The leaves are beginning to fall, and the air is turning cool. Spooky decorations cover each house in the neighborhood. Families gather around their living rooms to watch the sequel to one of their favorite classic Halloween movies, but they are faced with a moronic and dishonoring film that gives no justice to their beloved original.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a film that caused heavy controversy and received mostly mediocre reviews. Rotten Tomatoes gathered 352 reviews that rated the film 77% on their Tomatometer, which means these viewers thought the movie was unpleasant. IMDb assembled over 1000 reviews that collectively rated this movie 6.9/10. Metacritic collected 61 reviews that, on average, granted this film a 62% favorable rating. Overall, this film is a blatant disrespect to the franchise, lacking any potential it could have had.
This film had high expectations when it came to acting. These expectations were seemingly disregarded as a whole. Quite frankly, the acting was horridly absurd. Most of the actors’ performances were cheap and perfunctory. Michael Keaton (Beetlejuice) and Jenna Ortega (Astrid) were the only faces that appeared committed to their roles, and even then, Keaton was not performing his best. When compared to the first movie, Keaton’s acting lacked the captivating and cynical qualities that fans associate with Beetlejuice. Furthermore, Winona Ryder (Lydia) gave a surprisingly superficial and careless performance. Considering her skill and capability that is clearly shown in pieces like Edward Scissorhands (1990), Stranger Things (since 2016) and Girl Interrupted (1999), it is obvious that Ryder was not showing her full potential and talent. The acting ultimately looked rushed and negligent, which made the film very disappointing to fans.
Tim Burton is a renowned American film animator and director who has created many notable films, including The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Edward Scissorhands (1990) and Alice in Wonderland (2010). He is known for his incorporation of gothic horror into fantasy films, evolving the use of goth culture in the film industry. For years, many audiences have loved Burton’s approach to his motion pictures, even labeling them as “comfort movies.” While he did include his usual quirky characters and extensive imagination in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Tim Burton abandoned many aspects of his beloved style, which makes this film comparatively unlikable. The piece was not nearly as unique and creative as his previous works. In fact, many viewers say that they predicted a fair amount of the intended plot twists.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was edited by Jay Prychidny, an award-winning producer and picture editor known for his work in horror films such as Scream VI (2023), Wednesday (2022) and Snowpiercer (2020-2024). While most of his editing is viewed as distinguished, this film was not nearly his best work. The film contained excessively poor graphics that made sequences genuinely laughable. Although the contributors did this purposefully, they did not achieve their goal in doing this. The original Beetlejuice had poor graphics for many reasons, mostly due to the time period, surreal atmosphere and quirky nature of the film. The goal that editors had in continuing these insufficient graphics for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was to maintain the quality of the original film, however this only made it more difficult for viewers to take the film seriously. Instead, contributors should have either used the same techniques in order to effectively replicate the original, or revolutionize the graphics so that fans could experience the classic film in a realistic atmosphere.
Though many fans of the original were pleased with the sequel’s hair and makeup, this was also done inefficiently. Similarly, the makeup was intentionally done in an unprofessional manner to duplicate the qualities of the original, but this only allowed the film to appear as frivolous and dull. Furthermore, Lydia’s (Ryder) hair was also an exact replica of the original, but this approach of recreation simply looked forced, illegitimate and unrealistic. All of these aspects played a significant role in the flaws of the piece.
Many classic fall films, like Hocus Pocus (1993), The Addams Family (1991) and Halloweentown (1998), combine a sense of dark film with orange and brown cinematography. The original Beetlejuice is no different. Dark film refers to a visual style of shadows and dim lighting that offers the piece a gloomy tone. Orange and brown are colors that are commonly correlated with autumn. When combining these colors in a film’s cinematography, it provides a sense of warmth and creates a connection to the fall season. This strategy has been beloved by many viewers for ages. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice completely abandoned this approach, causing any eerie and comforting tones of the film to be drowned out by the bright lighting and modern cinematography. This strips the piece of the magic that the original possesses.
All of the cinematic changes to the sequel can be traced back to one significant change in the production process: an entirely different cinematographer. The cinematographer of the original Beetlejuice was Thomas E. Ackerman, known for his work in Frankenweenie (1984) and Infestation (2009). Ackerman has 50 years of experience in the film industry, and he is now a professor at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts School of Filmmaking. Instead of having Ackerman return for the sequel, the film brought in a modern cinematographer, Haris Zambarloukos. Zambarloukos is known for his work in Belfast (2021) and Locke (2013). While Zambarloukos has created some impressive work, he usually constructs modern films, which likely explains the contemporary and ordinary style of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
The storyline of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice made the film look hurried and cluttered. There were many different plotlines that were implied as having some importance, but ultimately did not play a significant role in the film. An example of this was Jeremy Frazier, a character who was suggested to be Astrid’s love interest, but was cut off very early on. Frazier’s story should have consisted of more depth and contribution to the overall plot. Additionally, there were too many large storylines happening at once. With Lydia’s engagement, Astrid’s danger, Beetlejuice’s ex-wife and the reoccurring cop of the afterlife, the plot became rather confusing, clustered and hard to follow.
Many flaws of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice can be identified when it is compared to the original. While the original contained some humor, it was primarily a mysterious and suspenseful plot that kept the audience on edge. This is not the case for the sequel, which is almost completely filled with humor and lacks any seriousness entirely. There were also many inconsistencies with the plot as compared to the original. At the end of Beetlejuice, Keaton’s character got into an argument with a man in the waiting room, which resulted in his head being shrunk. In the sequel, it is never explained how Beetlejuice returned to his normal form.
Furthermore, Adam and Barbara, two of the main characters of the original, are not included in the sequel whatsoever. When Lydia explains this, she simply says that they “found a loophole and moved on.” This makes absolutely no sense compared to the original because not only did the couple spend the entire film trying to find a way out of that house, but a character in that piece even explained that they would spend 125 years on Earth, in their house. Even if they had found a loophole, for argument’s sake, Adam and Barbara had said they wanted to be with Lydia, even developing a family dynamic and connection by the end of the film. Since this relationship was established by the end of the original, it would make no sense for the couple to simply leave upon finding a loophole. Overall, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice had an inadequate storyline that lacked any depth, sense or sincerity.
Ultimately, this film gave no justice to the original. If this piece had not been the sequel to such an iconic movie, it might even be tolerable, but the expectations and legacy that it had made this film decidedly unappealing. If one is going to produce a sequel of a beloved cinematic piece that many audiences are connected to, they must be prepared and able to produce the same magic. In the grand scheme of things, the film industry needs to stop making sequels of movies that had a resolved ending.
