Tim Burton never understood why his 1988 film Beetlejuice was such a success.

The Sleepy Hollow director didn’t revisit his original fantasy comedy before making the sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, because he didn’t think it would be helpful.

“I didn’t watch the original again, mostly because I never knew why it was successful to begin with,” he told Variety. “So I just treated it as something that I could not think about anything more than that. Just dive in and do it quickly – like we did in the past.”

The film, starring Michael Keaton as the titular bio-exorcist, was a critical and commercial success at the time, grossing $74.7 million (£50 million) on a $15 million (£11.4 million) budget. Keaton returned for the sequel alongside Catherine O’Hara and Winona Ryder as Delia and Lydia Deetz.

The Edward Scissorhands filmmaker explained to Screen Rant that he could still “remember the feeling” of the first film so he tried to stay true to the spirit of the original during the sequel’s production by moving quickly, using practical effects and encouraging improvisation.

While talks about a sequel have been ongoing over the past 35 years, Burton admitted “nothing clicked” for a long time and it was “only fairly recently” when he felt like he had a way into a follow-up.

Explaining how he related to Lydia’s journey from teenager to adult, he said, “It’s not something I could have done back then. It’s only something you could do once you’ve experienced those things yourself. For me, it became a very personal movie; kind of a weird family movie… That’s where it really started, and it really could only have happened for me after all this time.”

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice will be released in cinemas on 6 September.

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