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“The afterlife is so random,” Jenna Ortega’s stroppy teen Astrid sighs midway through Tim Burton’s long-awaited Beetlejuice sequel. She could say the same about the movie she’s in. This 36-years-in-the-making follow-up – which is premiering out of competition at the Venice Film Festival – is scattershot work. There are wonderful gags and some enjoyably grotesque clowning from star Michael Keaton, while Burton’s visual inventiveness hasn’t deserted him. But his ability to tell a coherent story is very much in doubt.
Several different storylines overlap here. The Deetz family, haunted by ghosts in the first film after they move into an enormous home in Connecticut, have reunited for the funeral of their patriarch, who’s apparently been eaten by a shark while on a birdwatching expedition.
Formerly rebellious teen Lydia (Winona Ryder) is now the insecure, pill-popping host of a TV show about the supernatural, a gig inspired by her ability to see ghouls. Her stepmother Delia (Catherine O’Hara) remains a pretentious conceptual artist. Her daughter Astrid, meanwhile, is a schoolgirl at a posh boarding school where she is horribly bullied. Lydia is also being preyed upon by her sleazy business manager Rory (Justin Theroux), who is trying to push her into marriage.
Meanwhile, in the afterlife, Keaton’s predatory Betelgeuse – think an inverse exorcist, who can be hired by ghosts to expel humans from their abodes – is being relentlessly pursued by his vengeful ex-wife, the Morticia Addams-like Delores (Monica Bellucci), who wants to steal his soul. Delores is herself being hunted by Willem Dafoe’s Wolf Jackson, a deceased action star turned ghost detective.
The same rules apply as in the first film. If you say “Beetlejuice” three times, he’ll instantly appear to create mischief. After her experiences last time round, Lydia is desperate to avoid him at all costs – but with Astrid in mortal danger, she has no choice but to sign her own diabolical contract with him.
You could claw together some brilliant short films from the best sequences here. At one stage, Burton throws in a burst of stop-motion animation. A black-and-white sequence pastiches the work of Italian horror maestro Mario Bava. (Disconcertingly, the characters actually start, at this point, to speak in Italian.) A very vicious baby Betelgeuse puts in an appearance, as does a terrified little dog called Taco. There are some extremely gory effects shots, too. (If someone in therapy is asked to spill their guts, that is exactly what they will do – their intestines are left in a steaming heap in the corner.)
Production and costume design are stellar, but the film’s script – credited to Alfred Gough and Miles Millar – is uneven. At points, the anarchic comedy gives way to surprisingly clunky sentimentality, while the acting sometimes leaves much to be desired. Bellucci makes a tremendous entrance, stitching and stapling her own chopped-up body back together again, while Danny DeVito has a memorable cameo as a grumpy, racist dead janitor who complains about the number of foreigners in hell. Ortega, though – reuniting with Burton after his work on her Netflix series Wednesday – gives a relatively conventional and restrained performance as the stock moody daughter. Next to the vomiting, gurning, maniacally grinning Keaton, she can’t help but seem a little bland and strait-laced.
The filmmakers also seem to be working on the basis that everyone has seen the original. But that’s a dangerous assumption, given how long it’s been between the two films. Newcomers may well be baffled by some of the goings-on here. This isn’t a smooth ride at all.
Dir: Tim Burton. Starring: Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Jenna Ortega, Catherine O’Hara, Monica Bellucci, Justin Theroux, Willem Dafoe. 12A, 105 mins.
‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ is in cinemas from 6 September
