Warning: This post contains some spoilers for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
After almost 36 years Beetlejuice Beetlejuicethe long-awaited sequel to Tim Burton’s spectacular 1988 horror classic, has finally hit theaters. And with the film receiving generally positive reviews and reportedly grossing $80 million at the domestic box office, Beetlejuice himself would say: “It’s showtime!”
The second scene takes place at about the same time in the world of the film. Beetlejuice follows middle-aged Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder), now hosting her own paranormal reality TV series, as she returns to Winter River following the gruesome death of her father, Charles Deetz, on an exotic bird-watching expedition. (Charles appears in the afterlife only as a blood-spurting, headless body, the film’s obvious solution to original actor Jeffrey Jones’s 2003 conviction as a sex offender.)
Lydia is accompanied to her former stomping grounds in Connecticut by her effusively narcissistic stepmother Delia (Catherine O’Hara), her disillusioned teenage daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega), and her manipulative boyfriend Rory (Justin Theroux), whom Lydia met at a grief support group she began attending after the death of Astrid’s father Richard (Santiago Cabrera). While Astrid believes her mother’s psychic abilities are a hoax, as Lydia is unable to communicate with Richard—the only ghost Astrid wants to speak to—Lydia has once again begun catching glimpses of Michael Keaton’s titular bio-exorcist, a harbinger of spooky things to come at the old Maitland house.
How Beetlejuice returns
While the recently deceased couple Adam (Alec Baldwin) and Barbara Maitland (Geena Davis) ultimately succeeded in banishing Beetlejuice after unwisely calling him to do the dirty work and drive the Deetz family out of their home in the first film, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice reveals that the undead bogeyman has been waiting for his right moment in the underworld ever since.
When the Deetz women arrive at the Winter River house, Lydia explains to Astrid that the Maitlands are no longer there because “they found a gap and moved on to the next level” – a development that Astrid describes as “convenient.” However, Burton said People that the absence of Baldwin and Davis in the film was more a result of his unwillingness to “just check any boxes.”
“Even though they were such an amazing integral part of the first one,” he said, “I’ve been focusing on something else.”
Meanwhile, Beetlejuice has once again plotted to return to the world of the living by renewing his marriage bond with Lydia – who narrowly escaped his clutches in the original film. Things come to a head when Astrid finds herself in a life-threatening situation and Lydia is forced to say Beetlejuice’s name three times to ask for his help in rescuing Astrid from the afterlife. Beetlejuice, of course, agrees, in exchange for another promise of marital torment.
Further references to the original
Despite the time jump Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a fairly direct sequel to the first film, and pays tribute to its predecessor in many ways – from including a few different renditions of Harry Belafonte’s iconic song “Banana Boat (Day-O)” to the reappearance of the black and white striped sandworms.
The film also solves a mystery from the first film by expanding the backstory of Beetlejuice’s ex-wife, who we learn is a soul-sucking demon named Delores (played by a cleverly thrown-together Monica Bellucci).
“For me, Delores is interesting because she has a duality. She’s scary but she’s also funny, and she’s a metaphor for life,” Bellucci told ABC News of her character. “We all have emotional scars, and she’s full of scars, but she’s strong.”
