‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ review: Jenna Ortega reanimates Tim Burton’s undead classic

To call this sequel tardy is an understatement. It’s taken Tim Burton 36 years to revisit his supernatural comedy about an eccentric “bio-exorcist” hired to scare the human inhabitants out of a haunted house. In that time, the Beetlejuice franchise has been expanded with a short-lived animated series and a hit Broadway musical, but this is the first time that Michael Keaton has reprised his role as the outlandish title character. Thankfully – and perhaps crucially – Keaton hasn’t reined in his performance an inch.

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The story, credited to Burton’s Dark Shadows co-writer Seth Grahame-Smith and his Wednesday collaborators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, is a bit convoluted. Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder), the goth teen Beetlejuice tried to marry in the original film, is now a wealthy celebrity hosting a hokey, Most Haunted-style TV show. Lydia’s slick, sycophantic boyfriend Rory (Justin Theroux) is possibly exploiting her brittle nerves, while her sharp, disenchanted daughter Astrid (Wednesday) is convinced her medium act is a shame. Astrid’s frustration is understandable given that Lydia claims she can’t see the one ghost who really matters: the teen’s late father.

Lydia’s relationship with her stepmother Delia (Catherine O’Hara) is better than it was 36 years ago, even though Delia’s conceptual art career has become even more pretentious. This, of course, gives O’Hara the opportunity to show off her own outsize comedy chops – when she unleashes a contrived primal scream, her manic energy rivals Beetlejuice’s. We learn early on that Delia’s husband Charles has died – a necessary development given that the actor who played him, Jeffrey Holland, is now a registered sex offender – which brings the Deetzes back to the family home where they were terrorised back in 1988.

However, Beetlejuice himself remains a peripheral presence here until Astrid misguidedly tries to find her father in the afterlife. Lydia has no choice but to turn to her old nemesis for help, which gives Beetlejuice a belated second chance to secure her hand in marriage. Keaton’s kooky spook has a few problems of his own: his vengeful ex Delores (Monica Bellucci) literally wants to suck his soul away, and he’s being trailed by vain ghost detective who still dreams of his living years career as a B-movie star (Willem Dafoe, also going big).

The glue – or should that be goo? – holding all this together is Burton’s wicked imagination. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is filled with brilliantly ridiculous moments like Keaton’s character quite literally spilling his guts, Belluci’s venomous witch stapling her mutilated body back together to a remix of the Bee Gees‘ ‘Tragedy’ and a ludicrous group lip-sync to Richard Harris’s camp classic ‘MacArthur Park’. This film has its flaws, not least some unnecessary CGI sandworms that clash with the kitsch practical effects elsewhere, but its sense of fun never lets up. It’s silly, giddy and a little bit disgusting – just what we want from Beetlejuice.

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