Film Review

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024) — blockbuster sequel succeeds with macabre, morbid glee

Still haunted by Betelgeuse, Lydia Deetz’s rebellious teenage daughter accidentally opens a portal to the afterlife.

Are you troubled by the living? Are you having trouble adjusting to the afterlife, with the oppressive weight of eternity bearing down upon your mortal shoulders? Then you should call Betelgeuse! Again!

The infamous bio-exorcist is back, 37 years after his first incarnation. When Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) receives a phone call from her stepmother Delia (Catherine O’Hara), informing her that her father was killed in a terrible plane-crash-shark-attack accident, she’s distraught. Together with Delia, her manager Rory (Justin Theroux), and her estranged daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega), she drives back to their old house in Winter River. Before long, strange things begin to happen, and an old nemesis who goes by the name of Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton) seems to be nearby…

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice may well be Tim Burton’s most entertaining film in 20…