Hollywood’s favorite bio-exorcist is back from the grave. The long-awaited sequel “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” debuted on Sep. 6 with a record breaking $110 million opening weekend, making it the third-best opening weekend of the year.
The numbers aren’t shocking as it’s been 36 years since the first movie came out in 1988. The movie was fortunate enough to have cast members return who didn’t have to be plucked out from the great beyond. Performances by returning stars such as Catherine O’Hara and Micheal Keaton are the worthiest part of the reason for this sequel–other performances not so much.
An example of questionable performances is Winona Ryder as Lydia Deetz, a supernatural host of the talk show “Ghost House” where Deetz uses her paranormal gift to help individuals communicate with the spirits in their home. This new storyline makes Lydia drastically different from what audiences saw in the first film, replacing her teen edginess for Hollywood glamor.
Catherine O’Hara’s role as Delia Deetz is the grounding performance that makes this film a sequel; her eccentric, artistic view of almost everything is the one consistent part of the movie, which includes her grieving her husband Charles Deetz through a snake ritual at his grave.
To make things even more complex, the producer of the show is her boyfriend, Roy, played by Justin Theroux, whose only motivation is to marry Lydia to make more money for the show.
Roy’s character isn’t the only ambitionless marriage plot move in the film; Monica Bellucci’s Delores’ whole shtick is that she was Beetlejuice’s soul-sucking bride and wants him back while being on the run. Outside of that, Delores did nothing but give William Dafoe a reason for his cameo as an underworld cop set on finding her.
If anything, this sequel is more of a romance than the thriller of the first film, as it seems that every single character has a bachelor to follow. Jenna Ortega’s character, Astrid Deetz, who fills in Ryder’s original teen angst, follows the exact same format as Lydia’s character in the first film.
This is when Beetlejuice’s character finally comes to use in the movie, as Lydia summons him to save Astrid–but of course it comes with the catch of her promising to marry him. Leading to a redo of the memorable “Day-O” scene but instead using “MacArthur Park” for the ceremony.
While Burton’s style–when it comes to this franchise–is to do the most outlandish thing, it isn’t enough reason to excuse about a dozen unfinished plot-lines in a sequel. The reason the first movie landed so well was because even though the film was odd, it made sense when everything was added up. “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” is even more strange and unusual with much less to gain at the end of the equation.
