The ghost with the most is back, but was the 30 year old wait worth it?…..

I was eleven years old when the original came out. I have to be honest. At first, I never quite got it. Back then, I was already on my third Elm St film. Jason had already met his match with young Tommy and was heading towards the path of a New Blood copycat. So, the crazy antics of what seemed like a full blown cartoon caper never grabbed my horror heart.

But then I got older. All of a sudden, Michael Keaton’s zany scene stealing performance stood out. My eyes transfixed as Winona Ryder’s Lydia Deetz became the ultimate Goth, dancing in mid-air and ad-libbing “Jump in the Line.”, a now favourite scene of mine and of course, an introduction to the crazy imagination of Tim Burton, a starting block which led to Batman 89 and countless of other crazy enjoyable Sleepy Hollow Scissor Hands antics.

In development afterlife for years, with one stage a proposed Hawaii staging that sounds pretty horrendous, the best compliment you can give this sequel is that from the off, it feels like a proper continuation. Much like the original though, crazy as it seems, it did not quite grasp me at first.

The familiar title sequence sets the mood, the appearance of Lydia establishes the world we back in, but the animated sequences and 80’s style effects made me feel like I did originally 37 long years ago, then like a flash I realised what kind of film I was watching, embraced the madness and started to enjoy it, more so every time Keaton appeared on screen.

For a film about the afterlife, we of course start with a death, which leads Lydia who is now a “psychic mediator” on a paranormal reality TV show called ‘Ghost House’, back to that iconic home with her mother, the still sculpturing Delia (a delightful Catherine O’Hara) and the perfectly cast Jenna Ortega as Lydia’s daughter Astrid, whose relationship has broken down.

Its not the greatest sequel of all time and even the most hardened fan must agree the plot is all over the place, but when its good, its really, really good, especially when the juice is let loose. But it does take a while to get there. Its not as simple as saying “Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice” and letting chaos commence, instead we have these little plot threads that all lead to a musical climax, but you do feel some characters get underused.

For example Monica Bellucci’s Delores gets a pure Burtonesque introduction while the Bee Gees plays beautifully, but that’s the best we get from her as she hunts down her ex – take a guess who – for some revenge plot that filters in and out. We also get Willem Dafoe’s Wolf Jackson, a dead actor who is now hammering it up as a cop in a glorious over the top performance that you’ll wish for more and perhaps wanting a spin-off flick. Add Astrid’s love interest Jeremy (Arthur Conti), along with TV producer Rory (Justin Theroux) who wants to marry Lydia, you can see why there are many characters just trying to fit into the madness.

But as expected, this is Keaton’s show, a truly magnificent creation on film and once more he shows the same craziness and zany attributes that gave us so many reasons why we fell in love with this character all those years back.

Its such an enjoyable ride that you’ll ignore the flaws, with one or two twists not exactly shocking, but when Burton finds his groove, its memorizing dark and delightful, the “soul train” sequence is typically from his imagination and how do you top that memorable use of Belafonte’s “Day-O” in that dinner table scene, well Keaton and co miming to “MacArthur Park” will live long in the memory, long after the credits roll.

It won’t become quite as iconic as that original scene stealing set-piece, but it will leave you with a huge smile on your face, which basically is the overall summary of what this long awaited sequel offers in abundance, with the added bonus of more screen time for our beloved shrunken head….we surely do love you Bob!

Rating: ★★★½☆