I can’t tell you how many times I watched Tim Burton’s 1988 supernatural comedy, Beetlejuice, as a kid. It was a film made by an ex-weird kid, featuring a weird kid, made for (in my opinion) weird kids. The story of that film goes as follows: a couple, the Maitlands, living in a small town in domestic bliss (played by Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) die in a car accident, and end up trying to rid their home of the new family who buy it, using the services of a bio-exorcist named Betelgeuse (pronounced Beetlejuice, and played by the ever-reliable Michael Keaton). Eventually, the Maitlands learn to co-exist with the family, having bonded with their teenage goth daughter, Lydia, and they’re able to rid themselves of Beetlejuice forever.

If that sounds straightforward (if bizarre), it was, but Tim Burton’s direction and leftfield style (not to mention a manic, hilarious performance by a sparingly-used Keaton) really elevated the movie, particularly with brilliant depictions of what awaits in the afterlife; the waiting room filled with deceased people who still exhibit the cause of their passing on, for example (a magician’s assistant cut in half here, a man who choked on a massive chicken bone over there, and many more). It was a masterclass of art and set direction, and it was a Tim Burton film through and through; something which has been in short supply in recent years.

In fact, Tim Burton seems to have lost his mojo years ago, and you can almost pinpoint the exact film that knocked the wind out of his sails: his 2001 reimagining of Planet of the Apes. Though he’s made a few reasonably entertaining films since then (Big Fish, Big Eyes and, the most Burton-esque of all, Sweeney Todd), his more traditional blockbuster fare has felt incredibly lacklustre; you can practically feel the director’s boredom in every frame. It also doesn’t help that he seems uninterested in CGI; despite massive budgets, Burton’s films almost always have awful digital effects.

So what could possibly get Burton’s mojo back? What could get him back to that unique gothic, subversive and comedic style that made his name?

Nothing less than a sequel to Beetlejuice, it seems. Now it has to be said that many ‘legacy sequels’, as is the case nowadays, are a massive letdown. Too much time has passed, or there just isn’t a way to continue the story satisfactorily (particularly when the first film wasn’t really built to accommodate a sequel in the first place, as was the case with Beetlejuice), or there’s too many callbacks to the past in a way that recalls a much better film you could be watching.

And yet somehow, against all odds and despite the 36 year time gap, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a rare beast: a legacy sequel that actually works. Even better: it’s a film that sees Burton truly recapture the magic of his earlier films; it’s funny, it’s twisted, it’s got its fair share of real spookiness and it has an unmistakably Burton-esque aesthetic. Oh, and it’s delightfully, unapologetically weird.

Thirty years after the first film, Lydia Deetz is now a TV ghost hunter, having parlayed her gift to see the dead into a successful media career. Her teenage daughter is a Gothic weirdo, not unlike Lydia herself was at her age, though they don’t particularly get on. When Lydia’s father passes away suddenly, the family, including Lydia’s boyfriend, a creepy TV exec played by Justin Theroux, and her artist stepmother (Catherine O’Hara reprising her role from the original film) get together for the funeral. Yet there’s a certain bio-exorcist who’s been itching to escape the underworld, and the family returning to the old house is the perfect opportunity for Beetlejuice to stage a comeback.

Though it takes a little while to truly kick into gear, and there’s a lot more characters and moving parts to Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, in comparison to its lean, 90-minute predecessor, it’s an absolute blast when it gets going. Despite being a little slow in terms of different plot elements coming together, it’s hardly uneventful or languidly paced; an early scene,  brilliantly set to the music of the Bee Gees and featuring Beetlejuice’s ex (Burton’s real life partner, Monica Bellucci) is stunning, and of the fact that Burton’s mojo has definitely returned.

Willem Dafoe is amazing in a role as a detective in the afterlife, though you do end up wishing he was around a bit more. Despite the stunning introduction Bellucci’s character doesn’t have a great deal of screentime and doesn’t end up doing very much at all, which is a shame.

Keaton’s Beetlejuice is, as you’d expect, a scene stealing presence throughout, and he’s once more used surprisingly sparingly.

There’s one too many subplots jostling for time, but it’s easily forgivable when everyone involved, including the screenwriters, seem to be having so much fun. There’s some really wild scenes, and it doesn’t even skimp on gore,  or truly shocking twists, either.

Importantly, Burton doesn’t rely on CGI at all; practical effects abound, and they’re superb. Where CGI is used, it’s generally done in a very stylised way, and only when absolutely necessary. The sandworms, stop motion in the original film, retain a cartoonishly otherworldly look here; despite being CGI, they’re great. There is a charming stop motion sequence in the film too, which really does see Tim Burton throwing as many of his favourite techniques at the screen as he can.

Given how much I adored the original Beetlejuice, and how familiar I am with it, I wasn’t holding out much hope for a sequel, either in terms of it actually happening, or for it to be any good if it did end up being made. A Hawaiian-set sequel script (actually called Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian) didn’t end up getting made in the 90s, and though I was disappointed by that at the time (it would have been pretty wild, though perhaps too uncommercially weird, even by Burton’s standards), perhaps it was for the best that Beetlejuice Beetlejuice ended up taking as long as it did to get made.

It’s a genuinely hilarious film with a sick, twisted sense of humour, along with several crowd pleasing musical numbers; unlike most legacy sequels, it doesn’t rely on endless dialogue callbacks for cheap moments. Though there’s naturally the odd reference here and there (and one song that clearly hearkens back to the original), it’s not egregious and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice does end up feeling very much like a continuation, rather than a retread.

The ghost with the most, his supporting cast and the old, much missed Tim Burton (who we lost to so much soulless franchise fare over the last few decades), are well and truly back, in a film that hits so many creative, hilarious (and sometimes really gross) highs, balancing out the few weak points it has.

Against all odds, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a triumphant return to form for just about everyone involved.