Another family tragedy brings her and Lydia’s eccentric stepmother Delia (Catherine O’Hara) back together in their old small-town haunt Winter River, Connecticut. The detailed model of the picturesque village is still in the attic of the Deetz family home, where Beetlejuice always stayed until his name was said three times. Of course, he is called again: a desperate Lydia asks him for help when Astrid ends up in the afterlife, possibly forever.

Beetlejuice has his own problems. He now has a desk job in the afterlife, but he’s also being hunted by his ex-wife Delores (Monica Bellucci), the undead leader of a death cult who has patched her dismembered body back together like Frankenstein for a revenge mission. Compared to his clothes-stuffed ex-love, Keaton’s striped-suited weirdo seems less dangerous this time around, but is still a bizarrely cheeky wonder of physical gags and verbal exchanges. (As good as Keaton was as the best Batman, Beetlejuice will forever be his biggest hit.)

Justin Theroux enters the world of “Beetlejuice” as Lydia’s dim-witted manager/boyfriend Rory, and Willem Dafoe has a blast as Wolf Jackson, a former action star who is now an over-the-top cop in the afterlife. But everyone in this film gets a subplot, even minor characters like Beetlejuice’s shrunken-headed sidekick Bob.

The film is an overcomplicated attempt compared to the first film, which hit the mark with its relatively simple plot about a recently deceased couple trying to get rid of the annoying new owners of their house. (Original stars Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin are not returning, but their characters are mentioned. Jeffrey Jones, now a registered sex offender, is also absent, although Burton works his role, Lydia’s father Charles, quite creatively into the new film.)