Tim Burton returns with the second sequel of his career, which follows a string of duds. Does the once master of all things oddball reclaim his quirky throne?
ADVERTISEMENTThis year’s Venice Film Festival kicks off with Tim Burton’s return to the New England town of Winter River, with the sequel to his second film, 1988’s Beetlejuice.
The original was a surrealistic and wacky outing, and the first time that audiences truly got a sense of Burton’s quirky, goth-fantasy aesthetic - as his debut Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure only gave viewers the mildest of stylistic tasters. Now 36 years later, the director decides to revisit the world of his beloved macabre comedy, in only the second sequel of his career.
It worked for 1992’s Batman Returns, also starring Michael Keaton, so the hope was clearly to capture lightning in a bottle once more... As well as seek some redemption, as Beetlejuice Beetlejuice comes after a long string of dispiriting misfires. Indeed, Burton has lost some of his eccentric edge over the past decade, with the likes of Alice in Wonderland, Dark Shadows, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children and Dumbo clearly showing that his once-unique vision had turned into increasingly performative whimsy. To find his last great film, you either have to wind back the clocks to 2007 (Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street), or if those meat pies weren't to your taste, 2003 with Big Fish.
Put simply, revisiting one of his cult films is the director’s canny – possibly desperate – bid to show he’s still got some of that creepy yet goofy verve left in him.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice starts with Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) speaking to the camera: “Come in if you dare.”
We dare. The sullen teen from the original has now grown up to be a pill-popping psychic mediator with her very own TV show, “Welcome to Ghost House”. Dressed like she’s raided Morticia Addams’ closet, Lydia is still haunted by Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton), the anarchic demon who was hellbent on marrying her in the first film. When her narcissistic conceptual artist of a stepmother Delia (Catherine O’Hara) informs her of her father’s death, Lydia must reconnect with her daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega), who’s in the habit of screening the calls of her “alleged mom” - as she has Lydia saved in her phone. In Astrid’s eyes, her mother is too busy spending time with ghosts and her slimy TV exec boyfriend Rory (Justin Theroux) to even notice her. That and she can’t fathom why her mother fails to communicate with her dead husband.
Meanwhile in the afterlife, Betelgeuse is still hung up on his “psychic connection” with Lydia and faces a whole new problem: his ex-wife and leader of a death cult Delores (Monica Bellucci) has stapled her corpse back together à la Bride of Frankenstein and embarks on a literal soul sucking rampage to claim her groom back. As the former actor turned head of the afterlife crime division Wolf Jackson (Willem Dafoe) tells our favourite rotting ghoul: “She’s out for revenge”... And she’s turning everyone that gets in her way into discarded human juice boxes.
As you can tell, the plot is all over the place, with Beetlejuice Beetlejuice suffering from far too many undercooked strands. However, this does not necessarily work against the film, as the original was also a gleefully messy farce. Moreover, from the extravagant art direction to the practical stop-motion effects that hark back to the original’s cartoony mentality, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice matches its predecessor’s anarchic vibe rather well.
Focusing on the positives, the callbacks aren’t too grating and mostly well-judged (including a spooky choral recording of Harry Belafonte’s ‘Day-O’); there are some pleasingly gruesome moments, with a voracious prosthetic baby standing out and giving Trainspotting’s head spinning bundle of joy a run for his money; and the cast are all game, especially Michael Keaton, who lets the juice loose in the best of ways. Granted, Winona Ryder doesn’t exactly light up the screen, but she gets a pass considering her character is in a bit of a funk herself. As Delia asks her midway through the film: “Where is the obnoxious little goth girl who tormented me all those years ago?” Well, she’s lost her edge, as she’s lumped with Justin Theroux’s Rory, who feeds off her with what Astrid describes as his “trauma bonding yoga retreat bullshit”. The fun-sucker represents a long line of emotional vampires in this film, joined by Delores and Astrid’s new Dostoevsky-reading crush Jeremy (Arthur Conti), who may not be as swoontastic as he seems...
The film is essentially is a cautionary tale about how emotionally draining hangers-on will suck the life out of you. So again, Winona gets a pass.
Sadly, the same cannot be said for Jenna Ortega, who doesn’t get all that much to do as Lydia’s stroppy teenage daughter. Nor can a pass be given to Monica Bellucci, whose storyline feels tagged on. Burton bafflingly reduces the Delores character to an afterthought dressed up as his wet dream with the sole purpose of providing a rushed deus ex machina. More could have been done with that particular storyline.
So, while Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is hardly essential, it’s a welcome return of Burton’s brand of oddball zaniness. It may be damning with faint praise, but this sequel is the best the filmmaker has been in years. And depending on box office returns, the prospect of a third film – which would naturally be titled Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice – doesn’t seem like the worst idea this side of the afterlife.
Yes, the return of the stripe-suited succubus doesn’t suck.
Shame about the lack of Exorcist jokes this time round though.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice premiered at the Venice Film Festival and hits theatres on 4 September.
