The sequel to Beetlejuice is almost here, and director Tim Burton has shared his feelings on the original, and what he did to prepare for the second one.

Beetlejuice isn’t exactly a cult classic, as it did pretty well at the box office compared to its budget at the time of its release, but it’s definitely a film with a bit of a cult following. Clearly that following is big enough to get a sequel off the ground, but appearing at the Venice Film Festival (via Deadline), it appears that director Tim Burton doesn’t quite understand why it was so successful and developed such a following. “As much as I love it, I never understood why it was a success,” Burton said of the original film.

“I could never place the film as something other than personal to me. So after all these years being able to work with Michael [Keaton], Winona [Ryder] and Catherine [O’Hara] again made it more personal and special along with Jenna [Ortega], Monica [Belluci], Justin [Theroux] and Willem [Dafoe] – new people who got into the spirit of it. So it was a very personal project for me.”

When returning to a sequel to a film that’s 36 years old, you’d think that the starting point would be to rewatch the original, but as it turns out Burton didn’t do that as he wasn’t setting the project as a “sequel for loads of money,” continuing, “This is just a very personal film.”

Burton also touched on the Netflix Wednesday series, which was partially made through his production company, and how the show wasn’t necessarily the reason he decided to also come back to Beetlejuice, but did give him some fresh energy.

“Over the past few years, I got disillusioned with the movie business,” Burton said. “So I knew if I was going to do something I wanted to do it from my heart. I lost myself a bit, so this movie was re-energizing. Getting back to the things I love and working with the people I love. With this one, it didn’t matter how it turned out. I just enjoyed making it with these people.”

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is out September 4 internationally, and September 6 in the US – and don’t forget you can buy your tickets through Roblox, for some reason.