Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a 2024 American dark fantasy comedy horror film directed by Tim Burton from a screenplay by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar. A sequel to Beetlejuice (1988) and the second film of the Beetlejuice franchise, the film stars Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, and Catherine O'Hara reprising their roles alongside new cast members Justin Theroux, Monica Bellucci, Jenna Ortega, and Willem Dafoe. Set more than three decades after the first Beetlejuice, it follows Lydia Deetz, now a mother, struggling to keep her family together in the wake of a loss as the specter Betelgeuse[a] returns to haunt her.
After the success of Beetlejuice, plans for a sequel were announced by The Geffen Film Company, its original producers. Little materialized until 2011 when Warner Bros. Pictures hired Seth Grahame-Smith to pitch a story, which went through numerous revisions before being shelved in late 2019. Plans for a sequel were revived in early 2022, with Burton set to co-produce with Brad Pitt's studio Plan B Entertainment. After the casting process finished in early 2023, principal photography, supervised by cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos, took place in parts of England and the U.S. from May to November, despite being suspended for four months due to the 2023 actors' strike. The official title was revealed in February 2024. During post-production, editing was handled by Jay Prychidny and the musical score was composed by longtime Burton collaborator Danny Elfman.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice opened the 81st Venice International Film Festival on August 28, 2024,[6] and was theatrically released overseas on September 4, 2024, and in the United States by Warner Bros. Pictures two days later. The film has received generally positive reviews from critics and has grossed $376 million worldwide against an estimated $100 million budget.
Plot
[edit]In 2024, Lydia Deetz hosts the supernatural TV talk show, Ghost House. She has been estranged from her daughter, Astrid, since Lydia's former husband and Astrid's father, Richard, died while in the Amazon. While taping an episode, Lydia hallucinates seeing Betelgeuse, the ghost who tried to marry her thirty-six years earlier,[b] in the audience.
Shortly after, Lydia's stepmother, Delia, informs Lydia that her father, Charles, has died in a gruesome accident. They and Astrid travel to Winter River, Connecticut, for Charles' funeral. At the wake, Rory, Lydia's boyfriend and producer, pressures her to marry him on Halloween; she hesitantly agrees. Meanwhile, Astrid meets a local boy named Jeremy Frazier, who invites her to spend Halloween with him.
In the afterlife, Betelgeuse oversees an office of "bio-exorcists", assisted by Bob, an anxious shrunken-head ghost. Betelgeuse still lusts for Lydia. Former actor-turned-ghost detective Wolf Jackson warns Betelgeuse that his former wife, Delores, has escaped captivity and gone on a murderous spree, draining the souls of the dead in search of him. Betelgeuse met her during the Black Plague in Italy, but Delores was a cult member who poisoned him as part of an immortality ritual; he murdered her before he succumbed.
Astrid discovers she has inherited her mother's psychic abilities and realizes Jeremy is a ghost; he asks her to accompany him to the afterlife to help regain his life. In exchange, she can meet her father's spirit. Meanwhile, Lydia learns from a realtor that Jeremy murdered his parents twenty-three years earlier, and died when the police tried to arrest him. Lydia reluctantly summons Betelgeuse and signs a marriage contract in exchange for him taking her to the afterlife to save Astrid. Betelgeuse blows open a hole between the Living and the Dead, allowing his staff to escape into the mortal world; he disguises Bob as himself as a decoy. Wolf discovers Betelgeuse has brought a living person into the afterlife and launches a manhunt for him, capturing the disguised Bob. Delores happens upon Bob at the police station while continuing her search for Betelgeuse, and she drains Bob’s soul.
As Betelgeuse and Lydia search for Astrid, Jeremy escorts her through the afterlife's bureaucracy. He admits tricking Astrid into exchanging her life for his. Astrid is taken to the "Soul Train" to be sent to the Great Beyond, but her father, Richard, spots and follows her. Lydia pulls Astrid off the Soul Train. They escape through a portal to Saturn's moon Titan, where Richard saves them from a sandworm. While Betelgeuse sends Jeremy to Hell, Richard shows Lydia and Astrid how to return to the living world. Meanwhile, during a mourning ceremony for Charles, Delia is bitten by two venomous asps that she was assured were defanged. She arrives in the afterlife and summons Betelgeuse to help find Charles; he agrees if Delia will help him find Lydia.
Lydia and Astrid arrive at the church for Lydia and Rory's wedding. Betelgeuse appears with Delia and interrupts the ceremony. Betelgeuse uses a "truth serum" that forces Rory to admit he is using Lydia for her money. Betelgeuse prepares to marry her when Delores arrives seeking revenge. Wolf arrives but Betelgeuse freezes him and his comrades to avoid arrest and continue the wedding. Astrid opens a portal to summon the sandworm from Titan and Betelgeuse leads it to devour Delores and Rory. However, Astrid reveals that because Betelgeuse illegally brought Lydia into the afterlife, their marriage contract is void. Lydia recites Betelgeuse's name three times and banishes him back to the afterlife. Delia returns to the afterlife with Wolf. She is reunited with Charles' spirit as he is about to board the Soul Train to the Great Beyond.
As everything returns to normal, Lydia ends her Ghost House show to spend more time with Astrid. Lydia has recurring nightmares about Betelgeuse, including a dream where Astrid gives birth to Betelgeuse's child.
Cast
[edit]
- Michael Keaton as Betelgeuse (pronounced "Beetlejuice"), an afterlife ghost and "bio-exor