Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (12A)

A family tragedy woos Delia Deetz, daughter Lydia and rebellious teenage granddaughter Astrid back to the close-knit community of Winter River. Familial tensions are evident from the moment the clan descends. Astrid discovers the model of the town in the attic and accidentally opens a portal to the afterlife by summoning Beetlejuice three times. The mischievous demon ricochets between realms, wreaking havoc wherever he goes.

LondonNet Film Review

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (12A) Film Review from LondonNet

At the beginning of director Tim Burton’s second slice of his macabre comedy, the hypnotic melody of Danny Elfman’s orchestral score flirts with lyrics from Donna Summer’s discofied rendition of MacArthur Park. Someone has indeed left the cake out in the rain and it’s half-baked. Drizzled in enough nostalgia to make the most fervent Burton fan choke and splutter, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice exhumes original cast members including Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara for a shambolic road trip through the worlds of the living and the dead…

The likeness of disgraced actor Jeffrey Jones, who originally portrayed patriarch Charles Deetz, is realised as stop-motion animation for one of the sequel’s splashier moments, pointedly killing off his character in bloodthirsty fashion. Screenwriters Alfred Gough and Miles Millar achieve fleeting greatness – bio-exorcist Betelgeuse’s attempt to get in touch with his inner child is lip-smackingly disgusting. However, the duo are largely content to convene with ghosts of past glories and shoehorn a new arrangement of Jamaican folk song Day-O into one mournful scene.

A slapdash approach to detailed storytelling is exemplified when psychic mediator Lydia Deetz (Ryder) is asked by her truculent teenage daughter, Astrid (Ortega), if the ghosts of Adam and Barbara Maitland still haunt the attic of the family home. “We found a loophole and they moved on,” Lydia sombrely explains. “How convenient,” deadpans her unimpressed offspring. Monica Bellucci is squandered as Betelgeuse’s soul-sucking ex-wife – a crime considering the campy wickedness that Burton lavishes on her entrance to the fray, replete with a rousing burst of the Bee Gees. Tragedy, indeed.

The passing of Charles Deetz woos multimedia artist wife Delia (O’Hara), daughter Lydia (Ryder) and granddaughter Astrid (Ortega) back to the close-knit community of Winter River for an overwrought funeral service. Lydia’s latest beau, TV producer Rory (Justin Theroux), lends moral support as tensions flare between the generations and Astrid dismisses her mother’s unwavering belief in the spirit world as the ramblings of a delusional fantasist. When loose lips summon Betelgeuse (Keaton) from his current position as an Afterlife Care Manager, the politically incorrect trickster reignites his desire to walk down the aisle with Lydia so he can finally wreak havoc in the mortal realm.

Alas, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice isn’t so good they named it twice. Ryder and Ortega feign intergenerational strife before an inevitable reconciliation, while O’Hara’s exuberant theatrics occasionally slip into Moira from Schitt’s Creek. Willem Dafoe’s B-movie actor turned ghost detective, who “made” his name portraying grizzled big screen cop Frank Hardballer, is an amusing addition but he is surplus to dramatic requirements. The miasma of eye-popping practical effects and whoop-inducing set design, which have become trademarks of Burton’s oeuvre, are almost worth the price of admission. This rain-soaked cake is impeccably decorated.

– Jo Planter