DVD Review: Ghostbusters: Afterlife

Ghostbusters: Afterlife

(DVD Ghostbusters)

 

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021), a direct sequel to the first two Ghostbusters films (1984 and 1989 respectively), succeeds by combining a lot of direct references to the originals with a completely new setting and somewhat different tone. Director Jason Reitman (son of the original’s writer/director Ivan Reitman, capably takes the franchise in a new direction, while remaining true to the spirit of the original, unlike the 2016 film Ghostbusters: Answer the Call, which merely tried to reboot the franchise, and badly misfired along the way.

 

In Ghostbusters: Afterlife, struggling single mother Callie Spengler (Carrie Coon) packs up her teenage son Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and 11-year-old science nerd daughter Phoebe (McKenna Grace) and drags them across the country to the middle of nowhere — Summerville, Oklahoma. Callie’s estranged father, Egon, moved there decades ago and became something of an eccentric hermit. Egon has recently passed away (actor Harold Ramis, who played Egon Spengler in the two original films, died in 2014), and she has inherited his remote country house and the property surrounding it. Trevor attempts to fit in with the local teens, while Phoebe is more interested in exploring the various scientific experiments her late grandfather left behind — though she does befriend “Podcast”, a young classmate obsessed with his social media output.

 

As unexplained seismic events occur in the surrounding countryside, Phoebe, Podcast and Trevor uncover the original Ghostbusters’ ectomobile, uniforms, proton packs and ghost traps. Local teacher (and fellow science nerd) Gary Gruberson (Paul Rudd), helps them connect the dots enough to realize who Egon really was and that the original Ghostbusters were actually real and not just urban legends.

 

The second half of Ghostbusters: Afterlife is filled with tons of throwback references to many of the things that made the 1984 Ghostbusters such a huge hit. However, this film relies more on its character relationships and development, than with the gee-whiz technology, wild special effects and snarky dialog. This film has serious heart, and in the end is a love letter to the original film and its cast. It doesn’t hurt that most of the original’s surviving cast members make significant appearances in this film, without stealing the spotlight from the “next generation”. In fact, to be honest, McKenna Grace completely steals this film as Phoebe, with her eerie similarity to Egon. Production design, effects work (done in such as way as to recreate the style of effects from the 1984 film), costume design, and cinematography are all great. I also loved the soundtrack, in which composer Rob Simonsen managed to both pay tribute to, and build on, the work of Elmer Bernstein from the first film.

 

While I’ll readily admit that Ghostbusters: Afterlife has numerous plot and logic holes, it was still easily my favorite new film of 2021. It succeeds because it builds on the history of the Ghostbusters, instead of trying to rewrite that history. As someone who grew up with the 1984 film as one of the pinnacles of science fiction films in my youth, this was terrific! (If you were a fan of the animated “The Real Ghostbusters” series, this movie ignore those.)

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Ghostbusters (1984), and Ghostbusters 2 (1989).)

 

( Internet Movie Database entry for this film ) | ( official www.ghostbusters.com web site )

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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