Beetlejuice Memories and a Reunion

My middle brother and I are sitting at the front row of the theatre with the screen just a few feet from our faces. Dad is rocking our one-year-old brother to sleep in the very back. It is 1988, and we are at the premiere of Beetlejuice at the now gone Southbridge Plaza 8 in Littleton. And, yes—we are that family who brings a baby to the movie theatre. It’s only a matter of time when Danny Elfman’s bombastic score kicks in the opening credits, and the little guy starts to wail.

It was a chaotic first viewing, to say the least. I remember glancing back and forth at my dad struggling to keep the baby quiet and hearing Michael Keaton grunt, “We’re here for your daughter, Chuck.” I’m not sure how we survived or even how much of the movie my dad saw, but my middle bro and I met him in the lobby with big smiles at the end.

Tim Burton’s bizarro vision, Elfman’s outrageous score, and Keaton’s over-the-top performance were ahead of their time in 1988. If anything, Beetlejuice presented an eccentric perspective on the afterlife that allowed the macabre to be funny.

Now, 36 years later, I find myself watching the sequel in an AMC 24 Dolby theatre. The Tim Burton vision definitely scores some out-loud laughs, nostalgic chills (that intro sequence to Elfman’s rearranged theme is spectacular), and some body-horror cringes. In a way, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is like a rocking retro Halloween costume party without decaffeinated beverages. While most special effects look and feel old school, the brisk pacing and constant music prevent overanalyzing. There’s hardly any time to ask questions about what you just saw!

My qualms and regrets are found in the missing duo of Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin and a very anticlimactic wedding scene in which the old “Day-O” song-and-dance is replaced by an appeal-lacking “MacArthur Park” a la Richard Harris. It just doesn’t land. And, if you read the room (a lot of middle schoolers in my theatre), the song connects like a landline telephone.

Other than that, the juice was loose with this one, and I found myself smiling most of the time. It’s really good to see Keaton, Winona Ryder, and Catherine O’Hara still doing their thing and very much alive while doing it.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024) *** out of *****

Did you say “Beetlejuice” three times?

What happened?

What did you think of the sequel?

Best,

Reely Bernie