Movie Review: ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ Is an Entertaining Sequel as Halloween Nears

Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is so close to beating the legacy sequel clichés that the few times the film doesn’t land do not taint the rest of the movie’s qualities.

Here we have a visionary legend returning to his roots, along with his actor favorites Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Jenna Ortega and Catherine O’Hara. We also have the addition of Justin Theroux, Willem Dafoe and Monica Bellucci. Danny Elfman is back as the composer, naturally, and plenty of Burton’s signature aesthetics feel more organic than they have in years.

What should be the biggest cash grab of the year is mostly entertaining, thankfully.

All the way back in 1988, when we first received Beetlejuice, the dysfunctional Deetz family moved into a new house and were haunted by its previous owners: the recently deceased, but ordinary, couple Adam and Barbara Maitland. While Alec Baldwin’s and Geena Davis’ absences are speedily explained with a single line of dialogue, and Deetz father, Charles (Jeffrey Jones), is amusingly referenced quite a lot despite Jones not returning for legal reasons.

But we do get plenty of updates on what Deetz matron Delia (O’Hara), stepdaughter Lydia (Ryder) and step-granddaughter Astrid (Ortega) are up to in 2024. Lydia is being proposed to by her TV career manager and boyfriend, Rory (Theroux). BJ himself (Keaton) is stalked by a killer, zombie-fied former wife in Delores (Bellucci). And Astrid is experiencing first love with a fellow teenage outcast, Jeffrey (Arthur Conti).

Burton’s sequel is one of those movies with a list of pros and cons. The pros include the cinematography, art direction and set direction looking better here than in any Burton film this past decade. His direction is also at its best for the first time in a long while, and doesn’t feel like he’s just phoning it in.

O’Hara’s husband Bo Welch returns as visual consultant fittingly, and the lack of CG effects for practical props is refreshingly retro. The whole cast feels like they’re having a blast returning to or joining this afterlife’s world. Ortega completely sells Astrid as a fresh lead to the BJ universe and doesn’t just rehash her portrayal of Wednesday Addams from Burton’s Netflix series “Wednesday” (2022- ). Most of the jokes and callbacks are solid, and the songs — such as tracks from popular alternative acts like Mazzy Star and Sigur Rós — on the soundtrack are subversive.

The cons are essentially in the script. There’s a very lazy, obvious exposition dump during a scene with Delia and Lydia that’s pretty bad. Too many subplots feel like Gough and Miller took too many suggestions from various influences. Some will also find Ryder and O’Hara might have blended too much of their own personalities into their characters this time around. Would sardonic, angst-ridden Lydia from yesteryear really grow up to be overly neurotic?

Bellucci enters with a strong, striking introduction reminiscent of Sally the Ragdoll in Burton and Henry Selick’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), but fizzles out by the end, with not much to do besides look sexy and scary as she hunts for BJ. It feels as if the Italian actress was cast because she’s currently involved with Burton, and he wanted to show off how great his girlfriend looks in the costumes and make-up — much like what he famously did with ex-fiancée/past muse Lisa Marie Smith throughout the 1990s.

Though it isn’t perfect, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice is still a decent prelude to the upcoming Halloween season for spooky fans.