The trickster demon is in the details.

Tragedy draws three generations of women back to Winter River, Connecticut: family matriarch and artist Delia Deetz (Catherine O’Hara), her step-daughter and celebrity medium Lydia (Winona Ryder), and bookish granddaughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega). As three women dealing with their family history and one another while preparing to sell their infamous haunted house on the hill, events beyond their control are poised to upheave their lives further. Media opportunist and boyfriend Rory (Justin Theroux) proposes to an emotionally vulnerable Lydia; a dismembered corpse (Monica Bellucci) rises from the grave to seek vengeance; a handsome local boy (Arthur Conti) takes an interest in young Astrid. Lurking in the shadows of the model town in the attic, unfortunately, is the Afterlife’s wild card: Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton)… pining for his lost bride, always up for mischief, and oddly capable for an untrustworthy cad. Will the Deetz women survive the onslaught of dark forces encircling them, or are they just shit out of luck?

In a year stuffed with sequels, prequels, and increasingly more bizarre tie-in popcorn buckets — thanks for that, Dune Part Two — creator Tim Burton returns to his sophomore feature film for another deep dive into the Netherworld. “Wednesday” writers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar have crafted another peek beyond the shadowy veil set 36 years after the 1988 surprise hit Beetlejuice. With another collaborating soundtrack by Danny Elfman, it seems that the movie gods have bestowed fans and audiences with a sure-fire hit… except for all the ways it could go horribly wrong. Dedicated to making the sequel with the same practicality as the original, the eternal spooky child that Burton once embodied has reappeared, with his new muse Ortega joining the old cast for whatever’s next. No spoilers here, but — I know! You ever play charades?

The road less traveled back to the silver screen has been a long one, from an animated series with Mr. Juice hanging with Lydia to the defunct Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian sequel, and most recently Eddie Perfect’s reinvention “Beetlejuice the Musical” (the musical, the musical). It also hasn’t hurt that both Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder have enjoyed a career renaissance in addition to Burton striking Netflix gold with an Addams Family spinoff. Nostalgia aside, there was something about the original film that seemed fresh because nothing truly made sense, and yet the Netherworld seems to function in spite of it. The sequel expands upon those ideas, offering up some sneaky explanations, hanging lanterns on throwaway ideas, and confidently showing audiences a good time. The Maitlands were the core of the original, but the Deetz women are bonding this time around, and woe betide those who would divide them. Capturing the random zany spookiness of the original, the sequel feels slightly more mature yet also more experimental. Not everything works, but it has enough of what fans of the original want. It’s almost too much… which is exactly right.

Sequels have a love/hate relationship with change because differences must exist but not too many… or worse yet, not enough. Lydia describes Beetlejuice as a trickster demon, yet his abilities seem to rival every other Netherworld entity; unless his name is called three times or he’s taken by surprise, he’s usually several steps ahead, and that’s not nothing. He can interrupt an exorcism with a mimed golf stroke, animate objects to do his bidding, and bend reality to his will… yet in the sequel, he carries a torch for Edgar Allan Poe’s daughter and is “willing to do the work.” He’s the worst kind of stalker, and yet Lydia often seems more surprised than repulsed. It’s rare anyone makes a second film without thinking up a trilogy… fine, okay, maybe I’m reading into this, but hey, maybe I’m not. With an office staff of loyal shrinkers, a former action star turned Netherworld cop played by Willem Dafoe, and finally finding out what awaits after an eternity in the waiting room, it all comes down to a slightly overlong climax with a satisfying amount of dénouement.

The more you love all things Beetlejuice, the more you’ll enjoy this movie, built for fans new and old. A few characters fall into the “I know it’s a small part, but I think we can do better than this” category, perhaps intentionally to keep viewers guessing who or what the real threats are. It’s likely no one will catch all the Easter eggs strewn throughout in a single showing, so there’s really only one thing to do: go and see it again.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is rated PG-13 for violent content, macabre and bloody images, strong language, some suggestive material, brief drug use, and desperately trying to hold it together with a staple gun.

Four skull recommendation out of four