Film review: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is set to take Halloween by storm

This film is wonderfully silly, deliciously snarky and at times laugh-out-loud funny

Beetlejuice is back. Picture: Parisa Taghizadeh

• Beetlejuice Beetlejuice 
• ★★★★☆
• Cinematic Release

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (12A): so good they named him twice. The undead but irrepressible ‘bio-exorcist’ Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton) returns 36 years on from his original outing, pursued through the underworld by the soul-sucking Delores (Monica Bellucci) and desperate to marry a mortal to save himself from an eternity of nothingness. 

Meanwhile, up in the real world, Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) and her teenage daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega) are at loggerheads, partly because Astrid thinks her mom’s job as a psychic mediator is a load of bunk, and partly because the only ghost Lydia can’t see is Astrid’s dead father.

Toss in Catherine O’Hara as Lydia’s grieving mother and Willem Dafoe as a dead actor who thinks he’s the hardboiled cop Frank Hardballer and you’ve got the makings of a terrific comedy-horror, and director Tim Burton doesn’t disappoint, with the entire cast (which includes Justin Theroux as Lydia’s ‘janky fiancé’ and Burn Gorman as a creepy reverend) in excellent form.

Willem Dafoe stars as Wolf Jackson. Picture: Parisa Taghizadeh

The brilliant Catherine O’Hara effortlessly steals every scene she’s in, of course, but it’s very much an ensemble piece: even Keaton’s Beetlejuice is slightly underplayed to ensure that the manic, farcical plot delivers a pay-off for every character.

Wonderfully silly, deliciously snarky and at times laugh-out-loud funny, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is set to take Halloween by storm.