Summary
The originalGhostbustersreleased in 1984. A lighthearted horror comedy, the film starred Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis as a group of ghost hunters based in New York City. Kicked out of their university jobs for their supernatural pursuits, the group would form a ghost hunting unit and go on to save the city from a spectral god of destruction. The film had a budget of $30 million, quite high for the time period. The film was released with relatively modest expectations, due to the high special effects costs and multiple conceptual reworks the movie had gone through.
Upon release, however,Ghostbusterswas an immediate smash hit. It was the highest-grossing comedy ever released at that time, earning $282 million during its initial theatrical run. The film was a massive critical success as well, withGhostbustersbeing praised for its dark humor, practical effects, and performances, especially Bill Murray’s. It seemed obvious right away thatGhostbusterswasn’t just a great movie, it was a cultural phenomenon with franchise potential.
Rotten Tomatoes Score
95% Critic Score, 88% Audience Score
So what was it aboutGhostbustersthat everyone loved so much? The film did an excellent job balancing the supernatural elements with a lighthearted, sarcastic tone. This ensured thatGhostbusterswas spooky, but not really scary. A lot of people love the aesthetics of horror and Halloween but don’t really like being scared, and so they gravitate towardsthings likeScooby-DooandThe Addams Family.Ghostbustersfits in perfectly with these franchises, as something with a scary atmosphere that isn’t actually too extreme for anyone.
What’s even more important to the success ofGhostbusters,however, is the humor which keeps the tone lighthearted. The comedy present in the movie is extremely dark, dry, and insincere. Nothing is taken overly seriously. This is both what makes the film so funny and keeps it from veering too far into horror territory. The audience has no reason to feel afraid of ghosts because no one in the movie is either.
Part of the whole joke ofGhostbustersis that the movie takes the idea of ghost hunting, a concept which is otherworldly and theoretically fantastical, and turns it into something rather mundane. For the Ghostbusters, ghost hunting becomes something as simple and tedious as being an exterminator. Jobs are handled not with fear, but with a cautious sense of apathy. The Ghostbusters eventually take on a fourth member, Winston, who joins not out of any passion for the paranormal, but who was simply looking for a job.
The general public does not believe in ghosts,until the Ghostbusters prove their existenceand supernatural activity begins to grow across the city. After this happens, however, there is no great cultural shift or idolization of the Ghostbusters. The existence of ghosts simply becomes another aspect of life to work around, and the Ghostbusters become just another service to call as one would a plumber or carpenter. The very identity of the originalGhostbustershinges on the fact that it does not take itself seriously.
Why The Ghostbusters Franchise Isn’t Working
As with any iconic property from the 80s,Ghostbusterswas bound to be franchised, riddled with reboots and legacy sequels attempting to capture some of that same cultural lightning. Unfortunately, none of the followups have managed to capture what made the original film such a success.
Surprisingly, this isn’t strictly a modern problem. Even back in the 80s, the very first attempts to recreate the success ofGhostbustersmissed the mark. The film wasfollowed up with a sequel,Ghostbusters II,in 1989. This film aimed to be more family friendly than the original, losing much of the dry humor that made the original so unique. The film was mandated by the studio and seemed to have been made begrudgingly, setting a path for the future of the franchise. The sequel drastically underperformed critically and commercially, temporarily killing the franchise. The first film was also followed up byThe RealGhostbusters,an animated series starring Lorenzo Music and Frank Welker. The show was fine for what it was, but was very clearly aimed at children, focusing on silly antics and monster-of-the-day storylines.
While neither of these followups were anywhere near as high quality as the originalGhostbusters,they did at least have the advantage of recency, coming pretty quickly after the release of the first film. Recent attempts to revitalize the franchise have had to overcome the gap in time between now and the original movie coming out. One of the main ways they’ve tried to do that has been attempting to appeal to a sense of sentimentality within the franchise, which is an odd decision, because when it started the franchise had no sentimentality to it.
Ghostbusters: Afterlifewas a legacy sequel released in 2021. A direct followup to the original movies, the film was set thirty years later and featured the original cast, with the exception of Harold Ramis, who had passed away years earlier. In marketing, the movie played into a deep sense of nostalgia, complete with a lofty piano rendition of the original theme song. Thisis a fine marketing technique, of course, but this tone carried over into the film itself.Ghostbusters: Afterlife, both in universe and as a movie, treats the concept ofGhostbusterswith extreme sensitivity. The Ghostbusters are remembered in universe as heroes. They have a mantle to be picked up and worn by the next generation, a legacy to be upheld. The existence of ghosts is an enormous threat to the world order, taken seriously by everyone, and is required to be dealt with by the Ghostbusters immediately.
All of this, of course, is directly contrary to what made the original movie so unique and iconic. What made the Ghostbusters funny was that they weren’t revered as heroes even though the task they were taking on was monumental. They took on the supernatural and were casual about it, often going underappreciated. The second film begins, in fact, with the Ghostbusters having been sued out of existence for damages they caused while saving the world in the first film.
The main cast wasn’t even all interested in ghost hunting. Peter Venkman only cared about it as a means to become famous and pick up women. Winston and Janine were both completely uninterested in ghost hunting. They only became involved with the team because they needed jobs and saw openings with the Ghostbusters. That was another joke in the first film, that something as fantastical as ghost hunting could be tainted by the bureaucratic boredom of job applications and interviews. And yet, in the promotional material forthe upcoming movieGhostbusters: Frozen Empire,Janine is shown as a part of the team with costume and weapons in tow, as if that’s something she ever would have wanted. It’s a fundamental misunderstanding of the source material.
The attempt to play offGhostbustersas a sincere, sentimental cultural presence will never feel natural and will keep any attempted sequel from reaching the heights of the original movie.The 2016Ghostbustersrebootwith Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig, any controversial aspects of it aside, was not a good movie. Ironically though, it stands as probably the most faithful followup to the originalGhostbustersthus far, because it at least leans into the mean spirited, ironic nature that madeGhostbustersso funny in the first place. There might come a day where aGhostbusterssequel manages to capture the tone and wit of the original movie. As of right now, though,Ghostbustersfinds itself in a similar situation asJurassic Park; franchises held up entirely off of the strengths of a genuinely fantastic original movie, followed by an endless string of sequels that completely miss the point.
