While I haven’t actually seen the original Beetlejuice, I knew enough about the movie to decide I was interested enough to watch the sequel now that it’s out. And I have to say that I really did enjoy this movie, for all it was extremely over the top and quite gross and even disturbing in places.
I really liked the relationship between Lydia and her daughter, Astrid, and how it seemed to mirror Lydia’s own relationship with her stepmother growing up. I really like Jenna Ortega as an actress, thanks to the latest Scream movies and Wednesday, and I thought she was really good in this movie. I was able to empathise with her conflicted relationship with her mother…and it was interesting that Astrid didn’t believe in Lydia’s ability, given that her mother was so famous for her abilities. I will say that, at the beginning of the movie, I wasn’t sure if Lydia’s abilities were actually real or not…at least until she saw the ghost in the women’s bathroom, who I would have liked to know a bit more about.
I liked the buildup to Beetlejuice being summoned, although I’m not sure if I was misunderstanding the rules of the whole thing, as he kept appearing to Lydia even before being summoned. Maybe he wasn’t able to actually manipulate the world of the living until his name was spoken three times, though?
I think Michael Keaton does a really good job of portraying Beetlejuice, though it completely threw me when the movie suddenly turned into a foreign language film (complete with subtitles) as he proceeded to reveal his history with Delores. I will say that was certainly an…interesting way of showing their history, and I guess it fit in with the weird feel of the whole movie, but even so.
I liked seeing the absolute chaos that the afterlife was, as I felt that was a really creative part of this movie. I also really loved the music sequence with the Soul Train to the Great Beyond…and that scene in particular felt very tense. I also really liked Wolf’s character, even though he was just an actor who’d died while filming his role of a policeman. Was it a bit over the top? Yeah, though I get the feeling that’s how it’s supposed to be. But I was able to follow the movie pretty well, even without having seen the original, and I thought it was a lot of fun.
If you enjoyed watching the first Beetlejuice movie, I would definitely recommend watching this one. Even if you haven’t, but this genre is still one you’d watch, I would definitely recommend giving this one a try.
Ink of Blood 