Tim Burton Recaptures His Touch With “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice”

For Tim Burton, opening the 81st Venice Film Festival with a work like Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (presented out of competition) undoubtedly has a special meaning. The American director has been present at this prestigious festival on several occasions, always with works linked to the universe of the afterlife: in 1993 with The Nightmare Before Christmas and in 2004 with Corpse Bride, before receiving the Golden Lion for his career in 2007. This time, however, it is not a stop-motion animation film, as in his previous participations, but the second installment of the famous Beetlejuice from 1988, his second feature film, which marked the beginning of a career full of titles that have left a deep mark in the history of fantastic cinema, especially in his first stage.

Winona Ryder and  Michael Keaton in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

The original story from the late eighties narrated the misadventures of an unfortunate couple who, shortly after buying a beautiful house in the American countryside, die in a banal car accident. Turned into ghouls, they must do everything possible to drive away a family of New Yorkers, the Deetzes, who have bought their house, using the exorcist skills of a nasty spirit, Bitelchus, to do so. Finally, they manage to get rid of him thanks to the help of Lydia, the teenage daughter of the new tenants, played by a young Winona Ryder. In this latest installment, the actress returns to her iconic role. The Deetz family is reunited again, and it is again death – in this case, that of Lydia’s character – that brings them back to the old Winter River house. The presence of Bitelchus has not left the life of Lydia, who now devotes herself to a TV show about the afterlife, and her daughter Astrid (played by Jenna Ortega, who shone as Wednesday Addams in the hit Netflix series) will have to face the crazy universe that her mother knows well, even if she doesn’t believe in its existence at first.

Winona Ryder, Justine Theroux, Catherine O’Hara, and Jenna Ortega in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice marks the return to the big screen of one of the most iconic characters in Tim Burton’s universe, thanks also to Michael Keaton‘s unforgettable performance. Fortunately, his return does not disappoint. It is a work of just over an hour and a half that keeps the viewer entertained at all times, with no drops in pace, with a script that follows in an original way the plot line of the first installment, but with an even more critical spirit towards the world of the living, focused mainly on hypocrisy and the overrated cult of ego and individual success. Masterful in this sense is the final scene in the church of Winter River, one of the most brilliant moments of the film. Not everything is perfect -some moments are not entirely successful and somewhat banal-, but this is something that also characterized the first film, without spoiling its overall result.

Monica Bellucci as Dolores in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

What we feared was that, with the advent of digital technology, this new Burton installment might lose the visual charm of the original 1980s film, where its unbridled imagery of the afterlife paid clear homage to the tricks of cinema in its origins, particularly those of Georges Méliès. Fortunately, the American director has maintained, or rather, recovered all his extraordinary visionary talent of yesteryear, achieving a perfect visual continuity with his previous work, remarkable at all times in terms of its imagery, highlighting a particularly successful tribute to the cinema of Mario Bava, much loved by the American director. The filiation with the 1988 work is evident from the beginning, which explicitly quotes how the first *Beetlejuice* opened, even in the typography of the credits, although with an undoubtedly more somber tone (also present in the effective and well-calibrated soundtrack, again by Danny Elfman), which marks, despite the general tone of comedy, the entire feature film.

Jenna Ortega in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

The new story, conceived by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, is more complex than the first film and has a stellar cast, all present on the red carpet in Venice, which enriches the work. Particularly outstanding are the performances of the aforementioned Winona Ryder and Michael Keaton, who are joined by an accurate Jenna Ortega, Monica Bellucci (perfect in the role of the sensual and deadly former wife of Beetlejuice, Dolores), and, above all, an excellent Justin Theroux (very effective in highlighting the sibylline character of Lydia’s fiancé, Rory), along with Catherine O’Hara and Willem Dafoe, who for the first time collaborates with Burton, in a small but very funny role, perfectly suited to the personality of the famous actor, who from next year will be for two years the director of the Venice Theatre Biennale.