Beetlejuice (1 & 2)

BEETLEJUICE (15)

D: Tim Burton

Warner Bros. / Geffen (Richard Hashimoto, Larry Wilson & Michael Bender)

USA 🇺🇸 1988

92 mins

Comedy/Horror/Fantasy

W: Michael McDowell & Warren Skaaren

DP: Thomas Ackerman

Ed: Jane Kurson

Mus: Danny Elfman

PD: Bo Welch

Cos: Aggie Guerard-Rodgers

Geena Davis (Barbara Maitland), Alec Baldwin (Adam Maitland), Michael Keaton (Betelgeuse), Catherine O'Hara (Delia Deetz), Glen Shadix (Otho), Winona Ryder (Lydia Deetz), Jeffrey Jones (Charles Deetz), Sylvia Sidney (Juno)

A delightful and surreal treat which made Tim Burton a household name purely for his occult, off-the-wall visual style. Geena Davis & Alec Baldwin play a middle-aged couple who have an automobile accident in their small New England town and spend the afterlife in their home trying to scare off a family of yuppies who have just moved in. They summon the help of 'Betelgeuse', a mischievious demon who claims to be an expert at scaring people off, but he does more harm than good.

The movie amassed a huge cult following since it's 1988 release and is often considered one of the best comedy-horrors of all time.

Michael Keaton steals all the laughs at the demonic ghost and the special makeup effects are absolutely brilliant, even by modern day standards. Unfortunately, the stop motion special effects don't look as good by comparison.

8/10

Did You Know:

The original script was much more a horror film, and featured Beetlejuice as a winged, reptilian demon who transformed into a small Middle Eastern man to interact with the Maitlands and the Deetzes. Lydia was a minor character, with her six-year-old sister Cathy being the Deetz child able to see the Maitlands. Beetlejuice's goal was to kill the Deetz family, rather than frighten them away, and included sequences where he mauled Cathy in the form of a rabid squirrel and tried to rape Lydia. Subsequent script re-writes turned the film into a comedy, and toned down Beetlejuice into a wise cracking con-artist, rather than a demon.

The studio wanted to change the title to "House Ghosts", and even "Scared Sheetless" when Tim Burton mentioned it as a joke.

BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE (12)

D: Tim Burton

Warner Bros / Geffen / Plan B / Domain (Marc Toberoff, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Tommy Harper & Tim Burton)

US 🇺🇸 2024

104 mins

Comedy/Fantasy/Horror

W: Alfred Gough & Miles Millar [based on characters created by Michael McDowell & Larry Wilson]

DP: Haris Zambarloukos

Ed: Jay Prychidny

Mus: Danny Elfman

PD: Mark Scruton

Cos: Colleen Atwood

Michael Keaton (Betelgeuse), Winona Ryder (Lydia Deetz), Catherine O’Hara (Delia Deetz), Jenna Ortega (Astrid Deetz), Justin Theroux (Rory), Willem Dafoe (Wolf Jackson), Monica Bellucci (Delores LaFerve), Arthur Conti (Jeremy Frazier)

A sequel to 1988’s Beetlejuice had been bouncing around for well over a decade before the long-awaited sequel was finally released in 2024, and it’s quite clear to see that the result is an overly cluttered, jumbled mess of ideas that likely came from a multitude of possible scripts being crammed into one.

Michael Keaton fits the mischievous role of Betelgeuse like a glove, whilst Winona Ryder is back as a grown up Lydia Deetz, a neurotic host of a tacky paranormal reality TV show, who returns to the small New England town of Winter River with her stepmother Delia & estranged daughter, Astrid, to prepare for her father’s funeral, only to be haunted once again by the malevolent trickster.

There are way too many subplots that the plot needs to juggle, from the return of Betelgeuse’s ex-wife who plots revenge against him, a B-movie actor playing the role of a cop in the afterlife, a slimy TV producer rushing to land Lydia’s hand in marriage and a teenage boy who develops a friendship with Astrid, though his intentions may not quite be so pure.

In the end, many of the subplots go absolutely nowhere or are dealt with in a completely unsatisfying way, especially in the anti-climactic ending which is clearly setting up a third movie.

Michael Keaton is great, and is clearly having the time of his life playing the part, and Jenna Ortega is also very good as the moody teenage daughter. Winona Ryder is a completely different character from the first film, whilst Catherine O’Hara is annoyingly bad, with a character who was always obnoxious but is highly irritating this time around. Monica Bellucci & Willem Dafoe’s characters are completely pointless, and ultimately make no difference to the plot.

As with the first film, the makeup effects are excellent (aside from Willem Dafoe’s get up, which was clearly done to look bad intentionally), the costuming is brilliant and a special mention also needs to go to the production designers, not only for capturing Tim Burton’s gothic style, but also for recreating the iconic house from the first movie.

It’s entertaining enough, but it’s miles away from the quality of the first film, which really didn’t need a sequel at all.

6/10

Did You Know:
When Glenn Shadix (the actor who played Otho in the original film) died in 2010, he was so proud of the fame he’d achieved due to Beetlejuice, he requested that “The Banana Boat Song (Day-O)”beplayed at his funeral.
In this sequel, a choir sing a version of the song during Charles Deetz’s funeral.