Tim Burton’s sequel ‘superior to the original in almost every way’

This sequel to the director’s classic supernatural comedy, released 36 years later, is a joyful, wacky farce full of stunning punch lines and brilliant special effects.

Betelgeuse is back from the dead. Or rather, Betelgeuse is still dead, but back anyway. It’s been a staggering 36 years since Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice” introduced the character, a demonic villain played by Michael Keaton, but Hollywood is Hollywood, and no intellectual property can rest in peace forever. So now Burton has directed a sequel, “Beetlejuice.” “Beetlejuice,” which opened this year’s Venice Film Festival.

I can’t say I had high hopes; after all, the last time the ’80s supernatural comedy got a sequel after a decades-long wait, the result was disappointing. Ghostbusters: Afterlife. So I’m relieved to report that Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is more like its weirder, bloodier, and overall slimier counterpart Best Pistol: Maverick. That is, this is a sequel that, coming 36 years later, pays intelligent and loving homage to its predecessor, but surpasses it in almost every way. Of course, it helps that Keaton was covered in corpse makeup in the first film, so his Betelgeuse might look the same today as it did in 1988.

The most pleasant surprise is that Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is that rare thing, a big-budget comedy that’s actually funny. Alfred Gough and Miles Millar’s script is full of jaw-dropping punchlines, and Burton’s visual gags are hilarious even as they push the boundaries of how eccentric and macabre a Hollywood blockbuster can be. A key point is that instead of relying on CGI, he uses practical effects like puppets, prosthetics and lots of goo, which makes the jokes both funnier and grosser.

The film’s only real flaw is that it has a few too many plotlines, which give it a stretched-out middle and a rushed, chaotic finale: like the original Beetlejuice, the film could have spent more time with Betelgeuse. Keaton’s snorting troublemaker now has a desk job in the Underworld, a nightmarish bureaucracy populated by lost souls with imaginatively gruesome mutilations. But he still pines for Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder), the disgruntled teenage goth he tried to marry in the first film. Lydia is now a “psychic mediator” who hosts a TV show produced by her wonderfully self-centered boyfriend (Justin Theroux). He also has a disgruntled teenager, Astrid (Jenna Ortega), who is embarrassed by what she considers her mother’s fraudulent claims that she can see dead people. Lydia, meanwhile, is still at odds with her stepmother, Delia (Catherine O’Hara), a loud, narcissistic artist who makes O’Hara’s Schitt’s Creek character seem shy and withdrawn.

Like Top Gun: Maverick, the long gap between the old and new films proves beneficial. Instead of feeling like a rehash of old farce, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice becomes a comedy with its own story and its own concerns. It can be very moving about the difficulties of aging, parenting, and dealing with loss. But then it always reverts to macabre and cartoonish silliness.

The idea is that the various Deetzes come together after Lydia’s father is killed: the actor who played him, Jeffrey Jones, is now a registered sex offender, which probably explains why he wasn’t invited back. When the family gathers at the haunted house where Betelgeuse broke in years ago, there’s no sign of the ghosts played by Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis in the original film (“How convenient,” says Astrid, as Lydia justifies why they’re gone). But Beetlejuice Beetlejuice still starts to creak under the weight of all its characters. Astrid gets a crush (Arthur Conti); Betelgeuse is pursued by his vengeful, Morticia Addams-like ex-wife (Monica Bellucci); and Willem Dafoe plays a vain ex-actor who works as a detective in the afterlife, because that’s what he played in the movies. It’s no wonder the writers can’t keep track of everything that happens.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice may be unwieldy, but this joyful, rollicking farce is still one of Burton’s most enjoyable films and a welcome return to his own brand of weird horror after the Disney flop that was his 2019 live-action remake of Dumbo . He reunites with old friends in front of and behind the camera, and throws in a few musical numbers, animated segments, and Italian film pastiches, so you can tell he had a lot of fun making it. And viewers will have a lot of fun, too.