Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
for violent content, macabre and bloody images, strong language, some suggestive material and brief drug use.
Check back later for review coming from contributor Charity Bishop
| Moral Rating: | Extremely Offensive |
| Moviemaking Quality: |
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| Primary Audience: | Adults Young-Adults Teens |
| Genre: | Supernatural-Horror Comedy Sequel |
| Length: | 1 hr. 44 min. |
| Year of Release: | 2024 |
| USA Release: |
September 6, 2024 (wide release) DVD: November 19, 2024 |
Dark horror comedy / Learn about spiritual darkness versus light
Beetlejuice is said to be a deceptive demon.
What does the Bible say about real demons?
Haunted house
What does the Bible say about ghosts?
Character recites an incantation from the handbook of the Recently Deceased
Psychic mediums claiming to communicate with the dead
Teenaged girl who dresses Goth and lists her mother in her contacts as “Alleged Mom”
Immortal soul and life after death
What is eternal life? and what does the Bible say about it?
What is eternal death?
Has death always existed?
What is the FINAL JUDGMENT? and WHAT do you need to know about it? Answer
| Featuring |
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Michael Keaton … Betelgeuse, pronounced “Beetlejuice” Winona Ryder … Lydia Deetz Jenna Ortega … Astrid Deetz, Lydia’s teen daughter Catherine O'Hara … Delia Deetz Monica Bellucci … Delores, Betelgeuse’s ex-wife Justin Theroux … Rory Willem Dafoe … Wolf Jackson, a detective in the Afterlife Burn Gorman … Father Damien Danny DeVito … Janitor See all » |
| Director |
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Tim Burton |
| Producer |
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Tim Burton Productions Plan B Entertainment See all » |
| Distributor |
Tim Burton is such a legend that there’s an entire genre of art known as Burtonesque in his favor. After a stint working for Disney, he returned to his roots by digging up one of his older films for continuation, “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.” And it’s him at his most grotesque, occultic, darkly comedic self.
Thirty years after the haunting of the original Ghost House, its resident psychic Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) has become famous and the host of an afterlife show, in which she acts as a “spiritual negotiator” between ghosts stuck on Earth and the hapless humans who happen to own the houses they haunt. She makes bank on it and has become a household name, but her daughter, Astrid (Jenna Ortega), is a nonbeliever. She only believes in what she can touch and see, and her mom hasn’t proven the existence of ghosts… or rather, she can’t seem to reach the one ghost Astrid most wants to see: her dad, deceased and gone missing a few years ago in the Amazon.
The two barely speak to one another, and at her posh boarding school, Astrid must fend off the constant teasing of her ghost-obsessed non-friends. But then her grandmother, Delia (Catherine O'Hara, as funny as ever), turns up with some rotten news: her grandfather is dead. He survived a plane crash, only to get eaten by a shark. So, the trio of unhappy women go back to the Ghost House to bid him farewell, pack up his stuff, and…
Well, let’s just say Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton) hasn’t given up on his love for Lydia or his desire to marry her, particularly when his ex-wife, a soul-sucker (Monica Bellucci) staples herself together and decides it’s time fate comes knocking for her old flame. And he may get his chance, because it turns out Lydia isn’t done with the afterlife yet.
If it sounds like there’s a lot going on in this film’s plot, it’s true—and that’s not even touching on Willem Dafoe’s presence as an undead actor turned cop. There are some genuinely hilarious moments and comedic nods to other famous films, most notoriously “Psycho,” when we see early on that “Mrs. Bates” is running the telephone bank.
Tim Burton has always had a morbid sense of humor, and it goes on full display with the brutal reality that however you died is how you’re gonna look in the netherworld, so there’s ghosts walking around with shrunken heads, a crazy cat lady with curlers in her hair and two cats nibbling on her skeletal legs, a surfer missing his lower half, and so forth. And it does get pretty gruesome, as Delores “sucks the souls” out of people and leaves them a shriveled heap of skin and popped eyeballs. The ick and scare factor is amplified from the original (at one point, Beetlejuice invites a couple to “spill their guts”—and does just that by spewing his own all over the room—and so is the swearing.
The performances are hit or miss; Keaton is hilarious and it’s like a day hasn’t passed since he last played this character. Ortega turns in a nice performance that manages to avoid the dourness of her Wednesday Addams role, for which she has become best known. I love Winona Ryder, but it feels like she forgot how to play Lydia and is substituting a deadpan tone of voice for the acting chops I know she has up her sleeve. The real scene-stealer is Catherine O'Hara, who is the funniest cast member by far; her artistic-temperament stepmother persona is still grandiose, self-centered, and charming to the extreme (at one point, she says, “I died of embarrassment”).
The same care that went into the original’s weird colors and surreal afterlife also happens here. It does move a little slow in places, and I feel like the Dafoe subplot wasn’t necessary, but I liked that the story revolved around the Deetz women and a mother and daughter coming to terms with loss and learning how to reconnect. It’s nice to see Burton go back to his roots, which is to be whacky and original, even if his sequel hits a few dead ends along the way (the musical portion of the climax is funny but also runs a little long, and Bellucci is underused).
For believers, it has problems. It has similar occult themes to the original—the afterlife here is grim and hopeless, with ghosts stuck in their bodies as they were when they died (which means Grandpa walks around missing his head and upper half). Beetlejuice plays lots of tricks on people, and Lydia calls him a “trickster demon,” so it’s unclear whether he’s a ghost or a demon or both. Lydia makes a living being a medium, because she just happens to see ghosts. And much is made of ghostly handbooks, trips on the “soul train” (a one-way ticket), and a malicious ghost even attempts to trade souls with a living person to come back to life (this person is not aware of what they are doing when they read from the undead handbook).
There is a lot of occult material, without a hint of redemption, the existence of God, or a way of salvation, since while hell exists and ghosts do get dumped into it, the afterlife is a series of weird events and endless lines. Christians know with Jesus as our savior, we won’t get stuck in a “waiting line.” We hope to pass on to the afterlife as a soul rather than a still-suffering corpse, and believe in divine redemption and judgment.
The afterlife in this film won’t confuse adults, but could muddy the waters for children, and open up interesting discussion points for teens (“What do we believe about the afterlife? What does Christ say about the afterlife?” – “This day, you will be with me in paradise” to the thief on the cross; “I go to prepare many rooms in my father’s house for you…”).
I missed seeing the resident ghosts in the house from the original film, but the script explains where they went. And it includes cute moments, in-between the grotesque ones. It’s not the best script of the year, but it’s watchable and sometimes entertaining and is not trying to preach any political message. Tim Burton seems to be simply trying to entertain. This sequel is a reminder that Burton still has a streak of gothic emo kid in his soul.
- Occult: Extreme. Film has an occult worldview, and some mockery of the Biblical worldview. Spiritual darkness.
- Violence: Very Heavy— Very dark, gory, and grotesque content for a PG-13 rating, and probably would surely have been given an R-rating with the same content in a non-comedic film.
Includes spurting and splattering blood scenes, exposed internal organs, intestines falling ouit, dismembered corpse, biting off the heads of chickens, newborn infant gnaws its mother’s leg bloody and murders the doctor, life sucked out of people leaving just their skin, fishes eating a corpse, a beating heart is tossed, plague corpses, etc., etc., plus the AFTER AFFECTS OF…
—Death by plane crash
—Death by shark attack
—Death by drinking drain cleaner
—Woman eaten by cats
—Death by head impalement
—Radiation death with melted face
—Death by venomous snakebites
—Death by rotating saw
—Death by murder with a kitchen mixer
- Profane language: “J*sus,” “G*d d*mn” (3), “Oh my G*d,” “G*d,” “H*ll,” “What the h*ll,” “D*mn”
- Vulgar/Crude language: F-word (3, with 2 unfinished or bleeped), “Later f**ker,” “Sexy nature man,” “Horny handyman,” “A**,” “A**hole,” “A**wipe,” “Sh*t” (7), “Bullsh*t,” “Cr*p,” “P*ss,” “P*ssed,” “S*ck”
- Sex: Sexual comments, innuendoes and male leering. Suggestive but non-detailed sex scene; implied sex in bed between Beetlejuice and his wife. Kissing scenes.
- Nudity: Possible naked woman on a background poster
- Drugs/Alcohol: Recreational use of prescription drug. Alcohol drinking. Father Damien appears to possibly be a drunk.
- Wokeism: Mild
See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.
This movie has more language, sexual situations, and gore than the first movie did. If you’re prepared to watch that (and to leave the kids home with a sitter), you’ll love this movie. Yes, it’s predictable, but it’s still worth it for a few surprises. Also, I was sad that Barbara and Adam Maitland weren’t included (not even a cameo!), but I was thrilled that they made the movie so well without having to employ Charles Deetz. This is sure to be a classic Halloween movie for years to come! Too bad they didn’t release it in October. I was surprised at the September release date.
Moral rating: Extremely Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 5
Moral rating: Average / Moviemaking quality: 3½
PLEASE share your observations and insights to be posted here.
Astrid was well played by Jenna Ortega, not so much like her character on the TV show WEDNESDAY. She could use some working on playing the lighthearted part of a character still she did well as Winona’s successor. Naturally Winona Ryder slid right back into her role as Lydia. After an argument with her mom, Astrid went for a bike ride through town, learned a lesson in paying attention to traffic and met a neighborhood boy after crashing through the fence in his family’s yard. He slowly starts to romance her. Meanwhile, back home, Lydia’s having more visions of being terrorized in her teens by Beetlejuice, now named by her as a trickster demon.See all »
My Ratings: Moral rating: Better than Average / Moviemaking quality: 4