“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” (2024) is set thirty-six years after “Beetlejuice” (1988). Three generations of Deetz women return to their home in Winter River, Connecticut to mourn the death of the patriarch. Lydia (Winona Ryder) is a famous reality star as television series “Ghost House” host, a mix of “Ghost Hunters” (2004) meets Elvira, Mistress of the Dark without the hyper sexualization. Her daughter, Astrid (Jenna Ortega), thinks mom is a fraud, and the supernatural is a chump’s game. Lydia’s stepmom, Delia (Catherine O’Hara), thinks that it is just karma for Lydia’s early and temporary issues with Delia, which has since been resolved with Delia being her stepdaughter’s fiercest supporter while being completely true to herself, including giving 100% to her career as a performance artist and gallery owner. With the miniature town model still in the attic, the threat of Beetlejuice being summoned still hangs over them, and he still has a thing for Lydia. Will Lydia be able to evade the altar and reconcile with her daughter? Will Astrid believe in the supernatural and have faith in her mom? Will Delia ever get over losing the love of her life? The distinct visionary Tim Burton returns to the director chair and collaborates with new to the franchise writers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar to do the impossible: make a sequel that is better than the original. 
To recap, “Beetlejuice” was a campy movie with the puzzling over how to get rid of the grating, exploitive, social climber, pretentious and self-serious New Yorkers. Because Lydia is a child and authentically Goth, she is the only one among the living whom Adam and Barbara feel protective of whereas the message is that these horrible people deserve to be run out of the house and town before they ruin the community. Fair enough because gentrification sucks, but it was a little mean spirited, especially since an outsider may believe that Burton had more in common with the Deetz family than the couple. Was it self-loathing or obliviousness? Eventually they find a way to coexist, and through Lydia, the couple get the child that they always wanted. The experience with the supernatural inspires Delia to become the artist that she always aspired to be, and Charles (Jeffrey Jones) got to live away from the hurly burly of the city. Side note: in retrospect, Beetlejuice was a perv and a pedo for being into a fifteen-year-old girl, but because “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” finds a brilliant way to incorporate Charles without using Jones, who is a sex offender, let’s keep it pushing. 
“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” is such a joy of a movie because it is its own thing, not trying to make lighting strike in the same place twice. It has a more generous and loving spirit than the original because each character’s flaws make them lovable, not deserving of torment from the souls stuck in purgatory. Each character is relatable. While the story has a contemporary fairy tale quality, it does not adhere to the tropes of that genre. It is not often that a stepmom and stepdaughter are depicted as loving each other instead of enemies or competitors. It is such a small revolutionary thing that it is easy to take it for granted, and there is a throwaway line that Lydia’s biological mom is still alive. Delia is not the bonus mom. She is not simply a maternal figure, but the main parental figure who wants the greatest good for everyone without sacrificing her dreams or diminishing herself. Her dreams and traits are not necessarily admirable. She adores her privileges and is quite shameless about using them to get ahead. While part of the humor relies on poking fun at her creative pursuits, it also translates into adult playfulness and fulfillment. She is childlike in the way that she does not pretend to understand Rory (Justin Theroux), Lydia’s producer/romantic partner, when he engages in therapy speak and like her granddaughter, says “ew” when she sees something that disgusts her. It is refreshing to have an older woman who lives for herself without being selfish and urges Lydia to shake off everyone and thing that is holding her back. O’Hara is a genius scene stealer and is often the most consistent, best part of any film, including her prior performance in “Argylle” (2024).
Lydia is far from the self-confident, depressed Goth girl from the eighties. Like many Gen Xers who were deemed gifted, she discovers it is code for neurodivergent, specifically psychic. While she presents a confident image as a guide to the supernatural on television, off screen, she is riddled with anxiety, takes prescription pills to cope and ignores her good sense, which allows her vulnerable to manipulation. The goal of “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” is for Lydia to learn how to trust herself, reject manipulation and regain her confidence. Life has a way of draining the vitality from women, but with age, that boldness can return.
“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” is surprising in how it depicts a broad spectrum of romantic relationships. Delia is not just the second wife who married for money. She loved Charles, and their love was true. The narrative does not demonize Lydia for not having long-lasting relationships. She split from Astrid’s father, Richard (Santiago Cabrera), but there is no acrimony between them, and it does not make her a bad mother. Rory is a manipulative creep, but the onus is on him, not Lydia for being fooled. Despite Lydia’s desire to leave the town because Beetlejuice is still around, which Delia validates, she stays after Astrid pleads to go on a Halloween date with Jeremy (Arthur Conti), who encourages her to reconsider her stance on the supernatural without including her family and knows exactly how to incentivize her. While Burton is not a writer, since “Big Eyes” (2014), Burton has been drawn to films that meditate on how women dodge manipulative relationships to achieve greatness. 
Unlike the first movie, the sequel makes the afterlife seem more dangerous and not in a live action cartoonish way though “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” still leans towards that aesthetic. For example, Delores (Monica Bellucci) is a soul sucker who can kill people in the afterlife, and her introduction feels like a nightmarish, flipside homage to “The Addams Family” (1991). Without indulging in prose dumping, the story reveals more about Beetlejuice’s origins, the logistics of moving from purgatory to the other side and purgatory’s bureaucracy. While the latter could have been left on the cutting room floor without hurting the story, it provides more comedic relief. Who can say no to a cameo from Danny Devito, who played the Penguin in Burton’s “Batman Returns” (1992), or Willem Dafoe chewing the scenery as deceased actor Wolf Jackson (Willem Dafoe) with his enabling secretary (Georgina Beedle), who is always ready to pass him a paper cup of coffee or offer encouraging words. It is a fun movie without diminishing the dangers of the funhouse underworld. 
Of course, the star of the netherworld is Beetlejuice, who has expanded his business with a crew of shrunken head underlings, which includes his understudy, the somehow adorable Bob-Shrinker (Nick Kellington). Keaton and Burton find new ways to explore the bio exorcist, and Keaton does not appear to have aged a day. This version is less lecherous than the original and more of a family friend who wants to take care of everyone so he can be the one to play with them like puppets. It would not be “Beetlejuice” without great music, and this time both versions of “MacArthur Park” (Richard Harris’s 1968 original and Donna Summer’s 1978 disco cover) eclipse Harry Belafonte’s “Day-O” in Beetlejuice’s bag of tricks. The Mario Bava allusions were brilliant. It was also fun to watch Keaton switch his vocal tone from characteristic Beetlejuice, Keaton’s normal affect then in Spanish.
If “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” is flawed, it will be because the Deetz’s house on the hill no longer has the funky exterior that it did when Delia and Orho (Glenn Shadix) decided to renovate. Otherwise it is a film that contains frights, but is more heartwarming and tender than one would expect. Unless as a rule you hate all sequels, this one will warm your cockles and tickle your funny bone.