Filmmaker Tim Burton has garnered a reputation as a visionary and for being quite odd, and there’s nothing out there that says the two can’t be contained in a single person. He earned his chops directing and producing fantastic animated works (Corpse Bride, Frankenweenie), as well as quite literally changing the game of what was possible and permissible in what is meant to be family entertainment (Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, Batman, Edward Scissorhands), but veers so far into the bizarre, macabre, and sometimes grotesque that audiences are left shocked simply because they’ve never seen anything like it.
But in more recent years (I’d say since 2010’s Alice in Wonderland), Burton has seemed to be coasting on a reputation that he hasn’t lived up to with IP-heavy works like Dark Shadows and the live-action Dumbo. The idea that he would direct something like Big Eyes sounds good on paper, but the result left a lot to be desired, mostly because Burton’s signature strangeness and sensibilities seemed to be absent.
One of his early triumphs was 1988’s Looney Tunes-inspired Beetlejuice, about a harmless ghost couple trying to keep a paranormal miscreant named Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton) from getting his decaying hands on the living teenager named Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder), whom he really wants to marry. Burton’s film was splashy with color, weird shapes (Lydia’s stepmother, Catherine O’Hara was a sculptor, whose art was scattered throughout their newly purchased home). But more than anything, it was front-loaded with wonderfully original ideas about what the afterlife might be like—and it turns out, it’s as tedious and buried in red tape as the real world. The film was as relentless with its creativity as Keaton was in his manic performance, which felt like a one-man improv troupe.
Now, 36 years later, Burton has assembled some of the original cast (sadly not Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin’s ghost couple) for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which finds Lydia (still Ryder) using her powers as a spiritualist on a popular TV show. She now has a teen daughter, Astrid (Jenna Ortega), whose father died adventuring, and Astrid blames Lydia for her dad not wanting to spend time around the house. She also holds a grudge against Lydia for supposedly being able to see ghosts, but not her late husband (to be fair, Astrid blames Lydia for just about every bad thing that happens to her). O’Hara’s Delia has moved on to video installations as her artistic means of expression, and the whole family has moved away from Winter River, but still own what many refer to as the Ghost House (which is also the name of Lydia’s show), where apparently Betelgeuse is still making trouble.
When Delia’s husband (played by the now-problematic Jeffrey Jones in the original film; the character is represented her in very creative ways) dies suddenly in a shark attack, the family decides to go back to the Ghost House to clear it out for possible sale. And naturally, once they return, strange things start occurring, including the inevitable return of the Juice. At about the midway point in the new movie, things get so chaotic that it might be easier to stop paying attention until the final 15 minutes or so.
But if you focus and have patience with this wacky, atmospheric piece, you’ll spot the old Burton magic peaking through, starting with the casting. Justin Theroux shows up as Lydia’s new boyfriend and the show's producer, who seems more interested in her career and money than any emotional trauma going on because her father has just died. Willem Dafoe is quite funny as dead actor Wolf Jackson, who works in the afterlife as his most famous TV character, a detective who must find out why so many afterlife ghosts are turning up as soulless husks.
We know that it’s actually Betelgeuse’s ex-wife Delores (Monica Bellucci) killing anyone who might know where Betelgeuse might be. Also, newcomer Arthur Conti is on hand as a local boy who befriends Astrid and becomes her potential love interest, but we suspect there might be something not quite right about him. It should probably come as no surprise that the film’s screenplay comes from Alfred Gough & Miles Millar, who wrote the Netflix series Wednesday, another recent triumph from Burton.
Ultimately, the turn in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is that Lydia needs to team-up with her former nemesis by saying his name three times and striking a bargain with the trickster to help save Astrid, when she’s tricked into taking a portal to the afterlife with seemingly no hope of escape. The production design team truly outdoes themselves with their more detailed view of this weigh-station, with people looking as they did in the moment of their death. The bureaucracy of the afterlife is all the more infuriating while still being mind blowing and carefully conceived in its visualization. Some of the visual effects (most of which appear to be practically executed) are astonishing.
Ryder and Keaton slip right back into these characters like they never left them, with Keaton seeming even more sophisticated with his references and wordplay, while Ryder’s Lydia seems less moody and more about pulling Astrid back from the brink. The more motivated, protective mother characters looks good on her. But most importantly, Burton’s twisted spark seems to have returned, at least partially, and it makes this sequel so much more enjoyable as both a comedy and an exercise in pushing limits and buttons, especially when it comes to the film’s playful gross-out visual effects. It’s easy to have a great time watching Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which is not something I can say about most of Burton’s recent work. The film is a great way to wrap-up the summer, and as good a reminder as any that aging visionaries can still give us something to look forward to.
The film will open in theaters on Thursday, September 5.
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