Movie Review: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

Warning: This review contains spoilers from the 2024 film, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

I loved the first Beetlejuice movie. It was funny, creative, unique, and I never get tired of rewatching it. It has, over the years, become one of my favorite films, and so when a sequel was announced, I was skeptical. I wasn't sure anything could live up to the magic that was the original movie. That one made me laugh out loud and leave the movie theater singing Day-O (The Banana Boat Song).

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice only had three main characters returning from the original—Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, and Catherine O'Hara. Without Alex Baldwin and Geena Davis to play the Maitlands, I had my doubts. But Tim Burton is a master storyteller, and this movie proved that he knew what road to go down when it came the sequel.

For Keaton, it's like no time has passed since he played the role of the sleazy bio-exorcist who is only out for what he can get, and it doesn't matter what he has to do to get it. He steps right back into the striped suit with the wild hair and raccoon eyes. And he's as hysterically funny as he was the first time around.

Ryder brings a different kind of angst to the movie this time around as she's the adult in charge of a teenage daughter who doesn't believe her mother can actually see ghosts. Back in her element as Lydia Deetz, Ryder is a better match this time for Beetlejuice, being willing to use him as necessary to save her daughter.

Then, of course, there's Catherine O'Hara, Lydia's droll, over-the-top stepmother, who is ensconced in her own world of weird art. She gives the film an edge with her strange ideas and outlandish mourning of her husband. It's that mourning that delivers her to a different world and makes me excited to see the future film in this franchise.

Yes, there will be another Beetlejuice film, according to Warner Bros Pictures co-chairman and CEO, Mike de Luca, who told Deadline that a sequel was being developed even though the "ink might not be dry on the deals yet." Director Tim Burton, though, told the Hollywood Reporter he isn't aware of a sequel being developed, although he did point out that he might have been replaced as the franchise is owned by Warner Bros and not himself.

This movie certainly makes the case for another film in the franchise as the door was left open for more stories to be told with Lydia still having nightmares about Beetlejuice at the end of the movie. Though it seemed the tormenting creature had seen his end, that doesn't necessarily mean anything in this type of fantasy world as it's all about the deceased. And with Delia having gone to the Afterlife, that script practially writes itself.

The character that I dearly missed in this film was Ortho, played by the late Glen Shadix. Though the movie brought in a love interest for Lydia who was akin to Ortho in his disbelief of ghosts, he couldn't take Shadix's place. The actor was comedy genuis in the first film, and watching this second one was a reminder that a life was cut too short. And we would never see his creativity in another movie.

Overall, I'd give Beetlejuice Beetlejuice an 8 out of 10 and encourage everyone who hasn't seen it, especially those fans of the first, to take a chance on it. It's well worth the hour and forty-three minutes! And it's available to stream now on HBO Max and Netflix.