THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice has been looked at as one of the best comedies of the late 80s for letting goth be embraced for all the wackiness in sync. That alone sparked a whole new generation of moviegoers with a specific taste. With such a cultural impact and a moderate box office success, it’s kinda crazy it took so long for a sequel to happen until it did.
PLOT
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice takes place over 30 years after the events of the first film. With the deceased Maitlands moving on to the Great Beyond, the story fully focuses on Lydia Deetz who was almost married to the titular bio exorcist. Tragedy has continued in her life despite finding success as a paranormal talk show host in New York as she’s been having nightmares ever since leaving Connecticut, where she met Beetlegeuse. After her husband Richard (Santiago Cabrera) sadly passed away in a trip at the Amazon, she’s disconnected with her now teenage daughter Astrid who doesn’t believe in her psychic abilities due to never being able to reach out to him. She now dates tv producer Rory who pressures her to marry him on Halloween after the wake of her father Charles, who died of a shark attack. After the event occurs in Connecticut, Astrid spends time with a local boy named Jeremy Frazier. In the nethewrold, Beetlegeuse himself has been working as a manager at an afterlife call center and still thinks about Lydia. He is alerted by actor turned afterlife detective Wolf Jackson that his ex wife, occultist Delores has resurfaced into a murdering spree via draining souls of the dead. This frightens him because they met during the Black Plague and she poisoned him as part of an immortality ritual, but he killed her before he succumbed to it. Lydia does come around in telling Rory about her past and he doesn’t believe him until he summons him via saying his name three times. Reunited, Lydia & Rory see he’s just as crude as before as he fantasizes having a child with the former. Astrid then realizes she’s psychic like her mother when confirming Jeremy is a ghost who offers to take her to her dad if he can take her to the netherworld to regain his life. When Lydia finds out the young Frazier died after murdering his parents, breaking his neck when falling from his treehouse as he was hiding from the cops at the time. Feeling no other choice, she reaches out to Beetlegeuse for help in exchange of marrying him as he still wishes, so he can escape the netherworld freely and further avoid Delores. When he takes her to the netherworld by literally blowing a hole between both worlds, Wolf hunts him down as it’s illegal to bring a living being to the other side. Astrid soon discovers Jeremy is using her to trade her life for his as he sends her to the Soul Train that’ll take her straight to the Great Beyond. During all of this, Lydia’s stepmom Delia has her own mourning ceremony for Charles as she gets bit by asps she were told to be defanged. She’s proven to be wrong when shortly finding herself in the netherworld. She then contacts Beetlegeuse to help find her husband in exchange of finding Lydia first, having found Jeremy and sending him to the Fires of Damnation. Lydia does find her daughter and saves her from the Soul Train before falling into a doorway that takes them to a Saturn moon containing sandworms. Thankfully, the spirit of Richard pulls them out in time. With this reunion, he explains his wife couldn’t contact her due to being a free spirit. After he guides them back home, Beetlegeuse awaits at the church to expose Rory via truth serum that he never loved her and pursued her for her inheritance she’s gained from her show. The bio exorcist then sticks to his intent on marrying her and seems to be close to succeeding when literally freezing Wolf from stopping him. Once Delores arrives as well, Astrid summons a sandworm from the same Handbook for the Recently Deceased that Jeremy had, which devours both the ghost and Rory. She then declares the marriage contract void since Beetlegeuse illegally brought her mom to the afterlife. Once a loophole is found, Lydia sends him back after saying his name for what she hopes to be the last time. When that unfreezes Wolf, he takes Delia with her since she still died from the asps, but she still says goodbye to her family before reuniting with her own husband at the Soul Train. Lydia cancels her show ‘Ghost House’ to spend more time with her daughter, but the film ends in a cliffhanger revealing she’s still having nightmares of Beetlegeuse.
THOUGHTS
I never thought twice about the possibility of this sequel becoming reality because I’m not the only one who felt it never needed to be. But because nostalgia runs Hollywood like crazy this century alone, it was always a matter of time. As long as Burton returned to the director’s chair, it would work out just fine and that’s exactly what happened. Danny Elfman also returning to compose to another cooky score was another win as that reminded us we were in for another batch of fun. The makeup/costume & production design were all well made in blending new looks with old because while it was timeless to see people with shrunken heads, there were creative gags in the process like the graphic depiction of Jeremy’s murdered parents or piranhas attached to Richard’s body. The respect to old traditions is further intact because apart from seeing a creative computerized sequence of Delores rebuilding herself, the stop motion done for the sand-worms is just as timeless as before. And the same can be said with the sequence of Charles’ death which was a smart way to keep actor Jeffrey Jones from having an actual onscreen appearance after his controversial actions. You also couldn’t go wrong with the production design in seeing familiar and unfamiliar places of the afterlife. What made the first film work out overall was the perfect comedic timing Michael Keaton as the titular character who once again delivers in his given time. He’s still a corrupt figure because he still wants to wreak havoc however, but the craziest thing is that he keeps his word and is upfront with what he wants and not much villains do that. The reason why though has to be because he knows what it’s like to be betrayed. Monica Bellucci was a fine addition to the ensemble because as Delores, she had her own ruthlessness on display since she had no regrets in manipulating Beetlegeuse to be her ritual sacrifice. The difference she had from him was that she wasn’t honest in comparison, which is kinda crazy considering he doesn’t change much either but is willing to compromise in order to try getting what he wants. Although he was able to avoid her for the most part, he still wasn’t able to reach his prime goal which I don’t think he ever will which is a good thing because the rest of the world wouldn’t be ready for what he would do as a free demon. I mean no one knows what else he could/would do after having his own hysterical musical number of ‘MacArthur Park’. If his perspective didn’t make it any clear, than the arc of the Deetz family does its own emphasis on embracing the unusual events we face in our lives because they are learning moments in their own right and not learning doesn’t help anyone. Besides Keaton being his own scene stealer, it was hard to imagine a sequel to be done without Winona Ryder & Catherine O’Hara who were highlights of their own in both instances. It was honestly sweet to see them on the same page this time around which was fitting as there was clarification due to Lydia’s birthmom still around, she just wasn’t comfortable with a replacement at the time. As an adult, she accepts her dad’s new form of happiness even when she wasn’t ready for it until now. O’Hara succeeds in using Delia’s neuroticism as a way to express her feelings for her family the way she does with her various forms of art. Her only takeaway was not being self aware with the dangers in front of her because that would’ve saved her from that snake bite. I wouldn’t call it in vein though because it led to her reuniting with her husband sooner which is what she wanted deep down. Considering she and Lydia were on the same page, it was inevitable for the latter to get that with her daughter. Ryder shows Lydia to be rightfully reserved in order to maintain her paranoia because apart from her stepmom, no one believed her until reality checks came in. Her good intentions to protect her family backfired as that unintentionally caused distance with her only child. As Astrid, Jenna Ortega really echoed her mom’s youth which was being worn out in reality due to her disappointment in life taking so many rough patches past her control. Had she been more understanding with her mom that things don’t always go according to plan, she would’ve not been so reckless to meet a stranger like Jeremy. It was easy to feel bad for her being used like that because she was that grief stricken that she was willing to believe anyone that would tell her what she wanted to hear. Arthur Conti was definitely one secretive psychopath as Jeremy who was willing to trade a soul for a haunting return that was thankfully prevented, but it’s quite ironic he still unintentionally gave Astrid the reunion she was seeking. With the fact they share something in common as in now having the same abilities, there is no telling what other journey they’ll have in store for them. And with Rory out of the picture as well due to Justin Theroux revealing him to be a stingy scoundrel in his own right, the mother daughter Deetz pair can be in a mindset where they can find peace together. Last but not least, Willem Dafoe was a treat as Wolf Jackson because he honestly reminds me if Beetlegeuse was a nice guy. He’s quite eccentric in his own right, but only uses it to enjoy his job. I mean that’s what got him killed technically since it was a live grenade that took his life on the job. If he can find unconventional joy at some point in his existence, there is no shame in us to find our own as long as it don’t hurt anybody. Now I’m serious when I say I enjoyed this sequel more than I expected, but there were still a handful of things that I scratch my head about where I don’t think another sequel would answer. Like for starters, why does the performance artist go straight to the afterlife hallway instead of waking up in the streets like the Maitlands going back home? If he already went to the waiting room and were just seeing a time lapse, it wouldn’t hurt clarifying that. And honestly, it was clearly a bad idea to keep Delores’ pieces together in boxes. I mean if no one wanted her to come back, the boxes should’ve been in separate rooms. I don’t like bullies at all, but Astrid’s school bullies were lazy as hell to set up a fake ghost when they could’ve went after her laptop that was left open. And in all honesty, how the hell does Beetlegeuse get appointed to be a manager? He doesn’t like working and is all about fucking around, so there ain’t any way for this to be possible. It’s even odd how the story went out of its way to show how Charles died in a flashback, but had to rely on visual makeup gag to show what happened to Richard. It’s not like he doesn’t exist, so I don’t see what stopped this from happening. That bothered me more than him quickly reuniting with his family the moment they stepped into the netherworld. Ignore these issues, then you’re still in for a comedic blast. In short, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was overall satisfying nostalgia of a comedy that was worthwhile. If you’ve enjoyed Burton’s filmography and love the first film dearly, I promise you’ll have a new form of satisfaction with this sequel.
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