I saw the original Beetlejuice in the cinema in 1988. I was nineteen years old, I was at university, and I went with a group of friends on a Tuesday afternoon because the tickets were cheaper and none of us had lectures. I remember laughing until I couldn't breathe at the waiting room scene. I remember Winona Ryder's Lydia Deetz — the black dress, the veil, the particular quality of her deadpan delivery — and thinking that she was one of the most interesting characters I'd seen in a film that year. I went home and told my flatmate she had to see it. She did. We talked about it for weeks.
Thirty-six years later, my fifteen-year-old daughter found the original Beetlejuice on a streaming service, watched it alone in her room on a Saturday afternoon, came downstairs and said "Mum, why didn't you tell me about this film?"
I told her I had been waiting for the right moment for fifteen years. She didn't believe me. She's probably right not to.
Beetlejuice 2 and the Cinema Trip
When Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was announced, my daughter — who had by this point watched the original four times and developed strong opinions about every character — declared that we were going to see it together on opening weekend. This was not a request. I agreed immediately, because she was right, and because the idea of seeing a Beetlejuice sequel with my daughter who had discovered the original herself felt like something worth doing properly.
We went on the Saturday. We sat in the middle of the cinema with popcorn and the particular anticipatory energy of two people who both care about what they're about to see. The film was wonderful — funny and strange and visually extraordinary, and Winona Ryder's Lydia, now an adult with her own complicated life and her own daughter, was everything I'd hoped she would be. My daughter grabbed my arm at one point during a particularly good scene and said "she's so good" in a whisper, and I said "I know" and meant it in two different ways simultaneously.
Why the Lydia Deetz Figure
I wanted to mark the occasion. Not in a grand way — just in the way that you mark things that matter, with a small, specific object that will sit somewhere and remind you of the experience every time you see it. I'd been thinking about what that object might be when I found the Funko POP! Movies Beetlejuice 2 Lydia Deetz Vinyl Figure.
It was immediately, obviously right. Lydia is the character who connects the two films, the character who connects my 1988 cinema experience to my daughter's 2024 one. A figure of Lydia from Beetlejuice 2 — the version of the character that we'd seen together, that had made my daughter grab my arm in the dark — was exactly the right object to mark exactly the right experience.
The 9cm Funko Pop! format captures Lydia's distinctive aesthetic within the brand's signature stylised design. The gothic sensibility, the particular quality of her look in the sequel — it reads clearly and immediately in the figure. The window display box means she's fully visible without opening the packaging, which is how I wanted to give it to my daughter: able to see exactly what it was the moment she unwrapped it.
Giving It to Her
I gave it to her the week after the cinema trip, wrapped simply, no occasion. She opened it, looked at it, looked at me, and said "Mum, this is perfect" in the tone of voice she uses when she means it rather than when she's being polite. She has a very clear distinction between the two and I have learned to tell them apart over fifteen years.
It's on her desk now, next to her monitor. She's since bought a Beetlejuice figure to go alongside it, which she chose herself and which she placed next to Lydia with the careful deliberateness of someone who has thought about the arrangement. She has also, since the cinema trip, rewatched the original twice more and started reading about Tim Burton's other films. The figure sits on her desk and the interest keeps expanding outward from it, which is what the best gifts do.
On Sharing Things You Love
There's a particular pleasure in watching someone you love discover something you loved first — and a different but equally particular pleasure in discovering something new alongside them. The Beetlejuice experience with my daughter was both of those things simultaneously, which is rare and worth noting. The 1988 film was mine first. The 2024 sequel was ours together. Lydia Deetz, across both films, was the thread connecting them.
The figure on her desk is a small monument to that. To a Saturday afternoon in a cinema, to popcorn and a grabbed arm in the dark, to thirty-six years between one Beetlejuice and another, and to a fifteen-year-old who found the original on streaming and came downstairs to tell me about it.
My Verdict
If you have a Beetlejuice fan in your life — of either generation, of either film — the Funko POP! Movies Beetlejuice 2 Lydia Deetz Vinyl Figure is the gift that gets it right. Find it in our Toys collection and our wider Toys & Games collection. It's showtime.
— Vivienne Cross
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