Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

Front Row at the Movies by Shirrel Rhoades

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Many people know I’m a big fan of director Tim Burton’s wonky sense of the macabre. I’ve followed his unique filmmaking since his “Frankenweenie,” the short black-and-white parody about a dead dog that supposedly got him fired as a Disney animator.

Burton has returned to spooky themes time and again – “Edward Scissorhands,” “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “The Corpse Bride,” and “Beetlejuice” to name a few.

“Beetlejuice” (1988) was great fun, an introduction to an otherworldly green-haired ghoul named Betelgeuse (a/k/a Beetlejuice).

The plot revolves around a recently deceased couple who hire a freelance “bio-exorcist” to frighten away the new inhabitants of their old home, which they are required to haunt for the next 125 years.

Sammy Davis Jr. was Tim Burton’s first choice to play Beetlejuice, but producer David Geffen opted for Michael Keaton (“Batman,” “Birdman,” “Knox Goes Away”). Ironically, Beetlejuice only appeared for a mere 17 ½ minutes in the entire 92-minute film.

Now, we have “Beetlejuice 2,” more officially titled “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.”

In this new romp, also directed by Tim Burton, we encounter the Deetz family more than three decades later, returning to the home that Beetlejuice had chased them out of. The dad has passed away, but we still have Delia Deetz (Catherine O’Hare reprising her role from the original film) and her now-grown daughter Lydia (Winona Ryder again) and Lydia’s rebellious teenage daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega of “Wednesday” fame).

Needless to say, it’s only a matter of time until someone says Beetlejuice’s name three times and they accidentally open a portal to the Afterlife, releasing the ghoul.

Or, as Beetlejuice puts it: “The juice is loose!”

Rounding out the cast are Justin Theroux, Burn Gorman, and Danny DeVito. Monica Bellucci plays Beetlejuice’s haranguing ex-wife. And Willem Dafoe turns up as a ghost detective, a B-movie action star when he was alive.

Michael Keaton swore this was the only sequel he would be willing to do. He added, “It took a while to get there … but it was more fun than the other one.”

Tim Burton mused, “On this last one, I really enjoyed it. I tried to strip everything and go back to the basics of working with good people and actors and puppets. It was kind of like going back to why I liked making movies.”

Catherine O’Hara said the sequel has both scary and funny moments, just like the original. “And if people don’t like it, then (blank) them.”

I think she meant to say if they don’t like it, they could “go to Hell.”

Or at least, to the Afterlife.

Email Shirrel: srhoades@aol.com