Michael Keaton returns, with the same messy green hair, rotten teeth and mischievous streak as before, in Beetlejuice – Beetlejuice.

Parisa Taghizadeh/Warner Bros. Images

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Parisa Taghizadeh/Warner Bros. Images

The mischievous demon known as Beetlejuice has been dead for centuries, but he has enjoyed quite a long life in pop culture. Tim Burton’s hit film spawned a trippy animated series that I happily devoured as a child in the late ’80s, and more recently a Beetlejuice stage musical that is currently touring the US. Still, I wasn’t yearning for a sequel to the Burton film, which might have turned out to be just another fan-pleasing, nostalgic cash-in.

Fortunately, there is no hint of cynicism. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Burton shows real affection for the characters of the first film and is genuinely curious about how they are doing three decades later. Winona Ryder is back as Lydia Deetz, who escaped the clutches of Beetlejuice as a teenager; now she’s a paranormal expert with her own talk show.

Lydia has long since buried the hatchet with her stepmother Delia, the great Catherine O’Hara. But she has a harder time with her own teenage daughter Astrid. This is Jenna Ortega from the series. Wednesdaywhose creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar wrote this film.

When Lydia’s father suddenly dies, the family gathers for the funeral at their old house in Connecticut. Here, Lydia inadvertently summons Beetlejuice, partly because of her sleazy fiancé, played by Justin Theroux. And suddenly Beetlejuice is back – played by Michael Keaton with the same messy green hair, rotten teeth and mischievous streak as before.

Lydia eventually teams up with Beetlejuice and asks him for help after Astrid falls into a trap and is sucked into the underworld. But Beetlejuice has his own troubles. Centuries ago, when he was still alive, he married a woman named Delores, played by the witchy Monica Bellucci. Things didn’t end well, and now Delores is back and haunting him.

It’s a silly twist and a fairly inconsequential part of the loose, anything-goes plot. But that looseness is part of the film’s charm. Like its predecessor Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is essentially a supernatural screwball romantic comedy in which marriage is never a matter of “till death do us part.” The film takes a refreshingly unsentimental approach to love, whether Astrid is being duped by a teenage crush or Lydia is being courted by not one but two shady suitors.

Beetlejuice is less of a villain this time, but he is played by a fast-talking, shape-shifting Keaton, but is still a pain in the ass. He hasn’t really changed in the last 30 years; in the afterlife, that’s a drop in the ocean. But the living characters have changed, in interesting ways. Delia, no longer just a sculptor but a multimedia artist, is gentler than before, although O’Hara gives her a touch of madness, perhaps by bringing her Moira Rose from Schitt’s Creek. Lydia, who played Ryder with such moody self-control in the first film, is now a bundle of nerves, determined to save her daughter and their relationship at any cost.

At a certain point, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice becomes a kind of hellish farce, with doors slamming and several characters hurtling through portals between the realms of the living and the dead. But while the film can be distractingly hectic, it never feels rushed or exhausting.

The underworld production design is enchantingly dark, and some of the visual gags – like when a dismembered corpse is put back together with the help of a stapler – are as exquisite as they are gruesome. And despite all the cutting-edge technology, the film maintains a handcrafted look that seems rooted in the original.

The result may not reach the darkly comic heights of the first film, but Burton seems more interested in updating than repeating his previous achievements. There is one scene, however – a beautiful choral performance of Harry Belafonte’s calypso classic “Day-O” – that nicely recalls the first film’s most memorable moment. It was enough to make me imagine the late, great Belafonte himself hanging out with the various misshapen denizens of this fantasy afterlife – and, to his surprise and mine, having a remarkably good time.