Writers: Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, Seth Grahame-Smith
Stars: Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O'Hara
Review: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice ( 2024)
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024), Tim Burton’s long-awaited follow-up to his 1988 cult classic, strikes a delicate balance between gleeful absurdity and nostalgia, narrowly sidestepping the dated feel that often plagues belated sequels.
Hollywood has made a habit of reviving long-dormant franchises, and it seemed inevitable that Beetlejuice would eventually be exhumed. Tim Burton, who helmed the original, was the natural choice to resurrect the chaotic bio-exorcist, but he made two things clear: Michael Keaton had to return as the title character, and the sequel needed to preserve the weird, morbid charm of the original. On these fronts, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice delivers. Keaton returns in full manic glory, embodying Beetlejuice with the same frenetic energy, scuttling around in his iconic striped suit like a cockroach on a caffeine high. Burton, meanwhile, infuses every frame with the decaying DNA of the original film’s style, ensuring this sequel feels true to the macabre world he built over 30 years ago.
At times, however, the film teeters on the edge of feeling like a recycled version of the original. Like the most recent Ghostbusters sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice risks coming across as little more than a polished rehash of decades-old ideas. But what saves it is the uniqueness of those ideas. Burton’s world is still filled with offbeat, eccentric flourishes that are hard to replicate, and the film’s charm comes from its rough, idiosyncratic edges. For instance, rather than relying on an AI recreation of a non-returning original cast member, Burton opts for a brilliantly old-school claymation sequence that culminates in the character’s face being hilariously devoured by a shark—solving the problem in true Burton fashion.
The story takes place in the present day, or as close to it as Burton’s timeless, elastic world allows. Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder), now an adult, still rocks the same goth wardrobe and Bauhaus haircut as her teenage self, though she’s traded youthful angst for a more brittle, weary disposition. Lydia has become a TV personality, hosting a show called Ghost House, where she acts as a “psychic mediator” for real-life hauntings. But her celebrity has taken a toll, leaving her a shadow of her former self, vulnerable and emotionally battered by her narcissistic boyfriend, played with chilling conviction by Justin Theroux. His faux-spiritual, new age therapy jargon only adds to Lydia’s sense of isolation and loss of self.
While Beetlejuice Beetlejuice may not feel as groundbreaking as its predecessor, it doesn’t need to be. The film revels in its silliness, embracing its B-movie aesthetic and off-kilter charm. Burton manages to keep the spirit of the original alive while injecting enough fresh oddity to make this sequel an enjoyable romp rather than a reanimated corpse.
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