Beetlejuice 2's MPA Rating Has More Intense Warnings Than Tim Burton's 1988 Original

Did you know that "Beetlejuice" is rated PG? One can only fathom what demonic force Tim Burton struck a bargain with to secure that rating for his beloved 1988 horror-comedy. In case you had forgotten, this is a movie in which Michael Keaton's Ghost With the Most drops one of the all-time greatest f-bombs before honking his d**k, gleefully mimes jerking off, and loiters around a supernatural strip club titled "Dante's Inferno Room." Meanwhile, Geena Davis rips her own face off and holds Alec Baldwin's bloodied, decapitated head at one point (they're already dead, so it's no biggie). This was also a few years out from the "stealth horror" of "Gremlins" and "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" leading to the creation of the PG-13, which makes it that much more impressive just how many gnarly creatures and naughty moments Burton was able to sneak by the infamously uptight, conservative ratings board.

36 years later, there's a whole lot that "Beetlejuice" couldn't get away with today, not least of all casting Jeffrey Jones as the hapless patriarch Charles Deetz (though that's for very different and gravely serious reasons). It should come as no surprise, then, that Burton and "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" scribes Alfred Gough and Miles Millar failed to repeat that trick with their upcoming sequel, which is now officially rated PG-13. The trailers for the film are certainly loaded to the gills with PG-13 mayhem, including Beetlejuice literally spilling his guts and undead characters stapling their faces together or re-attaching their heads. Keaton's bio-exorcist still seems intent on getting Winona Ryder's Lydia Deetz to marry him, too, though at least the former teen goth queen is actually age-appropriate now (or at least as age-appropriate as a living human can ever be when it comes to wedding a semi-immortal ghoul).

"Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" follows the Deetzes back to their old home in Winter River, including Lydia, her off-kilter artist mother Delia (Catherine O'Hara), and Lydia's unruly teen daughter Astrid, played by Burton, Gough, and Millar's "Wednesday" star Jenna Ortega. No doubt, Warner Bros. is hoping to court Ortega's Gen-Z and younger fans as much as, if not more than, older filmgoers nostalgic for Burton's glory days in the '80s, with the studio's marketing splitting its attention pretty evenly between Keaton's hijinks and the original cast, and Ortega's angsty high school heroine getting sucked into an afterlife misadventure of her own. That also makes the film's PG-13 rating kind of a no-brainer.

Speaking of which: the MPA has now unveiled an official explanation for its ruling, citing the film's "violent content, macabre and bloody images, strong language, some suggestive material and brief drug use." Really, that all sounds par for the course for Burton. Save for his occasional ventures into adult territory (like his exceptionally bloody "Sleepy Hollow" and "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" movie adaptations) and more family-oriented offerings with the stop-motion features "Corpse Bride" and "Frankenweenie," the filmmaker typically prefers that sweet spot where he can indulge his whimsical, macabre inclinations without alienating his younger admirers entirely. That "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" also looks more or less on the same intensity level as the original movie is all the more encouraging for those of us who really, really just want to like — and, dare we dream, even love — one of his films again.

Justin Theroux, Monica Bellucci, Willem Dafoe, and Burn Gorman round out the cast of "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice," which will jump in the line, rock your body in time into theaters on September 6, 2024.