Beetlejuice Beetlejuice [Film Review]

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Released: 8 September 2024

Director: Tim Burton
Starring: Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, Catherine O’Hara, Monica Bellucci, Willem Dafoe, Jenna Ortega

It’s been 36 years since the Deetz family was terrorized by supernatural forces in the small fictional town in Connecticut; but now, after a decade of fans doing their best to manifest a sequel, the ‘ghost with the most’ is back and at Lydia’s request!

For the past 15 years, Lydia (Winona Ryder) has made a name for herself as a psychic mediator with her show ‘Ghost House’ but is still being haunted by visions of Beetlejuice who she thinks she sees sitting in the audience while filming the latest episode. Leaving the stage to catch her breathe, she’s inundated with texts from her stepmother Delia (Catherine O’Hara) who desperately needs to talk to Lydia about her father, so she drops everything to rush to Delia and discovers her father has died while on his latest bird watching adventure. Who knew that was a particularly life-threatening hobby? So it’s time for the family to revisit their old home in Winter River but first, they have to pick up Lydia’s estranged daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega) from boarding school. Their relationship has gone down hill since the death of Astrid’s father Richard, plus it doesn’t help that Astrid thinks her mother is a fraud and ghosts aren’t real. Meanwhile, in the Afterlife, Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton) is still pining after Lydia and is the Call Centre Manager with a staff full of Shrinkers and a janitor has accidentally unleashed the soul-sucking demon Delores (Monica Bellucci) who is on the hunt for Beetlejuice and killing every ghost she meets along the way.

Back in the real world, Lydia’s producer boyfriend Rory (Justin Theroux) decides a wake is an opportune time to propose to Lydia and while most people have the self-awareness to know this isn’t the most respectful or romantic of times for such a gesture, Rory who has an uncanny ability to make every situation about himself, doesn’t take rejection well and gaslights Lydia into saying yes. Thrilled by this news, Astrid takes off on a bike ride around town where she meets Jeremy after narrowly avoiding two car crashes and colliding with his tree house. There’s a bit of a romantic spark and she decides to spend Halloween night with him where she finds out her mother was right this entire time, ghosts really do exist, and she’s unknowingly got herself into a dire situation in the Afterlife. Did nobody learn anything from Evil Dead? NEVER READ THE LATIN OUT LOUD. Having found out who Jeremy is from Little Jane (who grew up to become a real estate agent just like her mother Jane), Lydia calls on Beetlejuice to help save her daughter but it will come at a price: Beetlejuice still wants to get married.

I’ll admit I was hesitant about this sequel. It seems if movie companies aren’t remaking everything, they’re making sequels, requels and prequels to movies that were popular 30-50 years ago that have all sucked: The Craft: Legacy, Hocus Pocus 2, Bill & Ted Face The Music, Scream, Halloween, Disenchanted, The First Omen… none of them lived up to their predecessors. So far Tron: Legacy and Ghostbusters: Afterlife are the only long-waited sequels I’d praise but movie companies seem more interested in quick cash-grabs at the expense of nostalgic fans rather than delivering a great follow up movie that those same fans will still love in another 30 years. On top of that Tim Burton hasn’t really made anything people talk about in the past 20 years except for Wednesday. This could either be great or a huge flop. Thankfully, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice isn’t half bad. It’s not perfect but it’s definitely entertaining. Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara and Michael Keaton all stepped into their roles so easily you would never guess it’s been three decades since they last played them, they’re just older and somewhat tamer than their past selves, also it needs to be said that Catherine O’Hara stole every scene she was in and provided the majority of the laughs.

There’s plenty of nods to the original film including Banana Boat (Day-O), a few OG characters return, plus there’s that iconic red dress. In fact the only real difference is the house has had another interior makeover. Tim Burton has also made sure to use as much practical effects as possible and the only time CGI was truly noticeable to me was a very quick scene towards the end – because suddenly their faces looked munted. The makeup, costumes and set design cannot be faulted except I have wondered how many of us are truly rocking the same hairstyle we had as edgy 15yr old teenagers? The musical numbers though, a little iffy. There’s a quick rendition of Richard Marx’s ‘Right Here Waiting’ that had everyone laughing, but the wedding scene, which I guess was trying to recreate the dinner party scene from ‘89 was a ‘WTF Is Happening?’ moment as everyone sang along and danced to ‘MacArthur Park’ by Richard Harris. I had no idea Dumbledore had a musical career until that moment.

The big part of this film that will stand out to many is how they handled the character of Charles Deetz. Charles was played by Jeffrey Jones who was arrested in 2002 for soliciting a 14 year old boy and possessing child pornography. I thought the use of Claymation to portray how his character died was a clever way to get around not having to hire the man to reprise his role with a few other moments just showing a photograph attached to something, Ghost Charles is even missing his head so we never really have to look at him, but what blew my mind was why anyone would think it was appropriate to have a group of children sing at his funeral? I know Charles is a character but still, it felt seriously icky.

Overall I don’t have much negative to say about Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice is flat compared to his hyper energetic bad boy antics in the 80’s, but felt it was a shame to put so much focus on Halloween night and then not even put Halloween to good use. It’s a wasted opportunity given it’s the one night of the year ghosts cross over to kick it with the living! The entire story is so over complicated with too many story arcs covering a two-day period that none of them get the time they deserve to develop, and they all wrap up too quickly. One particular storyline really brought nothing to the movie and could have been left out.

While the movie is focusing on how people process grief and trauma differently, how grief affects our relationships and how easily it can be to be manipulated, we have Monica Bellucci randomly strutting around looking smoking hot and sucking the life out of ghosts. I don’t even understand why she was after Beetlejuice in the first place or why she was in pieces, but when she finally tracks him down, it’s all over in the blink of an eye. Everyone loves to bitch and moan that Rob Zombie keeps putting his wife in all of his films but Tim Burton doesn’t need to give all of his girlfriend’s roles either.

Rating: 3.5/5

Film review by Katie Torrance

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is playing in cinemas across Australia via Warner Bros

‍