Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

 Say it once, say it twice, say it … no!

The characters of “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice”

I saw “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” and it’s been a long time since I had this much fun at the cinema!

I’ll start from the premise that I’m a fan of Tim Burton and I love “Beetlejuice”, which is without a doubt the film I’ve watched the most times ever. There was a period in the 90s when I knew practically all the lines of the Italian version by heart, but only when I bought the DVD in the 2000s and watched it in the original language, was I able to fully understand its brilliance.
But, precisely because I love this film, on the one hand, I was happy for the sequel and, on the other, I feared that it could disappoint me, after more than 30 years of waiting (the film is from 1988, but I watched it for the first time in the early 90s).

Fortunately, this was an unfounded fear.

To prepare myself properly, a few hours before going to the cinema I rewatched “Beetlejuice”, also because maybe 15 years had passed since the last time, and it is something I recommend to anyone who intends to see the sequel. If you have never seen the first one, you have to watch it, because there are too many connections and it’s assumed that the viewer knows them. But, even if you have seen it, it’s not a bad idea to renew that memory a little.
I have to say that as I watched it again I remembered everything, but fixing the visual aspect of the film in my memory was essential to enjoying watching the sequel.

In fact, less than an hour and a half after finishing watching, I was on my reclining seat at the cinema and the screening started. The impression I had was of total continuity between the two works, starting from the screen with the Geffen logo and the font used for the opening titles that scrolled over the landscape of Winter River, while the unmistakable soundtrack by Danny Elfman was played.
Next to greet the viewer is Winona Ryder, who 36 years later reprises the character of Lydia Deetz. And it’s her, Lydia. It’s as if it always has been. She just grew up, as I have, after all.
Another thing I feared was that I would be overwhelmed by a bittersweet sense of nostalgia for a time that belonged to a teenage me that no longer exists, but that wasn’t the case at all.
I felt at home, because that particular part of me still exists, and I was happy to know what had happened to Lydia and the other characters in all this time, as well as to follow them in this new adventure.

What about Michael Keaton?
Thanks to the heavy makeup it is almost impossible to notice the difference between how he was in the 80s and how he is now, and this adds a touch of “realism” to the whole thing (the quotation marks are a must!).

I can’t tell you anything about the story, absolutely nothing, because it’s nice to see it like this. All in all, the trailer only reveals the characters involved, but not how they move through the story.
I can only tell you that I remained glued to the screen the whole time, forgetting who I was and where I was, just like I used to do when I went to the cinema in the 90s, and that I laughed really hard for most of the 105 minutes of the film.
And even more so in the last quarter of an hour, including the sparkling epilogue (but is the story really over?).

I’m perfectly aware that in this first viewing I only grasped a minimal part of all the details that this film is full of. With “Beetlejuice” every time I rewatched it, even after the fortieth time, I always found something that I had missed. I expect the same to happen with “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” and I can’t wait to get my hands on the Blu-ray.
Hopefully, it comes out soon, as do I hope they release a CD version of the soundtrack to add it to my collection.

I conclude by saying that I am really happy to notice that cinema, the real one, still exists thanks to explosive and crazy minds like Tim Burton’s.
Long live cinema, long live Tim Burton, and long live Beetlejuice!

But don’t say it three times, okay?
Or maybe yes?