In 2024, Lydia Deetz (Winona Rider) hosts a paranormal talk-show called Ghost House. She has been estranged from her daughter Astrid (Jeena Ortega) ever since her ex-husband died on a trip to the Amazon. Astrid does not believe her mother can see ghosts. During a taping, Lydia hallucinates Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton) in the audience. This is disturbing because he had tried to marry her 36 years earlier. Lydia’s stepmother Delia (Catherine O’Hara) tells Lydia that her father was killed by a shark. They travel to Winter River, Connecticut, for his funeral. At the wake, Lydia’s boyfriend and producer, Rory, (Justin Theroux) pressures her to marry him on Halloween, and she reluctantly agrees, but she meets a local boy named Jeremy Frazier (Arthur Conti) who asks her to spend Halloween with him.
In the afterlife, Beetlejuice oversees an office of shrunken-headed bio-exorcists and is still obsessed by Lydia. Afterlife detective Wolf Jackson (Willem Dafoe) tells Beetlejuice that his ex-wife, cultist Delores Laferve (Monica Bellucci), is on a murder spree, draining the souls of the
dead looking for him. She had poisoned Beetlejuice in Italy during the Black Plague as part of an immortality ritual, but he killed her before dying.
Astrid discovers she has inherited her mother’s psychic abilities and learns that Jeremy Frazier is a ghost. He can get her into the afterlife to meet her father. But she learns that Jeremy murdered his parents 25 years before. Lydia summons Beetlejuice and will sign a marriage contract if he will take her to the Afterlife to save Astrid. Beetlejuice blows a hole open between both worlds, disguises his employee Bob (Nick Kellington) as himself as a decoy. Wolf discovers that he has brought a living person into the Afterlife and searches for him, capturing Bob. Delores meets Bob and drains his soul.
Beetlejuice and Lydia search for Astrid. Jeremy escorts her through the Afterlife’s bureaucracy, then reveals that he has deceived Astrid into exchanging her life for his. Astrid is taken to the Soul Train to be sent to the Great Beyond, and Richard follows her. Lydia saves Astrid and they escape through a door to Saturn’s moon Titan. Richard follows them and saves them from a sandworm. Beetlejuice sends Jeremy to the Fires of Damnation and Richard helps Lydia and Astrid to return to the Living World. During mourning for Charles, Delia is killed by asps. Arriving in the Afterlife, she summons Beetlejuice to help find Chris in exchange for her help finding Lydia.
At home, Astrid apologizes to Lydia for not believing in her powers. They arrive at the church for Lydia’s and Rory’s wedding, but Beetlejuice crashes the ceremony with Delia and injects Rory with truth serum, forcing him to admit that he was only after the money produced from her show. Beetlejuice begins his marriage to Lydia, but Wolf and his officers interrupt. Beetlejuice freezes them. Delores appears, Astrid opens a portal to summon a sandworm and it devours Delores and Rory. Astrid reveals that Beetlejuice brought Lydia illegally into the Afterlife, so the marriage is void, and he is banished back to the Afterlife. Unfrozen, Wolf escorts Delia to the Afterlife herself. She reunites with Charles as he boards the Soul Train to the Great Beyond. Lydia cancels her Ghost House show but is disturbed by nightmares of Beetlejuice.
The film was directed by Tim Burton, of course, and largely written by Seth Grahame-Smith, who wrote much of Dark Shadows and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Many of the actors from the first movie were anxious to appear in it. Danny DeVito plays a janitor in the Afterlife. Danny Elfman returned to do the music. Lydia Deetz’s costume was designed by costumer Colleen Atwood, inspired by Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. Most of the special effects were practical and computers were used sparingly, to give the movie a homemade feel.
It was loved by audiences and won Best Film at the Venice International Film Festival. It was surprisingly successful for a sequel to a much beloved movie. Michael Keaton doubts there will be a third. I think it would have to be called Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which would be dangerous. Incidentally, some versions of the film are accompanied by dialogue in sign-language. Does signing his name three times summon him, or do the words have to be spoken? We must know these things. Some reviewers felt it was quite overshadowed by the original, and that it suffered from the lack of likable characters. I suppose that is true because the sweet ghost couple from the original do not appear, but it’s still remarkably engaging after all these years. It’s wild and crazy and actually funny, particularly the Afterlife bureaucracy.