Tim Burton (Batman, Edward Scissorhands) goes back to his roots with a sequel to his classic supernatural comedy, Beetlejuice. Marketed as a return to form for the famously spooky auteur, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice reunites Burton with original stars Michael Keaton (Batman, Spider-Man Homecoming), Winona Ryder (Stranger Things, Reality Bites), and Catherine O’Hara (Home Alone, Schitt’s Creek), along with returning production designer Bo Welch (Men in Black, A Series of Unfortunate Events) and composer Danny Elfman (The Nightmare Before Christmas, Multiverse of Madness)

Read on to find out if Burton can recreate the magic from his first major blockbuster!

The story

36 years after their first encounter with Betelgeuse (pronounced, “Beetlejuice” and reprised by Keaton), Lydia (Winona Ryder, Stranger Things, Reality Bites) and Delia Deetz (Catherine O’Hara, Home Alone, Schitt’s Creek) return to Winter River to lay patriarch Charles (Jeffrey Jones, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) to rest.

In tow is Lydia’s daughter, Astrid (Jenna Ortega, Scream, Wednesday), who would rather be anywhere else. When Lydia starts having visions of the infamous Beetlejuice, she’ll need to balance her motherly responsibilities with fending off the supernatural advances of the one and only Ghost with the Most.

The ‘Juice is loose

Aside from a prosthetic paunch, Keaton himself is seemingly unchanged by the passage of time; at the age of 73, his high-spirited specter is as spry, manic, and anarchic as ever.

Keaton’s performance is the single best reason to watch this film, and he doesn’t disappoint. Whether he’s tormenting his hapless employee Bob, conjuring ways to get Lydia to accept his proposal, or literally spilling his guts on the floor, Keaton is at the top of his game, taking care to never outstay his character’s welcome.

Meet the deetzes

Leveraging her ability to commune with spirits to host a supernatural-themed reality show, Lydia Deetz’s fragile reality is shattered when her father’s passing coincides with the return of Beetlejuice.

With her performance artist mother (the incomparable O’Hara) remaining as flighty and aloof as ever, Ryder’s performance takes on an added level of exasperation that’s exacerbated by the presence of her cynical offspring, Astrid. Representing three generations of Deetzes, O’Hara, Ryder, and Ortega are impeccably cast, their respective neuroses flaring up in a number of amusing sequences.

Child of woe

As the latest in Jenna Ortega’s repertoire of sullen teens, Astrid may actually be the most grounded, especially taking her role models into consideration.

The source of Astrid’s angst is the loss of her father at an early age, and this provides the film with a surprisingly poignant throughline that pays off in hilariously morbid fashion. While it would be nice to see Ortega play someone that isn’t averse to smiling, Ortega is a fine addition the Beetlejuice mythos (such as they are), holding her own against the weirdness around her.

The new characters

Throwing a monkey wrench into Beetlejuice’s plans is his dismembered wife, Delores (Monica Bellucci, Irreversible, SPECTRE) who, following a brief mention in the preceding film, seeks to reclaim her wayward husband. Hot on everyone’s trail is Wolf Jackson (Willem Dafoe, No Way Home, The Lighthouse), a self-absorbed action star who found new purpose in the afterlife as a self-absorbed detective.

All dressed up, and nowhere to go

Bellucci is resplendent as Delores, and Dafoe is wonderfully off his rocker as Wolf, but they’re given next to nothing to do, to the point that they could be removed the film altogether, and no one would notice.

The only one doing anything remotely related to the plot is Justin Theroux (Mulholland Drive, The Spy Who Dumped Me) as Rory, Lydia’s opportunistic weasel of a boyfriend, and he’s one-note at best. Granted, most audiences will be turning up to see the OG cast, but the irrelevance of the new characters seems downright negligent.

Return of the auteur

Thankfully, Tim Burton’s passion comes across in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’s every frame, eschewing the autopilot he’s engaged for virtually every film he’s made in the last two decades (with the exception of maybe Sleepy Hollow and Big Fish, but we digress).

While some of the callbacks are forced (with a mention of the Maitlands being particularly cringey), the screen pops with the exuberant confidence of a man who suddenly remembered why he started making movies in the first place. Backed by some truly superlative production and costume design work, the film flies from one eye-popping sequence to the next, with the cast all too happy to play along.

The bottom line

Madcap, macabre, and morbid in all the right ways, with a topnotch cast under a director reconnecting with why he started making movies in the first place, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice makes a strong argument for a late-career resurgence in Tim Burton’s storied oeuvre.

Dare we go for Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice?