Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

“Beetlejuice is back! After an unexpected family tragedy, three generations of the Deetz family return home to Winter River. Still haunted by Beetlejuice, Lydia’s life is turned upside down when her rebellious teenage daughter, Astrid, discovers the mysterious model of the town in the attic and the portal to the Afterlife is accidentally opened. With trouble brewing in both realms, it’s only a matter of time until someone says Beetlejuice’s name three times and the mischievous demon returns to unleash his very own brand of mayhem.”

It’s hard to believe the original film was released 36 years ago. Beetlejuice was a staple of my childhood, with influences that I can still recall to this day. Rumors of a Beetlejuice sequel have been around for decades, and it’s still a bit surreal to finally have one.

The film opens with Lydia (Winona Ryder), now a television personality that hosts ‘Ghost House’, a paranormal investigation show in which she travels to haunted houses in order to investigate the phenomenon and communicate with the spirits causing commotion in the lives of the homeowners. Lydia learns from her step-mother Delia (Catherine O’Hara) that her father was killed on a bird-watching trip and needs to come back to Winter River for his memorial service. With the support of her manager/boyfriend Rory (Justin Theroux), they travel to pick up Lydia’s daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega) from college to bring her back to mourn her grandfather as well.

Meanwhile, in the afterlife, Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton) continues his services as a demon-for-hire, but unbeknownst to him, a woman from his past has awoken from a long slumber and is intent on sucking the souls of anyone and everyone who gets in her way of finding him.

The two storylines eventually collide, with Lydia eventually coming face-to-face with the literal demons of her past, enlisting his help once again in a way that will resolve both of their issues.

Firstly, the look and feel of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is perfectly reflected from the original film. The opening sequence guides us through the model of Winter River, with subtle changes reflecting the passage of time, but even though Winter River has continued to stay a small-town community, a lot of changes have gone on in the lives of the Deetz family, which resonate in the themes and story in the film, much different than the original film.

Lydia, now a widow and a single-parent, has about just as much trouble communicating with her daughter as she did with her step-mother, even more so, since Astrid is more like Lydia than she and Delia ever were. It’s the navigation of loss through both of their perspectives that embodies the heart of the film, and their eventual reconnection through this shared experience of traversing the afterlife and going head-to-head with demons and sinister spirits. Lydia’s storyline in which she seems to be stuck in limbo in both her personal and professional lives with Rory doesn’t feel as fleshed out as the storyline with her daughter. The Rory character seems like an afterthought in the film, which makes sense because of Lydia’s relationship with him. It never really seems like she cares all that much for him, which in turn the audience shouldn’t either.

I’m sure one of the most difficult parts of creating the sequel was to balance the story of Beetlejuice and Lydia. In the original film, despite the title being the main character, we don’t get to interact with him much at all. This isn’t the case as much in the sequel, with a small back-story given to the character that introduces us to his life as a human and the ultimate cause of his demise: Deloris (Monica Bellucci). We do see much more of him and the world of the afterlife, and normally I would have said that would have been my number one request for a sequel, but in execution I didn’t think it landed nearly as well as it could have. Although I enjoy the look and brief history of the Delores character, it slows the pacing of the film down with the lack of focus and sense of threat that we see in each interaction. She sucks the souls of random people, one of which elicited an ‘Aww’ from me, but her quest to hunt down Beetlejuice never feels like it’s that serious of a part of the film. The same goes for the Wolf Jackson (Willem Dafoe) character. It’s great to see Willem Dafoe show up in so many movies these days, but the time we spent with this character could’ve been focused more on something more substantial to give further investment with some of the characters. Additionally, no song sequence will ever top the Harry Belafonte song in the original, but I felt that the ending sequence could have had something a bit better that matched the enthusiasm and humor of Banana Boat.

Special Features

The following are the extras you’ll see on the disc:

• Audio Commentary 
• The Juice is Loose: The Making of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice 
• The Ghost with the Most: Beetlejuice Returns 
• Meet the Deetz 
• Shrinkers, Shrinkers Everywhere! 
• An Animated Afterlife: The Stop-Motion Art of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice 
• The Handbook for the Recently Deceased 
• ‘Til Death Do We Park: Beetlejuice and Lydia’s First Dance

Despite some of the smaller issues I had with the over-all story, I was still quite pleased with Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. It goes beyond just ‘fan service’ and strives to create a story of its own with Lydia’s new relationships and dysfunctional family dynamic. At its core is a truly heartfelt story between a mother and daughter dealing with loss, but add in the hilarious and disgusting antics of our favorite Bio-Exorcist and you’ve got an entertaining next chapter in the saga.