon Betelgeuse (hereafter known as Beetlejuice) while also introducing the audience to new faces such as Jenna Ortega, Willem Dafoe, and Justin Theroux. In the three and a half decades it has taken for Beetlejuice to return to the land of the living, you can tell that the creative team put their hearts and souls into bringing a story that would entrap a new generation as well as staying true and loyal to the fans of the first movie.
While the movie stays true to the quirkiness of the first, the script packs four, nearly five, storylines into a movie that’s only about 105 minutes. Each storyline has its batch of characters with their separate goals, making the movie feel overstuffed. Jenna Ortega’s Astrid, the teen daughter of Lydia Deetz, is pulled into the supernatural world by a teen boy crush, Arthur Conti, who turns out to be a ghost murderer after being very critical of her mother’s so-called abilities for the first quarter of the movie. Ryder’s Lydia Deetz summons the demon Beetlejuice to try and save her daughter from her impending doom while dealing with an ostentatious fiancĂ© Theroux’s Rory. This is happening at the same time Delia (O’Hara), is searching for her dead husband in the afterlife and William Dafoe’s actor-turned-dead cop, Wolf Jackson, is searching for a soul sucker who happens to be Beetlejuice’s ex-wife.
While many of these storylines could be cut without impacting the overarching plot of the story, it would take away key comedic moments such as Dafoe’s Jackson dead SWAT team raid on a graveyard, Deila finding her dead husband,with his missing head, on the soul train after her accidental death and Rory turning the wake of Lydia’s father into an odd macabre proposal. However, all these subplots come together and tie into a darkly sarcastic and comedic third-act finale that almost makes up for the overstuffed and heavy storylines. Even with all the intersecting subplots the overarching story about the mother-daughter bond is heartwarming. Both Ryder and Ortega do an amazing job of portraying the complex relationship of a mother and daughter who have lost a loved one.
It would be hard to talk about “Beetlejuice,” its sequel, or any Tim Burton movie without mentioning the soundtrack. Much like its predecessor, the soundtrack in “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” is just as important to the movie as it was in the first. Adding to the comedic aspect and allowing for fun dance sequences —queue another viral Jenna Ortega dance— with spooky and flashy choreography the soundtrack helped enhance key moments in the film.
All around the movie was a testament to what sequels could and should be. The movie exceeded all my expectations and left me and other audience members feeling nostalgic. “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” is a testament to what sequel movies should be. Tim Burton’s return to his roots shows in the excellence that is this movie and I expect that this will go down as a cult classic just like the first one.