Christmas carols played over the speakers in Megamall, and as I do every year, I thought, “Isn’t anyone going to take up the cudgels for Spooky Season?” You know, heralding Halloween, All Saints’ Day, and All Souls’ Day with ghosts, bats, witches, jack-o’-lanterns, cemetery visits, candles, costumes, and best of all, candy? I wanted to shield my ears like a vampire violently reacting to sunlight.
But no matter — I was headed to the press screening of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the sequel to Tim Burton’s 1988 film, Beetlejuice, about a mischievous ghost and self-proclaimed “bio-exorcist” played by Michael Keaton, donning his iconic black-and-white striped suit, dark-circled eyes, and disheveled lemon-lime hair. The movie also features a haunted house on a hill and a colorful, bureaucratic afterlife.
Delia (Catherine O’Hara), Lydia (Winona Ryder) and Astrid (Jenna Ortega) attend a fall funeral in ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.’
Even with the addition of Willem Dafoe as an afterlife detective and Monica Bellucci as a femme fatale soul-sucker, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice offers nothing particularly new or original. Which may or may not be a bad thing, depending on where you are as a moviegoer. Winona Ryder, who plays Lydia Deetz, is now a combination of her goth teenage character and Joyce Byers from Stranger Things. Jenna Ortega, who plays her daughter Astrid, is in many ways still “Wednesday.” And Catherine O’Hara, who plays Delia Deetz, is still Moira from Schitt’s Creek. You can expect all the goth visuals, costumes, and set pieces typical of a Tim Burton film. I even spotted Easter eggs from his movie Sleepy Hollow. And in place of the original’s “Banana Boat (Day-O),” we now have “MacArthur Park.”
This movie is a bit like going trick-or-treating on a familiar route and enjoying the same candy — an apt reflection of the state of mainstream studio films.
If you’re more inclined to go trick-or-treating for comic book art, the SuperManila convention returns this weekend at a new venue, The Space at One Ayala. There will be plenty of guests, including Artgerm, who is scheduled to hold a workshop and do a signing. Peach Momoko will have a sketching session and will sell prints of Filipina Marvel superhero Wave at her booth.
You can pick up a Transformers comic with the jeepney Autobot variant at this weekend’s SuperManila convention.
For Transformers fans, a special comic variant featuring a jeepney Autobot on the cover will debut at the event.
The convention will feature a mix of international and local artists and will run both days, Saturday and Sunday. Tickets will also be available on-site.
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