“Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice”: A Cult Classic Brought Back From The Afterlife

Thirty-six years after the events of the original film, someone says Beetlejuice’s name three times again. This sequel, directed by Tim Burton and featuring part of the original cast, landed in theaters last Thursday.

Summary

The sudden death of Charles Deetz brings an adult Lydia and her estranged teenage daughter Astrid back to Winter Rivers for the funeral.

When a portal to the afterlife is accidentally opened, endangering Astrid’s life, Lydia will have to do the last thing she wants: ask for the help of an old demon acquaintance.

Nostalgia as a Main Character

As expected, there are plenty of references to the original Beetlejuice film in terms of visual style, music, and characterization. Aside from the title character, we have Lydia and Delia back, accompanied by an assortment of new characters, some better than others.

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice has what we can call “cool ideas”. Some new characters, like Beetlejuice’s ex-wife, played by Monica Bellucci, or the dead actor, played by Willem Dafoe, look very cool. Like the kind of characters you would want to dress as in Halloween. But they are not really given a lot to do. I’d go as far as saying none of the characters, old or new, has a lot to do.

Michael Keaton’s Return

I have no idea how he did it, but Michael Keaton’s looks and energy in this role are intact after more than thirty years. It’s like time didn’t pass for him. If there is something to highlight about the film, it is his performance as Beetlejuice.

Compared to the original film, we can perceive that the character’s extravagance has been tuned down a little, for obvious reasons. I remember, for example, a scene in the original when he meets Barbara Maintland that would not be taken lightly in today’s climate. However, this is not done in a way that strips Beetlejuice of his personality or intends to “fix him” for modern audiences, which is fortunate.

Adult Lydia and the Million Storylines

If you remember the ending of the original film, Lydia was just fine. She was doing well at school, spending time with Adam and Barbara, and in her last scene, she was dancing surrounded by ghosts. But at the beginning of this one, we are shown that Lydia was very traumatized by the events that occurred in the house and that Beetlejuice’s figure has haunted her all her life. I don’t find it believable.

Now an adult, Lydia is hosting a paranormal talk show and dating her producer. Her former husband, the father of her teenage daughter, Astrid, died years ago. All of this is told to us in passing.

Lydia’s relationship with her daughter is not the best. Astrid was very close with her dad and resents her mother for not using her alleged “gifts” to help her communicate with him. To sum it up, she thinks Lydia is a fraud.

This character is the typical annoying teenager who dresses in dark colors and wants nothing to do with her family. To complete the impression, she is also a climate change activist. Unique and different. Jenna Ortega is not bad in this role, but as with Zendaya, I’m getting tired of seeing her everywhere, playing similar characters over and over.

Astrid falls for a boy during her stay at her grandparents’, but her love interest happens to be dead. In fact, she is the only person who can see him, revealing she has inherited her mother’s abilities. So Astrid has no better idea than to follow this boy she does not know into the afterlife to try to get him back to life.

In between this storyline, the one about Beetlejuice’s ex seeking revenge, the one about the actor/policeman, the one about Astrid’s father, the one about Delia dying, the one about Beetlejuice trying to get Lydia back, and the one about Lydia searching for Astrid, we have a chaotic plot that focuses on nothing in particular. And consider that the film is not even two hours long.

In the last five minutes, everything is resolved by the power of the script.

Box Office Results

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice has had an excellent domestic opening weekend, with $111.003.345. Adding the international sales during the rest of the week, it has now reached $162.218.815 globally in seven days.

The reported budget for the production was  $100.000.000, and Warner seems to have put a lot of money into the marketing campaign, but if ticket sales remain steady for a few more weeks, we could be speaking of one of the year’s biggest successes.

The Resurrection Decade

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice will be to your liking or not, depending on your expectations. Compared to other films of the kind (I mean derivates of another renown IPs) it’s pretty good. If you just want to see Michael Keaton reprising this iconic role, you will leave the theater with a big smile on your face. The same is true if you are a fan of Jenna Ortega.

But, in essence, it brings nothing new to the table. I don’t think anyone is going to look back, twenty or thirty years from now, and remember this film as something special. It will never reach the original Beetlejuice’s status as a cult film. That is why I don’t see a point in making a sequel.

In spite of that, the film has one asset that I believe is playing a huge part in its success: there is no political messaging. Taking aside the small detail of Jenna Ortega’s character being an activist, there is nothing else that can be interpreted as woke. The actors involved in the project even went out of their way to assure that they had no intention of making Beetlejuice politically correct. They promised only entertainment, and they delivered exactly that, which is appreciated.

What About Us?

However, I feel discouraged when I think that every generation has a list of films that were influential and groundbreaking in their time, projects that had a cultural impact and became a symbol of that decade. But for the new generation, what do we have to claim as our own? All the current films are derived from past and more successful projects, made by people who had far more talent and the capacity to create a legacy.

We all know that Tim Burton is a talented director, and Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice is far from being a bad film. But I would much rather see him doing something new than trying to revive old classics.

At least for now, the attempts to resurrect better times are the only thing the 2020s have to offer.