Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, 2024, 3 stars

Let us rejuice

Long-awaited sequel is a messy but crazy-fun romp

Exclusive to MeierMovies, September 6, 2024

The modern adjective “weird” has fateful beginnings, literally. It derives partially from Old English “wyrd,” which referred to destiny, fate and chance. Other incarnations, including the Old Saxon and Old High German, also dealt with fate, as well as “turning” or “becoming.” After taking on a supernatural meaning in Middle and Early Modern English, it eventually settled, in the 19th century, into the definition we know today.

Enter Tim Burton, a master of cinematic weirdness. I have no way of knowing whether the director knows the origin of “weird,” but he and his new film certainly embrace the term, and then some. Indeed, it’s almost as if Burton were fated – despite the 36-year wait – to make this deliciously odd, supernatural, fantasy-comedy sequel. Turns out Old and Middle English aren’t dead after all.

But Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton) is, along with just about half the cast of this crazy film, which is even more fantastical than the first. Defying plot description, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (don’t say the name one more time) picks up three and a half decades after the events of the 1988 film. Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) is now the host of a supernatural talk show. She also has a teen daughter, Astrid (Jenna Ortega), from whom she is partially estranged following the death of Astrid’s father.

Lydia’s own father, Charles, has just died, which is convenient considering the actor who played him (Jeffrey Jones) is registered sex offender and, therefore, would have been uncastable. (Jones is featured in photos, and his character is shown in a brilliantly executed stop-motion-style animated sequence.) And Lydia’s stepmom, Delia (Catherine O’Hara), is still a pretentious artiste who throws herself into fake, performance-style mourning upon the death of her husband, bolding announcing, “We need to unpack the art of sorrow.”

To do that, Delia, Lydia, Astrid and Lydia’s suspicious manager/boyfriend (Justin Theroux) all journey to Winter River and temporarily move back into the formerly haunted family abode. The Maitlands (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) no longer spook the attic, as they have “moved on,” we’re told. But a host of other characters and plotlines fill the void left by the original movie’s main characters. Some succeed, such as Monica Bellucci as Betelgeuse’s dead ex-wife from the Middle Ages, while others, like a poorly conceived and miscast Willem Dafoe, don’t. (You know a film is weird when Dafoe is too conventional.) Others, like a potential love interest (Arthur Conti) of Astrid, are hit-or-miss. Oh, and it turns out Betelgeuse himself still has a little thing for Lydia.

The story is a mess, but that matters little if the mood is right, and it mostly is thanks to a totally beetle-shit-crazy Burton, who is entirely in his element. (It was written by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar.) In many ways, this is old-school Burton, relishing the chance at retro art direction and musical interludes, including a B-movie-horror resurrection of Bellucci’s character, who literally staples herself back together to the strains of the Bee Gee’s “Tragedy.”

Simply put, if you liked the first film, you’ll probably like this, though it lacks much of the originality and cohesiveness of the 1988 movie. If you didn’t like Beetlejuice or didn’t see it, you’re not going to appreciate the follow-up except for, perhaps, a grudging acknowledgement that Beetlejuice Beetlejuice represents a healthy dose of pure insanity.

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For more information about this movie, visit IMDB and Wikipedia. It is currently screening in cinemas.