Starring: Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, Jenna Ortega
Decades have passed since the Maitland family finally moved on from the iconic Connecticut farmhouse and the residence has since been transformed into a bustling avant garde art commune led by the eccentric Deetz family. However deep within the fabric of reality the afterlife has begun to feel neglected and overlooked. The narrative of Beetlejuice Ghost Protocol ignites when a catastrophic glitch in the sacred Handbook for the Recently Deceased accidentally tears open a permanent gateway between the mortal world and the bureaucratic headquarters of the Netherworld. Sensing a once in a lifetime opportunity to finally break his ancient contract and seize control of both realms the irrepressible and chaotic Betelgeuse played once again by Michael Keaton orchestrates a massive merger that forces the living and the dead into a hilariously dysfunctional and claustrophobic housing arrangement.
Michael Keaton returns to the screen with his signature frantic and unhinged energy portraying a version of Beetlejuice who has successfully updated his wardrobe and his elaborate scams for the modern digital age. Winona Ryder masterfully reprises her role as Lydia Deetz who is now a world famous yet perpetually stressed medium currently hosting a hit paranormal investigation television series. Catherine O Hara also returns as the incomparable Delia Deetz who has converted the historic haunted mansion into a critically acclaimed installation of living art. The cast is further bolstered by the addition of Jenna Ortega who plays Lydia’s daughter a brilliant goth tech prodigy. She is the only person observant enough to realize that while Beetlejuice remains a constant nuisance he is not the true threat. That danger comes from the Netherworld’s new cold blooded efficiency expert portrayed by Willem Dafoe who is secretly planning to downsize both the living and the dead to maximize bureaucratic profit.
The film transforms the familiar mansion into a sprawling surrealist funhouse where the laws of physics are entirely optional. From tense corporate board meetings held in the afterlife to a chaotic wedding ceremony that threatens to merge physical reality with the absolute void the visuals serve as a masterclass in gothic whimsy and imagination. Justin Theroux rounds out the ensemble cast as a pompous wellness obsessed spiritual guru who finds himself becoming the accidental human rival to Beetlejuice. As the boundary between the living and the dead continues to blur and dissolve Lydia and her fractured family must forge an unlikely and extremely reluctant alliance with the ghost with the most in order to save their home from being renovated into total non existence.
Packed with the iconic practical effects dark comedic social commentary and the chaotic charm that established the original film as a cinematic classic Ghost Protocol serves as a wildly entertaining and ambitious return to the legendary estate. In a landscape defined by afterlife bureaucracy and nightmare home renovation disasters Beetlejuice is about to prove that sometimes the most effective way to handle a total nightmare is to ensure that you are the one in charge of it.
