Following Tim Burton’s lackluster experience on Disney’s Dumbo (2019), the acclaimed director has admitted to feeling a creative low point, both with his relationship with Disney (swearing off future mouse house collaborations) and the industry at large where he started as an animator.
It was a chance submission to Burton from Smallville writer-producer-creators Al Gough and Miles Millar that led to the current renaissance for Burton. This collaboration led to the critical and viral viewing smash hit that is Netflix’s Wednesday series. The Jenna Ortega led series beat Stranger Things in many of the streamer’s records with several awards nominations coming from The Emmys and Golden Globes.
The overlap between the writing duo and Burton is quite substantial on paper. Gough and Millar were responsible for birthing the WB/CW’s superhero craze with their 2001 ratings juggernaut, Smallville. The series ran for ten seasons (Gough and Millar left after seven) and led to the CW greenlighting five additional DC series. On the film side, there’s no one question that Burton birthed the modern superhero film with 1989’s Batman. The serious take on superheroes led to the construction of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe and a thirty-year-in-the-making return for Michael Keaton as a version of Tim Burton’s Bruce Wayne / Batman in the DCU’s The Flash (2023).
Gough and Millar’s comedic sensibilities worked well within the framework of Burton’s universe on this first go around, so it’s no surprise that the entire Wednesday creative package of Burton, Danny Elfman, Gough, Millar, and rising star Jenna Ortega (Wednesday Adams herself) merged with returning stars Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, and Michael Keaton for Beelejuice Beetlejuice.
The question is, will Beetlejuice Beetlejuice rise to the levels of Wednesday’s success, in terms of viewership (box office in this case) and critical praise?
A direct sequel to Beetlejuice (1988), we find Keaton’s “Ghost with the Most” still infatuated with Lydia Deetz (who is now, thankfully, of age). Lydia has grown into a pill-popping, still-tortured adult who earns her living as a TV reality star who investigates haunted houses. Lydia’s hit series, “Ghost House,” sees her visit haunted homes with a film crew then interviews the homeowners in front of a live studio audience at the end.
Lydia’s manipulative TV producer/boyfriend, hilariously played by Justin Theroux, is solely focused on earning the big bucks and keeping his host pumping out episodes on camera. Theroux’s ultimate goal is to pressure his wealthy-gothic-lover into marriage within the coming days. Of course, he’s not the only bottom feeder interested in marrying the single monther.
That’s right, Lydia is now a mother with her own tortured-soul offspring, Astrid. Jenna Ortega plays Astrid, a girl who lost her father at a young age and believes that her mother’s profession is a fraudulent effort to garner further wealth and attention.
Astrid has never seen any proof of ghosts in her life, and she can’t seem to understand why her mother can’t see her the ghost of her dead father. The young girl is on the outs with her mom and it’s a plotline the film explores with an afterlife family reunion (more on that later).
The death of Lydia’s father triggers stepmother Delia Deetz (Catherine O’Hara) to gather Lydia and Astrid for the funeral. They return to their towering summer home, the original “Ghost House owned (and haunted) by the Maitlands in the first film.
We find that the Maitlands have “moved on due to a loophole” in their 130 year haunting sentence, but the absence of ghostly Adam (Alec Baldwin) and Barbara (Geena Davis) is felt in the film.
The ghost couple brought so much heart to the original film and it’s one element that’s sorely missing in this film. With the close of the original film, the Maitlands are now the active parents in Lydia’s life, and than her own father and stepmother seem fine with this division of parental labor.
By not having the Maitlands in the sequel, we’re missing the most profound relationship established in the first film.
Script issues aside, what isn’t missing in the sequel is the creativity and ingenuity of Tim Burton. He lovingly returns to his roots of claymation, massive physical sets with immaculate production design, and his career defining synergy with Michael Keaton.
Keaton’s Beetlejuice is enjoying a surge of business run as he has an entire unit of shrunken head employees running his afterlife bio-exorcism business. Beetlejuice is alerted early in the film to the alarming fact that his “soul sucking” ex-wife has pieced herself back together. The ex, Delores, is on the hunt for her husband to finish him off for good.
This plot device is meant to add a ticking clock and higher stakes for Beetlejuice, but the whole ex-wife storyline could (and should) be excised from the film. Monica Belluci is wasted as Delores, and the high point of her seven minutes of screen time is the slow reconnecting of her mangled body parts as The Bee Gee’s song “Tragedy” plays.
Willem Dafoe is also wasted as an actor turned afterlife cop who died doing his own stunts with a miscalculated explosion. Ortega’s Astrid is lured into the afterlife by her seemingly charming semi-boyfriend who is actually a twisted, murderous ghost! The muderous teenager has been stuck on his property for decades as a ghost and he’s ready to trade places with Astrid. Thanks to an incantation that Astrid reads aloud, this teenage killer is able to trader life for his and he will return to the living.
Lydia sees the incantation taking place, but by the time she reaches the killer’s bedroom it’s too late — Astrid and her tricky bf have entered the afterlife.
Lydia is forced to call upon Beetlejuice for help, offering her hand in marriage to secure the safe return of her daughter from her deathly deal. Beetlejuice is happy to oblige for the deal, this time signed as a contract. This scene and the therapist office scene with Keaton are the best in the film. From the moment the team up is struck, it’s less and less interesting and well-crafted from a story perspective.
The plot with the “boyfriend” ends with him in line to get a passport stamped while Astrid is being forced onto the “Soul Train.” The Soul Train gag is arguably out of touch, but it works better than Dafoe’s character and the afterlife police force.
Lydia is able to rescue Astrid from the train with the help of Astrid’s ghost father (who spots them from his menial desk job at the train station). Astrid’s “boyfriend” is disposed of by Beetlejuice right before he gets his passport stamped, and at this point all plot lines are abandoned in the film. This effectively ends the stakes for Astrid and Lydia.
The duo now escape to the land of the living with the help of Astrid’s father, who she has been yearning to see for some time. Delia Deetz is now also in the afterlife (along with the half eaten ghost of husband Charles Deetz).
The writers randomly kill off Delia via the bites of venomous snakes… it’s a plot choice that is absurdly illogical, even for a Beetlejuice film, and Delia is objected to being in life like a normal person. The only good thing to come from this storyline is her joke about “Global entry” before she breaks down and summons Beetlejuice to help her… skip line?
Delia is present at the end of the film for weird musical number that fails to hit mark like Harry Belafonte’s “Day-O” song in the original film.
The marriage ceremony of Lydia and her producer is interrupted by Beetlejuice for the overcooked music number. That ceremony is then interrupted by Delores who finally gets her confrontation with Beetlejuice.
During the confusion, Astrid draws a sandworm portal on the floor (thanks to reading the Handbook for the Recently Deceased) and summons a sandworm to eat Delores. This moment repeats the end of the first film with Barbara Maitland riding a sandworm to dispose of Beetlejuice before he can marry Lydia.
Dafoe’s cop character tells the Astrid and Lydia to stay out of the afterlife realm as he takes Delia back to the afterlife where she’s reunited with Charles (still missing the upper half of his body). This ghostly wound to Charles was part joke and part creative decision to keep cancelled actor Jeffrey Jones out of the sequel.
The ending of the film is a weird sequence of events which sees Astrid get married and have a child which is more of a monster — a twisted baby Beetlejuice that crawls on the ceiling. Lydia wakes up next to Beetlejuice who mentions “dream sequences.” We’re left to wonder if any of the sequel actually happened, and perhaps we’re better off with a third film that ignores the second in an attempt to right the ship, so to speak.
This sequel leans heavily on nostalgia and will likely have fans lined up around the block. The Beetle-brand has only grown in popularity over the decades (from the WB animated series to the broadway musical and merchandise galore). Burton reconnecting with his filmmaking passion and roots in practical effects is the best takeaway from the endeavor. Keaton is once again in his element, with Catherine O’Hara and Justin Theroux rounding out three fantastic performances in the film. However, script issues prevent the sequel from soaring.
The film opens strongly but ultimately delivers an unfulfilling return to the once-riveting-world of bio-exorcisms, sandworms, and Harry Belafonte.
Letter Grade: C