“I don’t believe in an afterlife, although I am bringing a change of underwear.” - Woody Allen
First it was vampires, then it was all about zombies. Now, you might have guessed something like ghosts or werewolves maybe but you’d be wrong. Taking a broader approach to pop culture’s latest obsession, right now it’s all about nostalgia. 80s and 90s nostalgia to be specific. Think of it as a wide-spreading net covering numerous genres of film and television, 80s and 90s music and a deeper rooted appreciation for the stars of that era. Jurassic Park carries on to this day. Bad Boys just released its fourth installment. Heat is getting a sequel. Indiana Jones had his swan song just last year. And now, thirty-six years later, the juice is loose once again.
While not someone you’d call a Tim Burton fan, I can definitely still appreciate what he does creatively and as an influence on cinema and pop culture as a whole. His impact is undeniable. He is a master at what he does and as someone who hates Tom Brady and is still able to acknowledge him as the greatest football player that ever lived, I can certainly give Burton his proper accolades. And the more I think about it, for a filmmaker who I supposedly don’t exactly fawn over, I have seen a large chunk of his work. From Sleepy Hollow (favorite Burton film) and Batman to Big Eyes and the original Beetlejuice, I’ve seen, and enjoyed, a lot of his work. Maybe I should just say I’m not a BIG fan, more of a moderate appreciator of all things Tim Burton. Maybe Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is further proof that I am in fact a closeted Tim Burton fan and just didn’t know it. I say that because Beetlejuice 2 is a great bit of fun and even as someone who isn’t exactly nostalgic for the original, I had a good time with its successor.
A potential new muse for Burton, Jenna Ortega returns from the set of Wednesday to be the new generation in a sea of nostalgic stardom with the likes of Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara, all of whom are their own fantastic source of comedic prowess elevating this wandering sequel into some semblance of a stuck landing. This feels like the first time in a long time that Burton was truly allowed to play with a world he created and the characters within it. With a brilliant score by Burton’s musical equivalent, Danny Elfman, all the bizarreness and fever dream sequences feel approachable rather than unrelatable or wholly detached from concept or structure. It’s macabre in subject but playfully welcoming in its choice of a zany outlook on life and death and finding an innocent way to respectfully downplay the severity of the afterlife.
In 1988, the juice was summoned to exorcise a house not of its ghostly inhabitants but the very much still alive owners known as the Deetz family. Hijinks ensued and for nearly forty years after the fact, the ghost with the most was dormant and uncharacteristically quiet. But as with all humans comes an infinite number of mistakes, or from the perspective of the name in laughter from the hereafter, a number of opportunities to cause his coveted kind of chaos.
Well in the here and now, a beloved Deetz family member has shuffled off this mortal coil and forced the estranged mother and daughter Deetz to reunite in the spirit of family and a frustratingly persistent manager named Rory. Of course the highfalutin Delia is all too present and as manic as ever. Together, reluctance and all, they must fight for the soul of one of their own as a portal to the afterlife is opened and a pathway to and from is left wide open. If this isn’t all bad enough, in hot pursuit of the demon with the poison semen is a jaded ex of his with ill intent to fulfill their prenuptials once and for all, even if it kill-kills them both.
One of the best decisions Fede Álvarez made for this year’s Alien: Romulus was keeping the aesthetic of the original two films. In the age of giant green and blue screen sound stages, it’s easier, and potentially more ill-advised than ever, to simply add everything in post. To use practical or a combination of the two is to establish early on that real effort was injected into every aspect of this belated sequel. Practical is hard and to go that route is a welcomed approach that Burton has seemingly embraced completely for his return to Winter River. By doing so he has made a creative bridge between the two movies making them feel very much of the same world which of course they are in the story. To go too heavily in the direction of computer imagery would have meant to lose the soul of what made the original a true classic and what would have lost its sequel to the ether of terribly ill-conceived sequels. The CGI is used here primarily as a tool of enhancement to blend the rougher edges of a possibly rigid animatronic or to brighten the prosthetic makeup that is brilliant to focus on and to appreciate the craftsmanship of something so intricate.
Storywise Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a bit messy but still focused just enough to carry along the characters through a myriad of afterlife antics. Visually it is a feast of bizarre, strangely scrumptious imagery that is possibly the movie’s greatest strength overall. The characters are oddly hilarious, with special appreciation for Catherine O’Hara and Michael Keaton who clearly dove back into this world head first. While not quite a movie one might label as necessary, it’s undeniably a whole lot of fun and based on my experience with it, I think was the main intention of everyone involved. I definitely enjoyed it and like I said, the first isn’t on my list of nostalgic must-watches so for those who do love the original, I can only imagine your aching enthusiasm that is finally being answered.
PG-13 For: violent content, macabre and bloody images, strong language, some suggestive material and brief drug use
Runtime: 104 minutes
After Credits Scene: No
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
Starring: Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, Jenna Ortega
Directed By: Tim Burton
Out of 10
Story: 7.5/ Acting: 8/ Directing: 8.5/ Visuals: 9
OVERALL: 8/10
Buy to Own: Yes.
Check out the trailer below:
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