When the classic film Beetlejuice was released, I was amazed. Dark, Funny, Dark. A tragic story of lives cut short and the journey toward acceptance that follows. Watch it. You won’t regret it.
And then we waited for a sequel…
Actually, we didn’t. Back then, society wasn’t so concerned with sequels, prequels, and spin-offs. We had the cartoon series to watch, which was a little less dark than the film but still pretty entertaining in its own way.
And 35 years later, a sequel was released. Unasked for, certainly, but it generated enough hype, got the nostalgia train up and running, caused many fans to watch the original over and over again, and explore in great detail (perhaps too much so) any information they could glean from trailers or leaked pictures.
So it was that I finally, one dreary afternoon, sat down to watch the sequel in the hopes that it would bring back the “Ghost With The Most!” Unfortunately what we got was an unabashed mess of a film.
The realm of the living and dead clash!
The story for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is… convoluted to say the least.
The core story is relatively simple. A mother and daughter are disconnected from each other, and through some shared trauma, they bond. From there, it gets much more convoluted and played as character beats rather than as decently scripted & filmed moments.
The Juice is now in charge. He has a room full of Bobs (shrunken head guys). His ex-wife is back, and she wants to kill him… again. And a cop thinks Beetlejuice is responsible for some crimes, and follows him very ineptly around.
Back in the living realm, Lydia is a haunted shell of a woman, pursued by a toxic narcissist (Rory) who forces her to do things she really doesn’t want to do. This is all done in the name of empowering her, but it’s obvious it’s all just for him. Meanwhile, Rory does his best and fails to ingratiate himself in the lives of Delia and Astrid while Astrid meets a guy who wants to kill her. Because there’s nothing like your first love…
It sounds like it should be a roller coaster ride of fun and hilarity, but it just keeps missing the mark a lot of the time. When Beetlejuice is on screen, he steals the show, but that’s just because of nostalgia.
The Alive and The Unalive
Beetlejuice is finally given a back story! And he’s referred to alternately as a Ghost and a Demon, but there are undertones of difference between the two. Perhaps a Demon in this world is a Ghost who went bad?
His name is Beetlejuice, the man, the myth, and because no one can remember how his name was originally spelled. The Maitlands misnamed him, and it just kinda stuck is the other theory, which becomes the secondary core of the movie. Beetlejuice serves as a Deus Ex Machina in a few instances, which felt somewhat cheap.
His ex-wife, Delores, played by the wonderfully bouncy Monica Bellucci, for some reason, is in storage and has to put herself together in a musical moment whilst (a criminally underused) Danny DeVito watches on. Quite why she’s left in “storage” for a few hundred years is never explained. Especially since all you have to do is staple-gun them back together again to make them whole.
Catherine O’Hara returns as the wonderfully eccentric Delia Deetz and is possibly the best character in the film in terms of growth. Seriously, the film’s more serious moments are thanks to her brevity and wit, which hold the family dynamics of the film’s core together.
Lydia is back, but as a haunted, broken version of herself, suffering from the death of her ex-husband, which apparently explains why her daughter, Astrid (played by Jenna Ortega), hates her so much. Sadly, this version of Lydia is a hollow shell of who she was in the first film. The fun of the character is gone. Their mental health is played for jokes with their fiancé, which feels a bit cheap at times, much like her ability to see ghosts. There’s so much that could have been done with her, especially with her daughter’s love interest plot arc, but it’s over very quickly, thanks to the Juice.
Astrid, the new spooky kid replacement for Lydia, falls in love with the first guy she meets once she unknowingly gets her powers, and is promptly used by him because he’s an evil ghost who wants to become mortal again and go on a killing spree. Astrid & Lydia are very much two sides of the same coin. The film is about the mother/daughter dynamic at its core, and the scenes they share are tense and dramatic, but they sadly lack the humour of the rest of the film. I’d have loved to have seen some kind of rare moment where they connect, share some humour, and then it turns sour.
Lydia’s love interest, Rory, is played by Justin Theroux as a deliciously slimy & narcissistic sleeze bag. I would have loved to have seen a scene with Rory & Delores finding each other and genuinely falling in love because they are as bad as each other. Beetlejuice is an overly loud, farting, scary face-making, gut-spilling monster. But Rory? He’s the real monster here.
Willem Dafoe plays the wonderfully scene-chewing Wolf Jackson, an actor turned ghost cop who is played for laughs throughout every scene he’s in. Wolf also seems to be in charge, in a very inept way, and I can’t help but think there was more to that character than was shot, especially with his ever-present PA. I can’t help but wonder what the real story is between them!
And then we have the horde of Bob’s! In the first film, Bob was a singular shrunken-headed explorer, and the witch doctor who cursed him was on the sofa. In this film, though, there’s a whole group of them, which, whilst nice, isn’t explained at all. They all look the same, all act the same. They’re like the Minions of Beetlejuice now. And yes, they do get to cause havoc in the land of the living, which really could have been a longer scene in and of itself.
Adam & Barbara Maitland are quickly plot expositioned away and only show up as a couple of small figures on the town model in the loft once again. But that’s a blink and you’ll miss them moment!
The Nostalgia-verse
Let’s start with the big O in the room. The Day-Oh!
Remember that zinger of a tune from the first film’s Dining Room Scene? It makes a hilarious comeback that draws you into the emotional content of the film in a way I didn’t expect. I won’t spoil it for you, but let’s just say that song has a real bite to it this time round in its new format!
The rest of the music was thankfully filled with the usual Danny Elfman genius touches. Sombre yet cute. Spooky yet naïve.
Sadly, though, for me personally, one song felt like it was trying way too hard to be the next “Day Oh”, especially when it’s rammed down your throat with a five-minute dance routine that’s somehow actually part of the plot but only for that one scene. Wait, no, two scenes. It felt like more and longer (uwu). And really not in a good way.
The scenery itself, however, is pure nostalgia candy.
From the drive through town, reminding you of all the places the Maitlands (and Lydia) explored in the first film, through to the town map, which has been magically repaired since the first film when Beetlejuice rose up out of it. The Underworld scenes are very similar to the original in some ways, the twisted corridors, changing perspectives, and moody lighting. But there’s something they miss. Or maybe it’s because they had something the first film lacked… A Budget.
The makeup and costume teams need to be awarded for their stellar work on this film. Each character’s look and wardrobe are distinct; even Delia Deetz’s zany wardrobe is there, if a little more reserved, it’s still recognizable as her unique style.
The lighting team also needs some major recognition. There are times when the Afterlife & Living world collide, and the lighting team really made that shine.
And let’s not forget that whole scene filmed in Italian and in black and white as an homage to Mario Bava’s Black Sunday. It’s a massive head-wrenching scene, utterly contrasting to the tone of the rest of the film. And yet, it feels more honest in tone for a sequel told from Beetlejuice’s point of view. It’s played for laughs, but the root of the scene is pure classic Italian Gothic horror. The sort of thing that inspired Tim Burton
In Memoria
Overall, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is pure nostalgia bait. It lures you in with the imagery of the first film, but very little of its charm and wit. The original Beetlejuice was deliciously dark, humorous, and heart-warming at the same time. The sort of thing you expect from a Tim Burton movie. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, though, is very much a film for modern audiences who are looking for familial connection and trauma bonding with the characters rather than watching the film and appreciating the dark absurdity that it is.
Films, like games, anime, manga, and music, are there to take us away from the world we live in, to provide escapism from it. Sadly, though, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was too grounded and not absurd enough to really hit the mark.
As a film, it’s disappointingly average. The Juice was not set loose; more like a carton was accidentally knocked over and we’re not going to cry over it.
IMDB https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2049403/
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