Title: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024) Director: Tim Burton Rating: PG-13 Genre: Horror/Comedy Duration: 1hr 44mins Stars: Michael Keaton ∙ Winona Ryder ∙ Catherine O’Hara ∙ Jenna Ortega After the passing of Lydia Deetz’s (Winona Ryder) father, three generations of the Deetz family return home to Winter River. Things take a turn for the worst when, Lydia’s teenage daughter, Astrid Deetz (Jenna Ortega) accidently discovers the portal to the afterlife. Faced with no choice, Lydia must summon the one person for help that’s been haunting her for so long – Beetleguese (Michael Keaton). Tim Burton once again delivers with his signature style, artfully blending gothic horror and whimsical fantasy. Complete with low lighting, impeccable song choices, CGI, and eccentric costumes and makeup, the Beetlejuice sequel like other Tim Burton movies is weird, wacky and wonderfully entertaining. The sequel no different from the first movie, requires parental guidance as certain scenes contain sexual innuendos, mild adult jokes, references to the occult as well as blood and gore. Themes of grief, death and family are prevalent throughout the film. In the movie, all three Deetz process grief over the loss of family members differently. Lydia Deetz whose ex-partner passed away, took steps to recover by going to a therapy camp and eventually meeting her fiancé. Astrid Deetz, takes out her anger on her mother Lydia, while Delia Deetz uses her husband, Charles Deetz’s death as inspiration for her next art piece. Exposition was long and tedious due to multiple characters being the focus. Even though Lydia Deetz is one of the main characters, her story is rather bland and only gets interesting once it intersects with another character’s. For instance, after Astrid enters the afterlife, this prompts Lydia to make a risky decision to summon Beetleguese – a decision which almost costs Lydia her own life. Additionally, there’s the subplot of Beetleguese’s ex-wife seeking to reunite with Beetleguese in the afterlife, which despite being successfully woven into the main plot of the story drags on the exposition making it almost skip worthy. It is unlikely that Tim Burton wanted Beetlejuice Beetlejuice to become a box office hit, but indeed it has become that thanks to his directing and the nostalgia that comes from seeing past films. I’d recommend it for all Tim Burton fans except for young children due to the nature of the material.