Michael Keaton is back as the iconic demon inBeetlejuice, Beetlejuice, re-uniting with regular collaborator, Tim Burton. Jenna Ortega joins the cast, with Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara returning to the roles of Lydia and Delia Deetz respectively, 36 years after the original movie came out in 1988.

The long awaited sequelwas released worldwide in theaters on September 6 by Warner Bros Pictures, and it has been largely well received by critics and fans. The Rotten Tomatoes critics' score is 76%, while the audience score is even higher at 86%.Beetlejuice, Beetlejuiceis expected to rake in between $100-110 million in its opening weekend, and is set to be September 2024’s biggest release.

Betelgeuse

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice

Starring

Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, Jenna Ortega, Justin Theroux, Willem Dafoe, Monica Bellucci, Danny DeVito, Arthur Conti, Santiago Cabrera and Burn Gorman

Alfred Gough and Miles Millar

Directed By

Tim Burton

It’s been 36 long years since the Deetz family first came into contact with the dastardly demon, Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton), but Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) has started getting ghostly visions of him in the audience of her supernatural talk show, Ghost House. After taking a break from recording the show, she is approached by her producer and current boyfriend, Rory (Justin Theroux), and he catches her popping pills in the restroom. Soon after, Lydia’s stepmother, Delia (Catherine O’Hara), informs Lydia that her father, Charles, has tragically passed away in a freak shark attack after a plane crash.

Lydia, Delia and Rory head to pick Lydia’s estranged daughter, Astrid (Wednesday’s Jenna Ortega) up from boarding school on the way back to Winter River to plan Charles' funeral. After the funeral, Rory proposes to Lydia, which causes Astrid to flee on her bike. After an accident, she ends up meeting a young man called Jeremy (Arthur Conti), who is hanging out in his tree house, listening to 90s music. The pair strike up a bond and Astrid reveals that her real father, Richard (Santiago Cabrera), passed away years earlier in South America.

Elsewhere, Betelgeuse is still roaming the afterlife, just waiting for someone to say his name three times so he can make his presence known. Turns out, his ex-wife and soul sucker, Delores (Monica Bellucci), has managed to sew up her dead body parts and is seeking revenge on him. Also on the case, is Wolf Jackson (Willem Dafoe), a former actor turned afterlife detective, who died after an accidental shooting on a movie set.

Jeremy invites Astrid over before Lydia and Rory’s wedding, which is taking place on Halloween. However, things don’t go as planned when Astrid finds out that Jeremy is a ghost seeking her help to restore his life. He promises to re-unite Astrid with her dead father, and the pair enter the afterlife together after Astrid recites an incantation from the handbook for the recently deceased. However, it turns out, Jeremy wants to swap Astrid’s life to get his own back, after he murdered both his parents 23 years ago, before falling out of his tree house and dying and being a ghost ever since.

How does Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice end?

Lydia reluctantly calls upon Betelgeuse for his help in saving Astrid, and he agrees on one condition: Lydia marres him so he can avoid Delores in the afterlife by staying in the real world. Lydia agrees to the marriage as she’s desperate for his help, and Betelgeuse and Lydia head to the afterlife train station to stop Astrid from boarding the “Soul Train” (which transports souls into their final resting place).

As Astrid heads to the platform, she notices one of the station’s employees is her father, Richard, and he rescues Lydia and Astrid and assists them in their return to Winter River. Elsewhere, Betelgeuse assumes the role of the ticket master, and sends Jeremy to Hell. He then asks for Delia’s help to return to the real world after she summons him after she was sent to the afterlife after dying from a snake bite. At the church which is hosting the wedding, Lydia and Astrid arrive as Rory waits patiently at the altar. However, Betelgeuse turns up, and injects Rory with truth serum, and he reveals that his true reason for marrying Lydia is for her money, and he never believed in her ability to see ghosts.

Lydia punches Rory, and Betelgeuse prepares to marry Lydia as per the agreement. However, Delores arrives at the church to confront him. Using the handbook, Astrid unleashes a sandworm into the church, which Betelgeuse manages to use to eat up Delores and Rory. The ceremony doesn’t go ahead as Astrid reveals that Betelgeuse violated the rules of the handbook, and at the utterance of his name three times, he inflates and bursts. Lydia and Astrid say farewell to Delia as she transitions to the afterlife, where she will be re-united with Charles before taking her place on the Soul Train.

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuiceends with Lydia filming the last episode ofGhost House, as she chooses to spend more time with the living instead of the dead, which includes Astrid. Mother and daughter head to Dracula’s Castle and Astrid falls in love with a man called Vlad, and they get married, with Lydia present at the ceremony. However, Lydia continues to have nightmares about Betelgeuse, with a dream that sees Astrid give birth to Betelgeuse’s child. Lydia wakes up from her sleep in tears.