Beetlejuice has always been an enigma to me. If I had to mention it, I would credit its success to Harry Belafonte because the popularity that this weird film from a decade of excess films achieved is due to the iconic dinner scene and the lip sync of the enchanted guests dancing and singing Day-O. Of course, TODAY several other elements are factors in its success, but anyone from Generation X will say that Beetlejuice brings together “Winona Ryder and the dinner scene”, which at first is not encouraging, do you agree? And yet, Beetlejuice is in the pantheon of classics, earning a sequel 36 years after the original. Why?

Legend has it that the studios reacted somewhat like my previous paragraph when they received the script’s first draft, which was a hybrid of horror and comedy. And yes, they thought the proposal was crap. They (and I, of course) were wrong because 1988 Beetlejuice was one of the biggest box office hits of the year. Even though I maintain my conviction that Belafonte contributed 90% to this success, after the release Tim Burton became a reference director, with Winona, who was already rising as a star, his muse (her boyfriend at the time, Johnny Depp, later took over as Tim Burton‘s “muse”, but that’s another story).

Looking back, it’s hard to imagine who would refuse Burton’s investment in a story with such a unique plot and visuals, after all, it’s part of his signature. Beetlejuice won the Oscar for makeup that year and became a kind of Rocky Horror Show (with nighttime screenings including costumed people in the audience), became an animated series, gained a line of dolls, is a classic Halloween costume, and even became a Broadway musical. Getting a sequel in theaters was just a logical step, even if it took a while.

In the original, Adam and Barbara Maitland (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) die in an accident but do not want to leave their house and begin to haunt it so that no living person can occupy it again. When they finally run into the Deetz family (Catherine O’Hara, Jeffrey Jones, and Ryder), the living are determined not only to keep the property, but to change it as well, the good-hearted ghost duo (who connects with the melancholic and “strange” teenager played by Winona Ryder) has no choice but to call on the services of a disgusting, irritating, evil, but effective ghost: Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton). They soon regret it, but preventing the evil ghost’s true plans (to marry the teenager and return to the world of the living) turns into an unexpectedly and visually bizarre adventure.

The strangest side of Beetlejuice is the uncertainty of its gender. Michael McDowell’s original script emphasized horror, with Beetlejuice being purely evil and out to kill the Deetzes. Everything that’s “funny” now (the Maitlands’ death, the bewitching dinner) was supposed to be violent and graphic, only toned down by Walter Skaaren’s revision. However, for director Tim Burton, a former Disney animator and clearly a creative and visually distinct artist, the story’s dark side was perfection waiting to be seen. As he explained, in his view, Beetlejuice’s metaphor is perfect (seriously?) because “[In life], there’s nothing that’s just funny, just dramatic, or just scary. It’s all mixed together,” he explained at the time. If he says so…

Continuing with the nostalgia behind the scenes, curiously the biggest star of the time, Geena Davis (who would win an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for The Accidental Tourist the year after Beetlejuice) was the first to buy Tim Burton’s proposal, Catherine O’Hara and Winona Ryder were more evasive about this “fun” tale about death. Eventually, they agreed. All that was left was to cast the title character.

Today it is impossible to separate the irritating Beetlejuice from the actor Michael Keaton, but he was not the first choice. Burton wanted Sammy Davis Jr., but the studios were against it. Keaton, 35 at the time, was not a top-tier Hollywood film and his films were average at best, but when the director met him, he saw something visually advantageous without his “bulging eyes”. And no, even though he was not a star, Keaton did not immediately agree to join the team. He, like many others, did not understand the script’s proposal and initially turned down the project, needing to go through a lot of convincing before accepting.

Michael Keaton‘s entry brought Beetlejuice to life (pun intended) because his creative spirit (again!) includes a willingness to improvise and the result is that his annoying ghost talks so much that no one can tell what was written and what he invented when the camera was rolling. Although he is the title character, Beetlejuice only appears in the final stage of the story, another “innovation” in the script.

The proposal to make Death Jokes is definitely macabre, but thanks to Tim Burton‘s work, it is also an undeniably unique film. Of course, more significantly for me, who collects soundtracks, Beetlejuice marks the beginning of the director’s partnership with Danny Elfman, which is an immediate classic in my book. It was necessary to mention this fact, of course. And with the mega success of the work, Tim Burton became a reference in Hollywood, with everyone moving on.

But since in Hollywood, everything is remade multiple times, bringing Beetlejuice back to the world of the living was only a matter of time. The discussion spanned decades and with the nostalgic wave of the late 80s, including the rescue of Winona Ryder‘s success (thanks to Stranger Things) and Keaton’s prestige, someone repeated the magic words to launch the sequel. The two agreed to return and this is clearly the attraction of the new film.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is showing and pleasing a new generation. Even though she’s now an adult, Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) still looks like a teenager and is a celebrity “psychic,” famous for hosting a real-life haunting show, Ghost House. She has a strange boyfriend (Justin Theroux), still clashes with her stepmother, Delia (Catherine O’Hara), deals with the morbidity of her rebellious daughter, Astrid (Jenna Ortega, star of Wednesday), and everyone is taken back to the haunted mansion when a family tragedy brings them together again.

That was all the persistent Beetlejuice needed to once again try to get out of the underworld and finally marry Lydia. This time, he also has to deal with an ex (a role created for Burton’s current wife, actress Monica Bellucci) who wants to stop the union. And the one helping Lydia now is another ghost played by Willem Dafoe. (For obvious reasons, Alec Baldwin was left out, as he was dealing with the lawsuit over the accidental death of the director of photography for the film Rust.)

Critics were lukewarm about the new film. There are repetitions of situations that don’t always work (Belafonte’s connection to the story is not the same as that of the Bee Gees or Donna Summer), but, as they joke (another intentional pun): it may not be the same cult classic, but “the ghosts have fun.” The film is already showing in theaters.

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