Beetlejuice Beetlejuice & The Importance Of Spooky Sequels//October 345th, 2024

 When I was about two years old, my favorite movie was Beetlejuice. 

It was on HBO a lot at the time, and I was absolutely obsessed with watching it. I didn't understand the plot as a toddler, obviously, but something about the characters and setting, particularly the underworld scenes, pulled me in. I was entranced by it, and would have the type of tantrum usually reserved for when little ones don't get the toy or snack they wanted if something or someone pulled me away from it. I have a very distinct memory of once having to leave to go to my aunt's house in the middle of it, and having a total meltdown. Luckily, my aunt lived maybe a five minute car ride from my childhood home, so she put it on for me once we got there. I suppose Beetlejuice was my very first comfort movie.

My love for the movie remained as I got older. In my late teens, I became very much a "Burtonphile", as many referred to the Tim Burton fandom back then, devouring everything Tim Burton touched as if he were a god of some kind. Beetlejuice remained high on my list of favorites. I also saw the stage show several years ago, when it was still very new, on Broadway. (I do have some memories of the animated series as well, though I was very young when it aired and it wasn't really around in reruns when I would have been old enough to understand it.) 

For awhile, though, I was firmly against the idea of a sequel. (Particularly when the rumors of something called "Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian" were going around...what even was that?!) I truly didn't think a sequel needed to exist, and perhaps it doesn't. It's perfectly valid to think things are fine as they are.

But with that said, I think the important thing to keep in mind with these types of sequels, is why they are coming into existence now in the first place. 

I didn't know, when I was seven and had just watched Hocus Pocus for the first time, what a box office flop it had been. I held out hope for a sequel for so long, writing my own in my head dozens, probably hundreds, of times over. The older I got, the more I realized it truly didn't need a sequel, and the more talk of one there was, the more hesitant I was to accept it. I got to a point where I felt it should just be left alone. The book eventually came, with a phoned in title (Hocus Pocus & The All-New Sequel was really the best they could do?) and a fun enough yet forgettable storyline, and I assumed it was over. But then the movie was finally announced, and, despite worrying that it couldn’t possibly live up to my literal lifelong expectations, I realized just how much it meant that a sequel was actually, finally happening.

As a young spooky enthusiast who never truly felt seen, the Halloween community I've discovered in adulthood is everything I ever could have dreamed of. Finding such a group of creative, like-minded people is something I never dared hope for when I was younger, but it's here now, and together we are making these things happen. The things we loved as children, that were deemed, as Lydia Deetz would put it, "strange and unusual", have found such a fanbase that they're finally spawning sequels. Do these sequels necessarily need to exist? It's a debatable. But what I choose to take away from the fact that they're happening, like them or not, is that we as a community are finally being seen. 

That's the important thing to remember. These movies are being made for us. They may not be perfect, or as we pictured them in our minds for decades while we waited and wished, but I see them almost as a thank you, or, at the very least, a nod at us, the spooky community, for existing and making things like this, the things that made us outcasts so many years ago, possible all this time later. 

With that said, I thoroughly enjoyed Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and found it healing to my inner child on some level. It's not precisely how I would have pictured a Beetlejuice sequel, but it was truly so much fun to watch and revisit these characters and this universe, that has meant so much to me for so long, and probably played a major role in shaping me into the person I am today. I wouldn't say it was a perfect film, but it felt like coming home. Like a warm hug from eccentric family members you haven't seen in awhile...and a true love letter to us, the fans.

While I still think it's perfectly valid to not feel as though Beetlejuice needed a sequel, I do think some people are being a bit too critical about it. You're not going to please everyone, thirty-six years later, nor are you going to be able to preserve that exact feeling after such a span of time. But with that said, I think going into Beetlejuice Beetlejuice with an open mind is important. If you go in convinced it's going to suck, you're going to sit there picking every little thing apart until it does. (And I will admit, there were things I didn't like, particularly one character that I felt was unnecessary/overhyped.) But if you go in and choose to take it for what it is, a sequel after a long period of time made possible by the fans, for the fans, I think you'll find it to be a super fun time, even if it's not how you initially pictured a continuation of the Beetlejuice story to go. I know I, personally, couldn't stop smiling when I left the theater. And I think, as long as you don't go in holding the movie to some impossible standard, you'll find yourself smiling as well. Just have fun with it!

Also, I'm not trying to give away any spoilers here as the movie is still so new (but please feel free to comment here or message me on Instagram or elsewhere on social media if you'd like to discuss the movie more in depth) but can we all be in agreement that you either love Bob, or you're wrong?

Stay spooky, my friends.