Tim Burton creates another masterpiece with the sequel of his 1988 movie, Beetlejuice. While no sequel could ever top the beautifully crafted original, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice made $264 million globally in box office sales.  

The storyline follows the relationship between the Deetz women more closely. Catherine O’Hara and Winona Ryder reprise their roles as stepmother, Delia Deetz and stepdaughter, Lydia Deetz. Jenna Ortega joins the cast as Lydia’s unusual daughter, Astrid Deetz.  

Lydia becomes famous with her own talk show and helps those who also experienced haunted houses like herself. Delia is a renowned eccentric artist with her own gallery, and Astrid is estranged from her mother and living at a boarding school.  

They all come together when Charles Deetz, Lydia’s father, dies in a horrific accident. The actor, Jeffrey Jones, is never actually shown as he is artistically shown without a head in the afterlife.  

As for the legend himself, Michael Keaton seamlessly goes back into the role of Betelgeuse like no time has passed. He continues to steal the show with his humor and debauchery.  

Betelgeuse has a job in the underworld, surprisingly, being the boss in a call center. Still pining over Lydia after more than 30 years, his afterlife becomes more complicated when he finds out his ex-wife, and the one who killed him, is back and looking for him.  

There are also many new faces in the 2024 film. Monica Bellucci plays Delores, Betelgeuse’s ex-wife; Justin Theroux is Lydia’s fiance, Rory; Willem Dafoe is a dead investigator who was an actor who portrayed a cop before his death; and Arthur Conti, a neighborhood boy who befriends Astrid.  

The addition of these actors came with several different storylines with no clarity of a main plot point and antagonist. Is it the ex-wife who stapled herself together at the start of the film and sucks the soul out the dead? Is it the fiancé who proposed to Lydia at her dad’s funeral? 

Does the terrible, horrible, fear-inducing Betelgeuse come back to cause havoc after his name has been said three times?  

There are many great scenes throughout the film, but all the storylines make it so the movie is rushed and not drawn out as it should have been. It is an easy ending and unsatisfying to the audience.  

And what happened to the Maitlands from the first movie? The plot in the first film made it so they had to stay in the house for 125 years before they could move on. However, there is a comment in which they conveniently found a “loophole” and were able to move on early. Nothing else is said about them.  

Burton makes a comment about how he wanted to start fresh in this film and move on from the Maitland storyline. There is also the question on how to make them look young, since they died at a young age, and 36 years have passed. 

Although nothing could top the original, the sequel is a great film, and everyone should go see it. Let’s hope that it does not take another 36 years before a third movie is released.