Tim Burtonhas been in a originative rut for well over a decennary now . The past 15 years of his career have been populate mostly by forgettable dramas and several inauspicious collaborations with Disney , not to mention a sincerely horrid feature film film adaptation ofDark Shadows . Not all of his past few movies have been as awful as that regrettable 2012 disaster . Frankenweenie , Big Eyes , and even — to a lesser degree — Miss Peregrine ’s Home for Peculiar Childrenhave all been fine , if forgettable . But what Burton ’s recent yield has lack is the energy of his earlier work — the sense of silly , mediaeval fun that made him such a refreshing and clear-cut aesthetic voice throughout much of the eighties and ’ 90s . learn many of his twenty-first - C efforts , one could n’t aid but get the sentiency that they were see an creative person fall benumbed at the wheel .

When it was , therefore , announce that Burton was in reality be active forward with the long - rumored sequel to his 1988 classicBeetlejuice , there were reasons to be concerned . Was his conclusion to revisit his one of his most iconic past work an effort to tap back into the spirit of his earliest films ? Or another instance of Burton take the obvious , but not particularly interesting course ? The answer becomes readable early inBeetlejuice Beetlejuice , in which Burton turn up that he still has the potential to be the unequivocal master of his own oft - imitated aesthetic . In an ironic twist of fate , it ’s only in returning to the cinematic world of mischievous demons and agitated booze that he help create over 30 old age ago that Burton as a filmmaker has begun to show some signs of life again .

Set 36 years after the events of its beloved predecessor , Beetlejuice Beetlejuicefinds Lydia Deetz ( Winona Ryder ) in a place of creative and spiritual decomposition . As the host of a supernatural investigation show , Lydia has found a way to monetise her unparalleled paranormal power , but she ’s still haunted by vision of unhappy ghosts and her former tormentor , the cunning demon Betelgeuse ( Michael Keaton ) . Even worse , she ’s injure up trapped in a toxic , codependent human relationship with her covetous producer and longtime fellow , Rory ( Justin Theroux ) , who is intent on convincing Lydia to marry him . As he films her going through the motions of taping her lightly spooky boob tube serial , which commercializes Lydia ’s personal goth aesthetic , the parallels between her later - calling life and the past 15 years ’ worth of soulless , regurgitative work that Burton has been relegated to making seem sorely exculpated .

Lydia is wrenched out of her funk by her narcissistic stepmother , Delia ( a scene - stealing Catherine O’Hara ) , who inform her that Charles , Delia ’s hubby and Lydia ’s sire , has of a sudden died while on a bird - watching expedition . In one ofBeetlejuice Beetlejuice‘s many stylistic tangents , Burton part visualizes this misstep - go - horribly - damage in an suitably ridiculous Claymation succession . As Lydia and Delia both fight to come to term with Charles ’ decease , they prepare for his funeral by pulling Lydia ’s estranged adolescent girl , Astrid ( Wednesdaystar Jenna Ortega ) , out of boarding school and traveling back to the Deetzes ’ once - frequent home plate in Winter River . Shortly afterward , Lydia is force to recruit into a new steal with Keaton ’s still - lovestruck Betelgeuse to write Astrid from dying on an badly - advised misstep to the afterlife .

To say that ’s only strike the surface ofBeetlejuice Beetlejuice‘s convoluted plot would be an understatement . The script byWednesdaycreators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar ’s is full of more character , ideas , and jest than it knows what to do with . The film is packed to the rim with so many subplots that very few are resolved in any really satisfying way . As Wolf Jackson , a former B - picture star who works as a constabulary police detective in the hereafter , Willem Dafoe gets to have many of the sequel ’s funniest product line . Monica Bellucci ’s Delores , meanwhile , is at the center of one ofBeetlejuice Beetlejuice‘s most ingenious and memorable aspect — a ghastly bit of horror comedy in which she literally staples her severed body parts back together . The celluloid never follows through on the hope of Delores ’ institution , though , and both her quest for revenge against Betelgeuse and Wolf ’s investigation ultimately pass disappointingly anticlimactic resolutions .

Due to the overstuffed nature of its plot , Beetlejuice Beetlejuicemoves at persistent , breakneck pace for much of its 105 - minute runtime . Millar and Gough ’s screenplay still sound out of its means , however , to seek to bridge the gap betweenBeetlejuice Beetlejuiceand its parent plastic film by repeatedly returning to the offscreen informant of Astrid and Lydia ’s constrained human relationship . As a result , the picture does n’t actually get to the meatiest and most entertaining portion of its floor until well past its midpoint . The bond between Ortega and Ryder ’s character take the most body of work to explain and develop , and so it comes the closest of all of the celluloid ’s narrative threads to draggingBeetlejuice Beetlejuicedown . It does n’t hurt the motion picture enough to really do so , but matters are n’t help by the fact that Ortega seems stuck here in the same brooding , angsty stripling mode that she ’s been dwell onscreen for quite some metre now .

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice‘s increased focus on its franchise ’s curve , psychedelic version of the afterlife helps make up for some of its weaker element . Mark Scruton ’s output design works perfectly in tandem bicycle with Haris Zambarloukos ’ colorful cinematography to make an updated visual sense of life after end that seems simultaneously more magical , mundane , ridiculous , and disorienting than it did in 1988’sBeetlejuice . Behind the camera , Burton also throw all cautiousness to the tip this time around . He packsBeetlejuice Beetlejuicewith exciting visual risks and gags , including multiple musical number and a first - number inglorious - and - white court to Italian giallo managing director Mario Bava that feels like the closest Burton has get along in year to recapture his original , tongue - in - cheek aesthetic part . His go - for - bust position lifts the fresh film up and matches the energy of both Keaton and O’Hara , who ferment in the subsequence ’s funniest and best performance .

In 2022 , Burton team up with Ortega , Millar , and Gough and directed four episode of Netflix’sWednesday . His work on theAddams Familyspinoff was his firm and most visually assured in years . He has now followed those instalment up with a subsequence that works far well than it should , and which sees Burton operating at his most spirited and inspired since arguably 2003’sBig Fish . WhileBeetlejuice Beetlejuicefinds the distance for plenitude of homages to its 1988 predecessor , too , the motion-picture show does n’t run purely on the noxious fumes of cheap nostalgia . It is a legacy sequel that resist remarkably well on its own because it is less interested with reminding you of what came before than it is with entertaining you here and now . Along the way , the cinema also gives back to its director the Dame Muriel Spark that his work has long been lacking . The juice is , indeed , loose ( again ) .

Beetlejuice Beetlejuiceis now playing in theater of operations .