BEETLEJUICE, BEETLEJUICE, US, 2024. Starring Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, Jenna Ortega, Justin Theroux, Willem Dafoe, Monica Bellucci and Danny DeVito. Directed by Tim Burton. 105 minutes. Rated M (Supernatural themes and coarse language)
In Beetlejuice folklore, you have to call out Beetlejuice’s name three times and he will appear. But, this time it needed only just one repetition. And here he is, 36 years after his first appearance, ready to entertain old and new fans.
Perhaps it is something about the world situation in 2024 that the highest moneymaking films so far have been quite a contrast – the violent fantasy of Deadpool and Wolverine and the wonderful exploration of human motor emotions in Inside Out 2. Now Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice has made over $100 million at the American box office on its first weekend. So, we can ask: is our world with its natural disasters, wars and consequent deaths and injuries, and cost-of-living crises, in need of a fantasy distraction, an indulgence in absurd comedy?
Because, that is what we have here. Absurd characters in over-the-top absurd situations, lots of jokes, special ghostly effects, Beetlejuice’s wisecracks, all kinds of unexpected dramatic terms. There is a surface world with strange human characters. Ryder again as Lydia, now a TV host on ghost appearances shows, her mother, O’Hara again as Delia, an eccentric artist – but Astrid, Lydia’s daughter (Ortega), has grown up sceptical of the whole Beetlejuice ghostly world. Her scepticism is about to come crashing down.
Fans of the original will be happy to get back into the Afterlife, the madcap visuals, the special effects, the eerie creatures . . . And there is plenty of plot, Astrid tricked into helping ghost to regain his life, Lydia to the rescue and agreeing to marry Beetlejuice, whose wife Delores (Belluci) is in pursuit. Delia ending up in the Afterlife, and, to cap it all, Willem Dafoe, seeming to appear in every other film these days, as a skeletal actor who is in charge of investigations, preening himself in his performance, modelled on television shows, of how the police ought to act!
And, right at the end, there is a very long wedding sequence, all kinds of mayhem with a performance of McArthur Park, everybody singing along . . . Beetlejuice may not appeal to every audience, especially those who don’t have a high tolerance for dark fantasy. But, he will probably appeal to everyone else!
Universal
Released 5 September