‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ reviews out of Venice Film Festival: It’s a ‘wriggling magic carpet of mayhem’

“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” Tim Burton‘s long-awaited sequel to his 1988 comedy classic, opened the 81st Venice International Film Festival out of competition on August 28, and the reviews are rolling in.

Based on the first 16 reviews that have been counted by MetaCritic as of this writing, the film has a “generally favorable” rating of 67 with 11 of those reviews classified as positive, four as mixed and one as negative. Meanwhile, over at Rotten Tomatoes, it’s too early for an official freshness rating, but 26 reviews have been logged there so far, with all but six of them counted as positive.

David Rooney (Hollywood Reporter) calls it “unexpectedly delightful” with “many inspired set-pieces” and “hilarious callbacks to the 1988 original.” Sophie Monks Kaufman (IndieWire) writes that the “relatively lean running time (105 minutes) overflows with brilliant attention to detail.” Stephanie Zacharek (Time) praises the filmmaker’s playful approach: “Burton has just allowed himself to be silly and have fun; ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ is filled with low-stakes wisecracks and kindergarten-style one-liners, but the effect works. The movie carries you along on its wriggling magic carpet of mayhem.” And Nicholas Barber (BBC) says, “It’s a relief to report that ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ is more like a freakier, gorier and altogether slimier equivalent of ‘Top Gun: Maverick.’ That is, it’s a sequel which has come along after 36 years, pays intelligent and affectionate homage to its predecessor, but surpasses that predecessor in almost every respect.”

John Nugent (Empire) is somewhat less enthusiastic: “The script spends so much time introducing new characters and plot-threads that it gets a bit tangled in the narrative cobwebs.” Xan Brooks (The Guardian) thinks it’s “a game attempt to reanimate the bones of the director’s beloved 1988 horror-comedy … But this long-time-coming sequel doesn’t add much to the myth, nor push the tale in any radical new direction.” And Richard Lawson‘s negative review for Vanity Fair criticizes the film’s “limp humor” and its “rats nest of callbacks and plot, so jumbled and overstuffed it’s almost abstract. It’s yet another legacy sequel that serves as sad testament to the original film’s ingenuity.”

Nevertheless, the prevailing sentiment towards the film is that it’s a pleasant surprise. What could have been a cynical effort to cash in on an existing intellectual property — like many sequels seem to be these days — has mostly garnered praise for its wit, ingenuity and effects. The original film won an Oscar for its makeup and even won Michael Keaton a National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor (jointly for “Beetlejuice” and “Clean and Sober”). Perhaps we’ll see more Oscars crafts nominations for this sequel, and we may see Keaton scare up a comedy acting nomination at the Golden Globes. The film opens to general audiences on September 6.