There’s so many ways this could have gone spectacularly wrong. Decades-later sequels are a mixed bag, and before this I couldn’t remember the last Tim Burton movie I loved. So I’m happy to report this was an absolute blast. Thirty-some years following the events of the original ’88 film, former goth teen Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) is the host of a cheesy ghost-hunting talk show and the mother of her own surly teenage daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega from WEDNESDAY, also a Burton project). When Lydia’s father passes away (in spectacularly silly and horrible fashion, depicted in delightful stop-motion animation), she, Astrid, her artist stepmother Delia (Catherine O’Hara), and her awful TV producer boyfriend Rory (Justin Theroux) head up to Winter River and the Deetzs’ house from the first film for the funeral. The funeral, thanks to Rory’s machinations, soon gives way to a proposed wedding, and in trying to avoid it, a once-skeptical Astrid finds herself ensnared in a trap that may leave her in the afterlife for all eternity without even being dead. With no other good options, Lydia summons skeezy bio-exorcist Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton) to try and rescue her. He’ll gladly help out in exchange for the same thing he wanted last time — Lydia’s hand in marriage.
