- The long-awaited sequel to Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice (1988) opens this week.
- Early reviews for the film, starring original cast members Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder, have been mixed.
Once heralded as one of the most exciting filmmakers of the ”80s and ’90s, the quality of Tim Burton’s recent work has been more…up and down. So when it was announced that he planned to revisit Beetlejuice, the cult flick that helped to crown him king of the art school goths, initial reactions were — understandably — mixed.
Picking up 36 years from the 1988 horror-comedy, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice sees the Deetz family return to Winter River following a sudden tragedy. While Delia (Catherine O’Hara) struggles with the recent death of her husband, Lydia (Winona Ryder) attempts to juggle life as a supernatural TV show host and her rebellious teenage daughter, Astrid (Jenna Ortega).
When Astrid is accidentally sucked into the Afterlife, chaos ensures and it’s only a matter of time before Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton) makes his return – and takes his revenge.
So will Beetlejuice Beetlejuice give Burton the shot in the arm he needs, or is this just another franchise cash grab that has become standard fare in Hollywood?
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That depends on who you ask. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice premiered last week out-of-competition at the Venice Film Festival and reactions to the sequel have been mixed so far.
A glowing review from The Hollywood Reporter praised the film as an impressive return to form for Burton – a sentiment echoed by the BBC, who declared the sequel to have surpassed the original, comparing it with Top Gun: Maverick.
Empire gave it three out of five stars, citing a messy narrative, but noting that the film shines when Tim Burton gets to fly his freak flag and that “Michael Keaton has never been Beetlejuicier.”
In a particularly scathing review, Vanity Fair described Beetlejuice Beetlejuice as lifeless, “a waste of a good cast and a defacement of a classic film’s legacy.” The film fared just as well over at The Guardian, where it has been called a lazy sequel that’s “underpowered and throwaway.”
Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice hits Australian theatres on September 5th — check out the trailer below.
