Tom Walker
Junior editor
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a dark, funny, and introspective sequel to Beetlejuice that focuses on themes that are simultaneously modern and timeless.
Taking place years after the events of the original film, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice opens with a dark and stormy night backed by spooky music. But the opening isn’t as simple as it may seem. The spooky music that starts the film is non-diegetic or only for the audience. The following shot focuses on Winona Ryder’s Lydia Deetz and the gloomy music is actually the theme to Lydia’s ghost hunting show Ghost House, which she hosts. The storm and spooky music comes off as clichéd, but this enhances the experience of the movie by showing how soulless Lydia’s show really is.
The opening scene establishes both the movie’s major theme and an explanation for the attitude of a major character. Offscreen, Lydia’s husband Richard died in the Amazons and, near the beginning of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Lydia’s father dies in a plane crash. These events and the ones that follow them remind Lydia and the audience that death is inevitable. Despite the horrific deaths that frequently occur, death never seems all that bad. To get to the afterlife, spirits take the Soul Train (which functions like the 70s show of the same name, but with an actual train). In Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, failing to live life is much scarier than death, but this is exactly what Lydia is doing when the film opens. The movie affirms the importance of life’s moments while simultaneously examining the ways in which our desire to maintain appearances squander those important moments.
Most of the film’s commentary focuses on the difference between doing something for itself as opposed to doing it for others. At Lydia’s father’s wake, her boyfriend Rory decides to propose to her. Even though Lydia obviously doesn’t want to get married, she reluctantly accepts to avoid the embarrassment of a failed proposal. All of the pomp and circumstance surrounding Lydia’s wedding undermines the true meaning of the ceremony: true love. After the proposal, Lydia asks for the wedding to be a small and private event, but when she shows up Rory has filled the church with influencers ready to film the event. Later, Rory admits that he never loved Lydia and only wanted her money. Lydia and Rory’s aren’t in love and their marriage is clearly for the eyes of the press. When Beetlejuice arrives at Lydia’s rescue, the influencers are literally sucked into their phones. As fans of the 1988 comedy know well, Beetlejuice looks gross, and he loves gross things, so he makes Lydia’s beautiful white wedding cake overflow with green ooze and gives her a chance to stop the wedding. Beetlejuice is by no means an exemplary person, but he does everything he does for himself and the people he cares about.
Beetlejuice isn’t alive, but he is truly living. Beetlejuice hurts others to achieve what he wants for himself, but he doesn’t live for other people. However, on the other end of the spectrum, Lydia’s mother, Delores, lives only for other people. Near the end of the film, she dies from a poisonous snake bite during a filmed ritual to show her love to her deceased husband. Delores dies while living for others. Lydia’s lesson is to synthesize the view of Delores and Beetlejuice. While both views are problematic, neither are without merit. In the end, Lydia lives for herself but still cares for those around her like her daughter.
While the prevalence of phones, social media, and show business might make Beetlejuice Beetlejuice sound like a preachy movie made by an old, washed-up director shaking his fist at the world, this movie comes off as just the opposite. All of the messages about the dangers of social media and public perception are hidden under a fun and gross romp that never takes itself too seriously. Willlem Defoe’s Wolf Jackson is the perfect example of the way the film handles itself. Wolf is the spirit of an actor who played a police detective, so in the afterlife he lives out his detective fantasies. He’s like a wildly incompetent version of Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry. This is only made funnier by his catchphrase: “gotta keep it real.” Like the rest of the movie, audience members could just write off his funny catchphrase as a silly joke. But, underneath all of the silliness, the same themes span the rest of the movie: keeping it “real” for ourselves versus living for the perception of others. If you want to see Beetlejuice Beetlejuice as a dark comedy with slapstick horror tropes, then you can totally do that. But, if you want to see it as a biting commentary on the nature of human existence and the troubles that come with constant media interaction, then you can do that too. Either way, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice provides a star-studded cast with memorable roles that are unlikely to disappoint.