That “soul sucker,” as she’s called, is named Delores. Her mission is to find her ex, Beetlejuice, and kill him. It doesn’t matter that he’s already dead — she can still kill someone more death. The results are not pretty. Bellucci is considered one of the most beautiful actors of her time, so I bet she loved turning into a Frankenstein monster, sponsored by Swingline.

Meanwhile, back in the land of the living, Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) has turned her gift for seeing ghosts (as established in the first film) into a show called “Ghost House.” The show is named after the haunted house she shared as a teenager with her father, Charles (played by Jeffrey Jones in “Beetlejuice”), and stepmother, Delia (Catherine O’Hara). The show follows Lydia as she communicates with spirits in other people’s haunted houses.

Lydia is honest, even when her brooding daughter, Astrid (Jenna Ortega), thinks she’s a fraud. Delia calls Lydia and Astrid’s animosity an act of karma; Lydia had been just as mean to her stepmother when she was a teenager. She preferred the company of the ghosts who haunted her home, Adam and Barbara Maitland.

The Maitlands eventually found a loophole and were able to escape from the Deetz home. (That loophole was Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis, who did not reprise their roles.) But Lydia is still surrounded by death. As “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” begins, we learn that she is a widow when her husband drowns. Delia is also a widow — Charles met a horrific fate involving sharks while bird watching.

“He traveled halfway around the world to see birds do this,” Delia says, “and it got him killed!”

Charles, like everyone else in the Beetlejuice universe, ends up in the waiting room of the afterlife. The underworld has expanded to include an office full of employees with shrunken heads and a police force led by Wolf Jackson (a hilarious Willem Dafoe). Jackson isn’t a real cop, but he’s played one in movies. His path to the afterlife was made possible by a real grenade that he thought was a prop.

The afterlife also includes a soul train inspired by — you guessed it — the TV series “Soul Train.” I really hope this locomotive still exists when I kick the bucket.

The plot kicks into gear when Lydia begins hallucinating manifestations of Beetlejuice. Her slimy boyfriend, “Ghost House” producer Rory (Justin Theroux), chides her with new-agey platitudes while ignoring her distress. Rory even utters the dreaded three B-words in an attempt to discredit Lydia.

That mansplaining episode doesn’t quite pan out the way he expected. But it does give Keaton one of many chances to do his thing. He’s funnier this time around in a sequel that’s better than its predecessor, but Beetlejuice is also a lot more crude and violent.

Though often laugh-out-loud funny and inventive, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar’s ​​screenplay has too much plot. In addition to dealing with Dolores’ reign of terror and the death of a major character, there’s also a young love storyline in which Astrid falls for a handsome boy named Jeremy (Arthur Conti). Given that this is a Tim Burton film, it’s safe to assume that the love story is the most twisted subplot of them all.

Still, the actors manage to hold our interest and make the film believable. Ryder is fiercely maternal and combative. O’Hara’s comic timing is impeccable. Keaton is as mean as he wants to be, but Theroux knows how to be even more comically repulsive.

While she delivers a solid performance, Ortega is the weak link here, if only because her character reminds you of how good Ryder’s surly teenager was in the original.

But the real stars of “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” are the set design and effects work. Some of the undead look nasty enough to send older kids into a spiral of joy. It’s all accompanied by Danny Elfman’s brooding score and the memorable theme he wrote for the first film.

Though the Harry Belafonte songs that brightened up “Beetlejuice” are missing, the sequel does feature a morbidly funny cover of “Banana Boat (Day-O).” Burton and co. also pay homage to the original’s best scene by staging another impromptu lip-synching scene in which the cast becomes possessed by a song.

I won’t spoil the surprise by revealing the song’s title; I’ll just say that it’s the kind of annoying earworm that burrows into your head and drives you as crazy as Beetlejuice would.

★★★

BEETLE JUICE BEETLE JUICE

Directed by Tim Burton. Written by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar. Starring Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, Monica Bellucci, Jenna Ortega, Justin Theroux, Danny DeVito. At AMC Boston Common, Landmark Kendall Square, Alamo Drafthouse Seaport, AMC Causeway, Suburbs. 104 minutes. Rated PG-13 (The afterlife is a gruesome place, in word and deed)

Odie Henderson is a film critic for the Boston Globe.