Tim Burton has had an undeniably iconic career, with a vast amount of macabre hits like 1990’s Edward Scissorhands, 2005’s The Corpse Bride, 2012’s Frankenweenie, his 1993 collaboration with Henry Selick, The Nightmare Before Christmas, 2005’s The Corpse Bride, and 2007’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber on Fleet Street. Audiences have grown to know what to expect from a Tim Burton film, this time, Burton has done the unexpected and made a sequel to one of his iconic films, with 2024’s long-awaited Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
Taking place 30 years after the beloved original film, the story picks up with a middle-aged Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) who is a host for a paranormal investigation show (appropriately titled Ghost Houses) with her overbearing boyfriend/manager, Rory (Justin Theroux) until the unexpected death of her father, Charles (Jeffrey Jones) brings her stepmother, Delia (Catherine O’Hara), and teenage daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega) back to Winter River for the funeral. During their stay at the house where the events of the first film took place, Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton) returns with familiar goals in mind.
Also included in the story are new characters Wolf Jackson (Willem Dafoe) and Delores (Monica Bellucci). Wolf is an ex-action movie hero turned afterlife detective who’s hot on the trail of Delores, a demon hellbent on sucking the soul out of Betelgeuse after a marriage gone wrong, both are incredibly entertaining characters, but sadly don’t get much screen time in the film as there are what feels like 7 other plotlines that the story needs to get to.
Every single character in the movie has their own goals and motivations. Still, none of them get a chance to be in the limelight for more than 5 minutes at a time as the film plays a game of pinball with the audience, knocking them back and forth between numerous storylines that are all playing out at the same time.
While the story feels overstuffed and weighed down my enjoyment at times, the same cannot be said for the technological aspects of the film. Danny Elfman returns to compose the score as the iconic theme plays in the opening credits, inducing a sense of nostalgia while preparing the audience for all the spooky shenanigans to ensue. The production design by Mark Scrunton is gorgeous to look at, creating an identical yet wholly unique version of the afterlife. Haris Zambarloukos’ cinematography is fun and entirely in your face, with Burton’s direction being as wacky as ever, all of these elements work in tandem to create a film that evokes the same spirit of the 1988 classic.
Netflix’s Wednesday writers, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, have adapted an original story by Michael McDowell and Larry Wilson, and it feels like the pair wrote this as a miniseries, not a feature-length motion picture. Everyone in the film is set on their own story. Lydia is trying to connect with Astrid, Astrid misses her deceased father, Delia is trying to make a celebration of life exhibit for Charles, Rory is trying to marry Lydia, Betelgeuse is also trying to marry Lydia, Astrid meets a potential boyfriend, Wolf is hunting Delores down, and Delores is trying to suck Betelgeuse’s soul.
Now cram all of that together into a 104-minute-long movie, and you get an overbaked narrative. There is enough material here to fit an entire season of television, yet we are whiplashed back and forth between these plotlines, making the story feel jumbled in the process as some characters are doing more compelling things than others.
While the narrative is a mess at times, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice feels like a true return to form for Tim Burton. With plenty of gnarly moments and gorgeously goopy practical effects (with some CG sprinkled in to resemble practical effects) wacky performances, a great score, and amazing production design, the film is a good time at the movies that will surely satisfy most fans of the classic and introduce a new generation of horror fans to the genre.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was directed by Tim Burton and written by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar. The film stars Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, Justin Theroux, Jenna Ortega, Willem Dafoe, and Monica Bellucci. Warners Bros. Pictures will be releasing the film on September 6, 2024.
