Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)

Plot of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice: This is a story of three generations of the Deetz family. Delia, Lydia and Astrid respectively step-mother, mother and daughter. They are brought together when Charles, Lydia’s father is eaten by a shark and have to return to Winter River and the old house on the hill. Lydia hosts a ghost show, returning to the town with her manager and lover Rory. Meanwhile in the afterlife Dolores, Betelgeuse’s former wife is stapling herself together before going on a soul sucking rampage. Astrid crashes her bike into a tree and meets Jeremy, a ghost (sorry small spoiler) who she can see and who tricks her into accompanying him into the afterlife where he will take over her soul. In a panic Lydia calls on Betelgeuse to help her recover Astrid, to which he agrees as long as she promises to marry him. In the afterlife Astrid is found and she and Lydia are helped by her dead father, Richard, to survive, but somehow they have to get back to the real world.

Content: There is no sex or nudity, or drinking but apparently some drug taking. The film alternates between the real world in Winter River and the underworld which is filled with grotesque humans, many of whom retain signs of their deaths. Charles for instance has no head because it has been bitten off by the shark. Dolores is in half a dozen pieces so get the bits of her body together and staples them. She sucks the souls from other character and they end up as empty bodies. There is music including a wonderful a cappella version of the Banana Boat Song. Betelgeuse has an office populated by guys in yellow suits with tiny heads, including his right hand man Bob, whose soul is sucked – oh dear.

A View: My unofficial gauge of success fulfilled by this movie. The production cost was said to be $100 million exceeded by $11 million at the box office on its first weekend. Despite the confusion of which there is a lot the film keeps us on track so we mostly know what is going on in both the real world and the afterlife. It has a plot which rolls along and I managed pretty well, even though I only partially remember the first film. So this is a fun outing well worth the price of admission to the multiplex near you.

Fun Fact: In a robbery from the set in July 2023 a large lamppost topped with a pumpkin was stolen.