Film Review - Ghostbusters: Afterlife (12A)

 Maybe it's the Apocalypse. 

Ghostbusters: Afterlife is the fourth film in the Ghostbusters franchise, and the most satisfying episode to build on the 1984 original. That's not to say it's perfect, and let's be candid here, none of them are - not even the first one. But it does achieve a lot that a sequel should, particularly the kind that show up decades down the line with an audience of fans pining for nostalgia.

The Spengler family, mother and grandchildren of late Ghostbuster Egon Spengler, relocate to the rural town of Summerville, having inherited his farmhouse, a gaunt and decrepit pile in the mode of the Bates home from Psycho. While teenage Trevor (Stranger Things' Finn Wolfhard) staves off boredom at the local fast-food restaurant, his introverted kid sister Phoebe feeds her science nerdiness by exploring her grandfather's later life paranormal obsessions, while making a psychic connection of her own in her new home. Meanwhile earth tremors and other portents of apocalyptic doom are a-brewing in Summerville, and, frankly there's no one to call. That's unless Phoebe, Trevor, and some new friends learn how to use the proton packs in Egon's secret basement, and get his cranky old Cadillac running.

Here's the truth about me and Ghostbusters - in terms of 1984, I was always more a Gremlins guy. I enjoyed the original film, with the ensemble dynamic and all Bill Murray's wisecracks, Slimer and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, the hearse-mobile and the Ray Parker Jnr. theme song, but as Netflix's recent The Movies That Made Us documentary reminded us, the underlying mythology is slapdash and pretty thin. Ghostbusters II reworked all the first film's plot beats without adding much that was new, while 2016's all-girl reboot was more of the same, only with weaker jokes. (It also triggered a load of culture war bullshit, but set that aside - the movie simply wasn't original or funny enough to stand up.) Afterlife, however, gets a few basic things right, that help it stand out as properly worthwhile.

Directed and co-written by Jason Reitman, son of Ghostbusters '84 director Ivan, it gets out of NYC, transferring all the supernatural malarky to a magnificently shot Oklahoma landscape. At its centre it puts a likeable young cast, with Carrie Coon and Paul Rudd as Mom and a ghostbuster fanboy science teacher respectively, giving it a family drama vibe in place of the been-there done-that urban workplace comedy. The tropes established in the first film are drawn out gradually, emerging from under the surface of what appears to be a whole other film, while a new batch of relationships are established. In addition that familial connection between lead protagonist Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) and Egon (Harold Ramis being the one original buster no longer with us), carries real emotional weight. It's more than just business as usual, and that in itself is refreshing.

Where the film suffers drags in momentum, and dialogue between the leads that often fails to spark. Grace is a likeable lead, and newcomer Logan Kim is a real audience-pleaser as her new friend Podcast, but there's nothing in the screenplay to compensate for the interplay of the original gang. Rudd is an amiable presence as ever, and the source of some neat '80s callback jokes, but neither he nor anyone else is given the level of acerbic wit granted to Bill Murray back in the day. The movie's mid-section is pretty lifeless (pun not intended) as a result. Thankfully the proceedings gain speed along with the Caddy, as the plot gears up for its climax - aided by developments that should delight all true Ghostbusters aficionados, while stirring the emotions of relative GB agnostics like me. New spins are found on old visual gags, and teases regarding the classic film are delivered upon in satisfying fashion. Best of all comedy legend Ramis gets his due in an unexpected but 100% appropriate fashion.

Ghostbusters is for the fans - the real ones - and its liberal scattering of Easter eggs, along with its final-act celebratory twists (still allowing its young new heroes to shine), provides it with purpose and heart. It's not brilliant, but it is its own beast, and it's sufficiently fun to remind us why the '84 ghostbusting squad are remembered with such fondness. (For all that it's not as good as Gremlins. Just saying.)

Gut Reaction: First act - intrigued. Second act - bit sleepy. Final act - invested again, and more heart-warmed than I'd expected. So that's okay.

Memorable Moment: Marshmallow mayhem (where they were definitely referencing Gremlins!).

Ed's Verdict: 6/10. Ghostbusters: Afterlife really misses the punchy script-writing of Dan Ackroyd and Harold Ramis, but it plays its nostalgia cards well, and is worth the experience. Now it's time to lay the franchise to rest.