What is Ghostbusters? Is it an Amblin-esque franchise steeped in nostalgia, or a skeezy comedy series?
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This is the question I’ve been asking myself again and again, following the recent release of the full-length Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire trailer. After all, both Frozen Empire and its immediate predecessor, 2021 Ghostbusters: Afterlife, adopt a decidedly reverential approach to the iconic 80s property. Both could easily slot into the Amblin library, alongside the likes of E.T. and Back to the Future.
Ghostbusters’ True Spirit Is Snark, Not Sentiment
But is this sentimental tone true to Ghostbusters‘ original spirit? Not really. On the contrary, the 1984 flick that launched the franchise works as well as it does because it’s irreverent, not self-serious. It’s a movie in which Bill Murray’s Peter Venkman shamelessly hits on Sigourney Weaver’s Dana Barrett, and Dan Aykroyd’s Ray Stantz gets a blowj*b from an unseen apparition – and enjoys it.
The raunchy jokes, snide backhanders, and sketchy pick-up lines runneth over. 1989’s Ghostbusters II is the same. All four Ghostbusters get off their fair share of zingers – even Harold Ramis’ nerdy Egon Spengler! – and Venkman is, once again, trying to talk Dana into bed.
Is there a feel-good ending? Sure; it’s an upbeat comedy, after all. But it’s rooted in a love for New York City that’s surprisingly earnest, but, crucially, doesn’t play off our emotional attachment to the Ghostbusters’ earlier adventure. There’s no nostalgia in Ghostbusters II. Admittedly, it recycles some of the first film’s ideas, however, apart from a Slimer cameo, Ghostbusters II culls little from the franchise’s past.
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Ghostbusters II doesn’t treat Venkmann, Stanz, Spengler, and or Ernie Hudson’s Winston Zeddemore like larger-than-life heroes, either. When the movie kicks off, the team is out of business and it’s played for laughs. The Ghostbusters got together to make a buck – they only ended up in the city-saving game accidentally. They’re a band of well-meaning schlubs, not the Avengers, and the filmmakers know it.
The 2016 Ghostbusters reboot – for all its many, many faults – understood this, too. For the most part, that film avoided nostalgic nods in favor of telling its own story headed up by new characters without any franchise baggage. How good that story was is debatable, however, the veneration-free spirit of the piece was bang-on.
Indeed, the Ghostbusters reboot is arguably at its weakest on the few occasions it does resort to confusing cameos and callbacks.
The New Ghostbusters Movies Are How We Remember the Franchise
This brings us back to Ghostbusters Afterlife. Not only does this belated sequel sand off the originals’ rough edges (no spectral sex acts here, kids), but it leans hard into the franchise’s history. More than that, Afterlife mines our affection for that history, conveying solemnity on classic characters and props in a way that feels absurd. Heck, a vintage ghost trap is treated like a sacred relic, akin to a long-lost lightsaber!
Yet it’s also somewhat understandable, given the circ*mstances. Afterlife weaves Ramis’ death into its story, so it was bound to be more sincere than earlier installments. Even so, the balance ultimately tips too far in that direction, snuffing out the franchise’s cheeky spark. The best we get is Goonies-lite sass and half-hearted Venkman patter, in a wholesome adventure that’s more Steven Spielberg than Ivan Reitman.
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Based on its trailers, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire will walk a similar line. Moments like Annie Potts’s Janine Melnitz strapping on a proton pack are treated as momentous events – the stuff of legend, even. In this revisionist canon, there’s no intersection between the fantastical and the mundane. Everything is fantastical, everything is full of wonder.
In short: it’s how we remember Ghostbusters. It’s what we feel when we recall watching the original movies for the first time. But it’s not what Ghostbusters actually is. Ghostbusters isn’t a hallowed legacy piece, even though it does, indeed, have quite a legacy. No, it’s a charming, irreverent romp full of snarky asides and, yes, ghostly blowj*bs.
It’s a skeezy comedy series and not a nostalgia-fueled relic of the classic Amblin era.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire arrives in cinemas on March 22, 2024.
