‘I swear, the afterlife is so random,’ deadpans Jenna Ortega during one particularly sticky supernatural situation, and she ain’t wrong. In a piece of casting that could hardly be more apt, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice adds the Wednesday actor to the mix and ups the madcap ante quite considerably in a film that sees director Tim Burton return to the territory of his 1988 comedy horror classic, accompanied by original stars Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara.

Ortega plays Astrid Deetz, the troubled, disbelieving daughter of the original’s Lydia (Ryder) who is now a TV psychic on a Most Haunted-style show. O’Hara is back as Lydia’s artist stepmother, Delia, an amusingly melodramatic Marina Abramović-like figure who has found her own fame. When Astrid rebels against her embarrassing family and gets into a spot of spooky bother on the other side, Lydia and Delia require the assistance of old foe Betelgeuse (Keaton), a ghost and bio-exorcist who is being pursued by a soul-sucking ex (Monica Bellucci).

Throwing in animated sequences, dance routines, deranged sight gags and culminating in a spectacularly bizarre musical number, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is an outrageously cartoony confection bursting with so much invention and full-throttle fun it’s impossible to take it all in. The cast are sublime: Keaton is a repulsive riot, Ryder does fine, more nuanced comedic work, Ortega gives it some heart, while O’Hara and Bellucci camp and vamp it up respectively. Also thrown in for excellent measure are Justin Theroux – hilarious as Lydia’s smarmy, obvious wrong-un of a beau – while Willem Dafoe is a hoot as a deceased B movie actor masquerading as a hard-boiled detective.

The script (from Alfred Gough and Miles Millar) could have been sharper and the story sometimes buckles under the weight of all the characters and chaos, but the performances and visuals are so spirited that it’s genuinely hard to care. If we say the eponymous mischief-maker’s name three times, perhaps we can summon him for Beetlejuice 3.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is in cinemas from Friday 6 September.