While “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” seems to be an out-of-nowhere sequel, that could not be further from the truth.
For the past 36 years, a “Beetlejuice” sequel has always been in development. Based on a recent Collider article, producers and writers were desperately coming up with a fun adventure to put the iconic ghoul in. There was Beetlejuice in Paris, Beetlejuice in the Wild West, Beetlejuice in Hawaii, all comically tacky ideas that Burton can clash his gothic style against. Sadly they never leapt off the page. Winona Ryder aged out of her role as Lydia Deetz, Burton was busy with other projects and later became untrustworthy with his latest series of flops.
All it took to revive a “Beetlejuice” sequel is a musical and Jenna Ortega. Luckily, the hiatus took so long that writers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar managed to direct it in the recent trend of the legacy sequel.
Everyone audiences know and love from the first film is back, along with some new faces. After the absurdly tragic death of her father, Lydia, now a host of a paranormal reality show, reunites with her family as they are brought back to Winter River for the funeral service. This includes Lydia’s step-mother Delia (Catherine O’Hara), egotistical boyfriend Rory (Justin Theroux) and her estranged teenage daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega).
As they navigate their baggage and grief, Lydia is further haunted by her experience with Betelguese (Michael Keaton). When supernatural occurrences lead to Astrid being taken to the afterlife, she now has no choice but to summon him once again to save her daughter and set things right with her life.
What’s interesting about “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” is how much the film plays fast and loose with the rules of a legacy sequel. It still makes sure to include numerous callbacks, and a story about the old and the new generations working together, but what’s most fascinating is that for a while, nothing happens to warrant a plot.
In an hour-long first act, the movie sets up a lot, including subplots like Betelguese’s ex-wife Delores (Monica Belluci) coming back for revenge against him, Astrid meeting love interest Jeremy (Arthur Conti), Lydia and Rory preparing a wedding after an impulsive proposal and afterlife cop Wolf Jackson (Willem Dafoe), looking into a string of murders connected to Delores. In the meantime, Burton lets the audience sit with the Deetz family, showing their strained relationships and views on death.
It’s oddly patient until it isn’t. Once the ball finally gets rolling, “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” provides enough of an entertaining adventure through the afterlife, yet the momentum is oddly underdeveloped. For as much as it sets up, it also quickly takes away. Burton concludes these plot lines as quickly as possible, oftentimes to the point that it comes off as intentional and hilariously underwhelming. But whether that was the initial idea or the director not caring too much about the script is questionable.
The same can be said for the filmmaking. Using practical sets and effects—including stop-motion—for a small-scale story, it’s nice seeing Burton go back to his roots after sticking to CGI and epic blockbusters for the past decade. Yet, while boasting some neat effects and colorful lighting, there’s something off about it. The crystal-clear cinematography makes everything look flat, sucking out the inventiveness on screen. It’s like no matter how much Burton is trying to recreate the fun that was in the first film, his modern tendencies still bleed through.
Despite that, it’s not like everything in the film was half-baked. In fact, even though some of them haven’t played these roles in three decades, the cast are all impressive. Ryder, O’Hara and Keaton play their characters as if they never left, bringing some joy out of getting to see them together again after all these years. Ortega works well as the rebellious Astrid, despite the inconsistent writing. Other highlights include Dafoe and Belluci, who end up getting very little screen time regardless of their importance in the story.
“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” is an extremely uneven movie, but the disappointment is that this imbalance could’ve worked to its advantage. “Beetlejuice,” while a comedy classic and an iconic Burton film, is also incredibly contradictory. The rules for the afterlife don’t make sense, and it throws whatever it wants on screen: Even the title misspelled the title character’s name.
But what made it work was that it all connected back to the likable Maitlands, with everything in the story revolving around them. Without their inclusion in the sequel—a detail they explain in a throwaway line—the story gets lost in what it’s trying to set up. The closest the film has to a center is Lydia, but she often gets sidelined to set up even more subplots. It’s as if Gough and Millar were afraid that if their script was not convoluted enough it wouldn’t have substance. Even when they dive into the story’s themes of moving on from death and trauma, the way that’s handled is also incredibly rushed.
The legacy sequel treatment was the best and the worst thing to happen for a “Beetlejuice” sequel. It gave a reason to bring back these memorable characters, but at what cost? With a messy script and a director trying to find his former groove, what they create is a limp sequel. It may be a fun diversion, yet not memorable enough to stand against a film that easily stood out amongst Burton’s other movies.
Just imagine what could’ve been with Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian.
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