Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
1988 was a monumental year for director Tim Burton.
It was the year he created the original Beetlejuice, a film that made Hollywood sit up and take notice of this gloomy, oddball Goth who only a few years earlier had been let go from Disney for being too dark.
Beetlejuice marked a turning point in Burton's career, it proved his playfully twisted sensibilities could be commercially successful, and is arguably one of his finest cinematic creations.
Indeed, it's also the film that saw Burton strike up a rapport with the one and only Michael Keaton. The spark between auteur and actor would ignite the flame that led to Keaton's unforgettable stint as Burton's Batman of choice. If you're a film-loving nerd and/or Batman aficionado, you'll view their collaboration with the reverence it deserves.
Now, after 36 years, the Burton and Keaton dream team have reunited to give us the long awaited Beetlejuice sequel that we've been dreaming of, but can their efforts live up to fans' lofty expectations?
The action this time around sees the Deetz family flock to the old family home to lay their husband and father Charles to rest after a nasty accident involving a shark. We find that Lydia hosts a spooky paranormal TV show and her daughter Astrid is relentlessly picked on at school thanks to her family's notorious reputation in the village.
When Astrid's life is thrown into danger, Lydia reluctantly summons the courage to enlist the help of her old nemesis Beetlejuice to save her only daughter, but as with their previous business relationship, Beetlejuice is not a ghoul you can put your trust in.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice joyfully reignites that Burton-Keaton spark we spoke of, and proceeds to plough clean through any negative preconceptions or doubts with a riotous boost of jovial energy, thanks to Burton's zany imagination and inspired performances from original cast members Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara.
Meanwhile, the legendary Monica Bellucci and Willem Dafoe make sublime additions to the story here, playing Beetlejuice's spiteful ex-wife and an undead private investigator respectively.
Practically boiling over with creepy visuals, OTT gore and Burton's trademark, darkly comedic charm, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice will delight those of you still enamoured with the original's playfully dark and abstract charms.
Part homage, part reboot, but singularly enjoyable on its own merits, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice gives us another playfully dark jaunt to an afterlife that's teeming with more crooks, lunatics, deviants and borderline psychopaths than the real world – and right now that's saying something.
