Fans of the original Beetlejuice will still get a kick out of the recent sequel, creatively named Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, even if some of the original charm is lost in the search for a more “meaningful” plotline. The movie, released on September sixth of this year, follows a grown-up Lydia Deetz, played by Winona Ryder reprising her role from the original film, and her teenage daughter Astrid, played by Jenna Ortega. When the whole Deetz family returns to the scene of their previous misadventures for a funeral, Lydia’s history refuses to stay buried. Astrid becomes tangled up in the supernatural world and Lydia must choose between her new life and confronting the ghosts of her past.

As a fan of the original Beetlejuice, I find the camp and silliness part of the original’s appeal. The sequel attempts to balance both humor and a more emotionally complex storyline which it manages at times and struggles to do during others. The scenes between Lydia and Astrid are well acted and convey real emotional depth for their characters, but an attempt to add teen romance into the mix felt both forced and obvious as a plot device to move Astrid’s character from location A to B. Even if I wanted to spoil the plot for you, I don’t know if I could because the various loose threads of the story never felt very securely tied up or even part of the coherent whole. 

That said, I did like the movie as a whole. A lot of the jokes were funny, Danny DeVito has a cameo, and Michael Keaton is still excellent as Beetlejuice himself. It managed to make some surprisingly relevant points about parenthood and how relationships change as you grow up and the plot twists genuinely surprised me. And, no spoilers, of course the climactic finale had all the lip-synch magic of the original film. I recommend this film to anyone looking for a fun fall movie to not think too hard about. According to Forbes, it’s now streaming.