Goldbeater

I'm not a fan of the original Beetlejuice, so I went into the sequel unburdened by any expectations, but this really isn't my cup of tea. I'm sorry that Tim Burton has now traded his previously stylish and lush morbidity for nothing but infantile and recycled morbidity. When Michael Keaton wasn't rocking the screen (really, the highlight of both films), all the other humour absolutely passed me by. The plot holds together about as well as a house of cards, the way the bad guys are handled points to the fact that they were really only in the film as a crutch to move the plot along, and the main characters are almost insufferable. I appreciate the return to practical effects and stop-motion animation (or, for the first time in years, Burton has made a film whose visuals don't make me downright nauseous), but it doesn't really improve my overall impression.

As much as I want to like those cavernous Italian horror films, this one unfortunately doesn't even look good. Plus as far as Umberto Lenzi is concerned, in Nightmare City I wondered (was shocked) at how the director was unable to wrap up the story and chose the cheapest way to get around it. And now I see that the inability to wrap up the plot was simply his modus operandi.

Osgood Perkins is in complete control of the style, as we learn within the first few minutes, and without a doubt in control of the content, as his satanic-tinged crime horror works very well, is suspenseful, surprising, and is already one of the genre events of the year. I was almost taken aback by how it really grabbed me. Nicolas Cage and his creations are once again the stuff of legends. It's also quite funny that Perkins is able to use in such a focused film the properties that we would attribute more to James Wan (a demonic doll, a character with glowing eyes under a black veil, houses with many dark corners, a recurring pop song), but uses them in a completely measured, non-shallow and clever way (which is also why his next film will be produced by who else but James Wan). A great surprise, a quality horror film, and definitely an achievement worthy of a visit to the cinema.