“Come in…if you dare.”

Story: It’s been 36 years after Lydia Deetz managed to avoid marrying The Ghost With The Most, and while some things have changed, others haven’t. Delia, Lydia, and Lydia’s daughter Astrid, go back to the old homestead after patriarch Charles’s death, and that miniature town is still in the attic. I’m sure that no matter how crazy things seem, nobody’s actually gonna fall for the whole three-times thing again. Right? Sure.

Genre I’d put it in: Busy But Appealing Sequels
Release Date: 2024
Remake, Sequel, Based-On, or Original: Sequel to 1988’s Beetlejuice.

Gotta say: Sequels decades after the OG can be considered disappointing (see: Zoolander 2, TRON Legacy) or flat-out amazing (see: Mad Max: Fury Road, Top Gun: Maverick). BB floats somewhere in-between. There’s a whole lot to love in this lovingly devoted sequel, but there’s also a lot, period.

This is a different plot to the original film, so the overall vibe of the film will also be different. In the OG, we got a couple trying to save their house from “outsiders”, a family trying to find their footing in a new place, and that pesky bio-Exorcist wreaking havoc. In BB, every main character from the original gets their own story, as does Lydia’s daughter Astrid. Plus? There’s Beetlejuice’s ex, an afterlife detective who longs for his glory days, Lydia’s new boyfriend… It’s a cramped, crowded story with so many subplots it took me a while to realize a few of them never really wrapped up.

Thankfully, the cast is up to the task of letting the craziness lead them around. Helps when you’ve got a group of performers this freaking talented. Seeing Keaton don the greasepaint again is worth the price of admission right there, but his absolute glee at getting to inhabit Beetlejuice a second time is magic. Felt like no time had passed. Meanwhile, Wynona Ryder’s Lydia gets a believable age-up, as a streaming service psychic that’s kinda sick of her job, and definitely sick of still seeing ghosts. It’s a performance that’s almost too good for the likes of a mere sequel. Then again, I can wax poetic about everyone in the film. See my earlier schmooze about how talented they all are.

Oh yeah. In case you were wondering? Despite creators saying that Jeffrey Jones would not be reprising his role of family patriarch Charles Deetz, the character does have a subplot. A claymation scene describing his death, using a likeness of Jones, which subs in for the actor. There’s also a (delightfully gory) post-death Charles wandering around the Afterlife, and whoever voices Charles did a good job echoing the disgraced performer.

Fan service is done reasonably well, though a few hark-back scenes overstay their welcome and could have used a more ruthless edit. But BB adds a few new tidbits that may well become future favorites, like Delia’s new art exhibit (complete with Schitt’s Creek reference), a house shroud, and a few new costumes you’ll probably see this Halloween.

My quibbles feel like toddler pouts compared to the glorious insanity of the overall film, but I do have a few that I’ve touched on, but will further flap my gums keyboard about. With so, so many subplots, there were bound to be a few that slipped through the cracks. One I’d have liked to have seen resolved was why Lydia couldn’t see her hubby who’d passed away years prior. That hiccup in her abilities was never explained, even though it’s a major bone of contention between Lydia and Astrid.

As far as the overlong scenes? The wedding song – a homage to the banana song scene in the original – was not only too long, but strangely off-key with the overall feel of the scene. Like, why use that song? That choice felt rather tacked on, and Burton is typically better than that. Don’t get me started on Beetlejuice’s first wife, which is a subplot that could have been completely cut from the film with no effect on the story. It’s insulting to Monica Bellucci, and wastes her talent. That said, she is absolutely kickass when she’s onscreen. An entire other film could have been made focusing on this subplot, but instead it barely gets screen time.

Let me end this with a couple of things I absolutely adored. Anything and everything with Bob, our favorite shrunken head ghost, is adorable. He’s the Beaker to Beetlejuice’s Professor Honeydew, and Bob is a precious, perfect thing. Then there’s the way the spirits go off to their afterlife after being ghostly. It’s called the Soul Train, and if you dig it? It’s exactly what you think it is, and it’s glorious. Oh, and keep an eye out for a few cameos you’ll be glad to see.

Yep, you got a third thing I liked as a bonus. It’s only fair. BB has much more to enjoy than nitpick, and does a wonderful job re-introducing us to these kooky characters.

#Protip: If you pay close attention to the miniature town during the opening credits, you’ll see wee versions of the Maitlands. They’re near the house they loved so much.