I Watch Films: Ghostbusters: Afterlife

Ghostbusters: Afterlife

It seems the way to make a successful Ghostbusters sequel is to not copy Ghostbusters, and instead to change genres. From small business sitcom/action comedy to action family adventure? Riffing off the 80s but in a different way, doing the Spielberg thing.

Egon Spengler from Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters 2 dies, leaving his house to his daughter Callie. She takes her two children Phoebe and Trevor to Oklahoma to try and figure out what to do, also because she’s on the verge of getting evicted. It turns out Egon was on the trail of the guy who built the Shandor Building in New York, which was a temple/dimensional gateway to the Sumerian god/demon Zuul (see Ghostbusters (1984)). Here in Summerville Oklahoma is the mine/quarry Shandor used for the building.

The two kids stumble on to the mystery from different directions, Phoebe being a science nerd goes to a summer school run extremely laxly by Gary, a seismologist trying to find out why there are inexplicable shocks around here. She also meets a local kid interested in weird stuff, who is nicknamed "Podcast" because he podcasts about it. And she’s being guided by the ghost of Egon to his equipment.

Trevor meanwhile makes friends with a local teen “Lucky” and goes with her and some friends to their hang out spot – on the mountain where the mine/quarry is. He also discovers a car in an outbuilding and repairs it. It’s ECTO-1 (see Ghostbusters (1984)).

The kids go ghostbusting while Callie is on a date with Gary, get in trouble with the law. It’s still a comedy. It still hits the same beats as previous Ghostbuster films. (It’s even more in love with the trappings of the Ghostbusters, and it’s impossible to miss the symbolism of kids refurbishing the old equipment and [SPOILERS] the old Ghostbusters coming out of retirement). It still says that the authorities don’t know what’s going on. But by framing it through the experience of the children, learning about the distant past (of 1984 [weeps]), it makes it a different film. The adults are still ridiculous, but the children are serious (not Podcast).

Watch This: A family friendly Ghostbuster-y adventure film
Don’t Watch This: You don’t know or care what a ghost trap, a proton pack or ECTO-1 are