Credit: Alyssa Ao

“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” continues the story of the classic halloween movie, “Beetlejuice” in which the main character, Lydia Deetz, is all grown up, but the same ghost is around to haunt and pester her decades later. This sequel not only adds to the spooky tale, but has exhilarated in its bizarre characters, plot points and special effects.

After almost 40 years “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” a sequel to the iconic Tim Burton film, “Beetlejuice,” was released on Sept. 6. Due to Burton’s strong fanbase of creepy movie lovers, viewers rushed to see if the second movie lived up to the oddity, spookiness and humor of the original.

The first movie, “Beetlejuice,” follows a preteen goth girl named Lydia Deetz, played by Winona Ryder, who has the rare ability to see the spirits of the young couple living in her new house. The ghosts try to scare off Lydia, her father and her step mother. They end up befriending her, yet their haunting persists and leads them to summon the peevish phantom Beetlejuice. In his attempt to scare off the Deetz family, they become intrigued and want to profit off of Beetlejuice’s haunts. By interacting with the ghoul in bizarre ways, Lydia’s parents empower him, endangering not only Lydia, but the deceased couple and possibly the whole town to Beetlejuice’s demonic games.

“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” takes place 36 years after the first movie, and follows Lydia’s family in the future. The movie starts off with Lydia finding out her father, Charles Deetz, passed away from a freak accident. This tragic event forces her to travel back to the house where she first encountered Beetlejuice and the horror that follows him. Lydia’s relationship with her daughter, Astrid, played by Jenna Ortega, is similar to that of the relationship between Lydia and her step mother in the first movie. After her mother and father separated, Astrid blames her mother for the devastating passing of her father years before. This anger causes a rebellion in Astrid that follows her throughout the movie. The tension and angst causes Astrid and her mother to end up in dangerous situations with Beetlejuice, and the afterlife, leaving watchers with the suspense of wondering what the ending of this unhinged movie may be.

As fans of the first “Beetlejuice,” we were very excited for a new Tim Burton classic; however, we didn’t think it had the same creepy energy as his typical films. Burton’s iconic bizarreness was present through Lydia and Astrid’s adventures in the underworld, but a key piece that we noticed lacking was the eerie filter that we adored in other classics like “Beetlejuice” and “Sleepy Hollow” (1999). It was almost as if the movie was too high definition to be directed by Tim Burton.

The film’s quality was sometimes too good. We found the special effects and computer-generated imagery (CGI) very disturbing and disgusting, as well. If you thought the first Beetlejuice was gross, we would not recommend watching this movie. The CGI was very realistic for many parts of the movie which were not needed. At some points, the film showed a beating heart and guts spilling out of Beetlejuice himself. These scenes as well as many others disgusted us so much we wanted to shield our eyes. If you are sensitive to gore and gruesome things, we do not recommend this movie.

Our final nit-pick is about the plot. While an outlandish storyline was expected for a “Beetlejuice” sequel, we were almost overwhelmed by the multiple different directions the movie was going at once. While the first film was eccentric, it was pretty easy to follow. “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” on the other hand, focuses on the Deetz family dealing with the death of Charles, Lydia and Astrid’s mother-daughter troubles, the return and haunting of Beetlejuice and the reveal of Beetlejuice’s vengeful, Frankenstein-inspired ex-wife, played by Monica Bellucci. To top it all off, there were at least three plot twists, which we found to be hard to follow and even rushed.

Though our high expectations were somewhat let down, we were engaged and excited throughout the whole duration of the film. For our positive takes on “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” we did enjoy the aspects of the original that were reimagined. Astrid turned out to have a very similar angst to the teen Lydia who we know and love. The underworld had the same neon, yet decaying waiting room, but we got to see more details of it. There is a train station for spirits to transport to the “great beyond,” and the cops of the afterlife were introduced as they searched for Beetlejuice’s escapee ex-wife.

One of our favorite parts of the new movie was that we got a closer look into Beetlejuice’s backstory: who he was in life and how he died. We also enjoyed the end because it had similar excitement and spookiness of the original’s climax, but even more thrilling. Furthermore, a surprisingly satisfying aspect was the soundtrack. Burton reused the song “Banana Boat (Day-O)” by Harry Belefonte, which many associate with Beetlejuice. On top of that, some new songs that fit the energy of the film perfectly were “Tragedy” by Bee Gees and “MacArthur Park” by Jimmy Webb that was theatrically sung by Beetlejuice himself.

We would rate this movie a 7/10. Although this was an interesting film, we believe that the rushed plot and grossness took a few points off. If you have seen the first movie and enjoyed it, we would recommend this movie as it is an entertaining build off of Beetlejuice. If you have not seen the first movie, this movie may be difficult to watch because of the lack of backstory that is given. In our opinion, nothing can beat the original, but for a sequel, “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” definitely didn’t lose the same ridiculous and creepy aspects that we love. Despite its negatives, this movie has brilliant twists and turns and is a good watch for someone looking for a proper, but new halloween movie this fall.