For some time, fans of the juice have been itching for “Beetlejuice” 2 to release into theaters, including myself. Original actors have returned to the sequel of the beloved Beetlejuice released in 1988. Quick spoiler warning for the article below! 

 Now into the storyline of Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice!” Lydia Deetz’s mother dies and her father remarries to a woman named Delia. They all move into a house in a small town called Winter River, but little did they know, a couple had died and their souls were now tied to the house. One night after a whole day of trying to haunt and scare the family which was  very unsuccessful, Lydia is able to see the couple. Out of spite for all that has happened to her, Lydia tries to ruin a business dinner for her father with the help of the ghosts who want them out of the house. Unfortunately, it has the opposite effect and Lydia ends up summoning a demon known as Beetlejuice, who torments her family. Desperate, Lydia offers to marry Beetlejuice so he’ll stop the torture and be able to come back to the living realm,which was his goal the whole time. In the end, Beetlejuice ends up getting eaten by a sandworm and all’s well that ends well… for about 36 years, when Tim Burton decided to make a sequel, “Beetlejuice 2” also known as “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.” 

 There was a lot of hype leading up to the movie regarding some of the original actors coming back such as Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder and Catherine O’hara, as well as some new, well-known actors like Willem Dafoe and Jenna Ortega. The new “Beetlejuice” movie follows not just Lydia, but also her daughter Astrid. Lydia has a new show that follows her going through houses and speaking to ghosts that haunt them with her manager/boyfriend, Rory.  The relationship between the paranormal mother-daughter duo is not so friendly due to Astrid’s dad having passed away and Lydia not being able to see him. Astrid is also  not too keen on Lydia’s new boyfriend. One day, all the sudden, Charles Deetz, Lydia’s dad is announced dead via shark bite on his way home from a bird watching excursion. This leads Lydia, Delia, Astrid and Rory to return back to the haunted house on a hill in Winter River. During Charles’s day of mourning, Rory proposes to Lydia and she says yes, causing Astrid to be super upset and go biking around town. She ends up crashing into a fence and meeting a guy around her age named Jeremy, who she becomes interested in.  Lydia and Rory are wedding planning, Lydia spends more time with Jeremy. In the midst of the chaos, Lydia starts seeing glimpses of Beetlejuice, which makes her anxious. The day before the wedding, Astrid finds a paper from Beetlejuice in the attic while looking around. Lydia becomes furious, bans Astrid from the attic and tells Rory about Beetlejuice. Unfortunately, Rory doesn’t take her seriously and he says ‘Beetlejuice’ three times, summoning him. They end up back home but Lydia’s nerves were not calmed by the whole experience. On the day of her wedding, Halloween night, Astrid goes over to Jeremy’s house and discovers he is a ghost. He manipulated her into reciting an incantation that transfers her life for his and Astrid is then on a one way trip to the great beyond,  she would be permanently dead. Lydia, desperate to save her daughter, ends up summoning Beetlejuice, which works and Astrid returns from the Netherworld. When they returned, Beetlejuice took Rory’s place in their wedding and during the ceremony, Astrid was able to get the handbook for the recently deceased and banish Beetlejuice once again.

 I am a huge fan of the “Beetlejuice” franchise. From watching the movie, the cartoon, and convincing my mom to take me to see the musical, I was extremely excited for this movie to come out. However, before I was able to see it, multiple people had given me their opinions on it and a majority of them spouted a resounding, “It was horrible, I hated it and it should not have been made.”  made me a little nervous to go, however when the movie began, I was so invested and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Some of the things did make me raise an eyebrow, such as Lydia allowing herself to be emotionally manipulated by an odd man. This didn’t seem in character for her, especially with how rebellious she was in the first movie. Additionally, the wedding scene when Beetlejuice is really romantic, and promising to make Lydia happy was very sweet. This was out of character as well, but it made sense in the context of the movie. Beetlejuice, of all people, staying loyal to a woman he didn’t even marry was not on my 2024 bucket list! Overall, I thought the movie was amazing and I would highly recommend watching it! 

Bug/Fish fact of the week!

 Protura, also known as Coneheads or Telsontails, have completely repurposed their front legs into antennae like appendages! They also have two little pseudoculi ( which are eye-like structures) which have no purpose that we can observe so far. They’re very small; <2mm and they live basically everywhere but antarctica. There are 80 Species in North America alone!