There's Afterlife in the Old Busters Yet
What is Ghostbusters? An irreverent comedy, a horror movie, a sci-fi action film, or something else? It's hard to say yet the movie itself simply works without any need to neatly inhabit a category. Lacking an obvious category has made it difficult for anyone to come up with the right sequel for it but I think 2021's Ghostbusters: Afterlife has the right idea. The original film's irreverence and ingenuity may make it seem like any follow-up should be anti-nostalgia. But the property has taken on a new life in the years since its release. Any movie is going to be different for any person watching it, but Ghostbusters has made such a mark in the collective imagination that certain impressions of it are almost as important as the original film itself. And Afterlife does have a heart of its own. I quite liked it, though not as much as I liked Ghostbusters II.
I haven't been a huge fan of Jason Reitman but I never hated him. I didn't really like Up in the Air but I thought Juno wasn't bad. I like Afterlife a lot more than either of those. He seems not to be channelling his father (director of the original Ghostbusters, Ivan Reitman) as much as he's channelling '80s Spielberg.
And, if you're going to be sentimental, you couldn't pick a better role model. The harried, broke mother and her kids seem like they came from the E.T. or Poltergeist mould--in fact, this movie feels a lot like Poltergeist. At this point, nostalgia films are such an entrenched phenomenon that examining one compels you to compare it with other nostalgia films and certainly you can see Super 8 and Stranger Things here, too.
Obviously Finn Wolfhard brings Stranger Things to mind but here he's playing a kind of surly, horny kid that actually does feel closer to real '80s films than the rosy filter of some of Stranger Things. But the movie's focus is more on Mckenna Grace as his younger sister, Phoebe. And, boy, is she good.
She's both her own character and quite believably the granddaughter of Egon. Phoebe's classmate, who goes by the nickname "Podcast" (Logan Kim), is also good, playing an enthusiastic occult nerd, clearly meant to be Ray Stantz, The Next Generation. Wolfhard's love interest, a waitress at a roller hop called Lucky (Celeste O'Connor) is pretty but her character's not really developed. In a movie already so crowded with characters, she didn't really need to be developed but I think I'd have enjoyed it.
Paul Rudd's in this thing, too, you know, as a high school science teacher. He's great and comes off as funny in the manner of an irresponsible but intelligent small town teacher instead of in the manner of a comedic actor. I love when he puts on a VHS copy of Cujo for the kids to watch instead of teaching them. It reminded me of the many times in high school when I had a teacher just put Back to the Future in the player because he didn't have any lesson plan for the day.
The action scenes are surprisingly effective, for which I'd credit Grace's performance and the terrific sound design. On the subject of sound, the film wisely uses the themes composed by Elmer Bernstein for the original film. More than anything, it takes Afterlife back to the '80s when, after Star Wars, it became newly important for every movie to have a set of melodic themes.
The end of the movie has a few things that were designed to be big surprises but which were spoiled for me by one of Sony's teaser trailers. But I won't get into them in case you're lucky enough to have somehow avoided such spoilers. I will say it didn't bring me to tears, as was evidently the reaction of many fans, but I thought it was nice. Hints that this ending will lead to further films in the franchise were even better.
I will tell you something surprising that isn't exactly a huge spoiler--Olivia Wilde has an uncreditted role in the film. This might not seem particularly interesting to you but I will add it's the best performance I've ever seen from her. I also appreciated the Lovecraftian feel to the villains in this movie which is certainly another thing that hearkens back to the original. The scene of Olivia Wilde tearing her way through a corn field to the old farm house had a really nice, '80s horror feel to it.
It's a good movie. It's not without flaws. A few things don't add up (why did Egon spray paint all that stuff around the farm?) but the good points outweigh the bad. I really appreciated the point about some people having to go off and work on their own because they have a vision that other people don't. This, more than any cgi or special effect, connects Egon and Phoebe nicely in the film as Phoebe's mother played by Carrie Coon, who's also Egon's daughter, struggles to appreciate both characters for the same reason. Ghostbusters has been about teamwork in its many iterations but Afterlife realises the original also contained a message about the world benefitting because some people don't listen to the better judgement of their peers.
Twitter Sonnet #1509
A cactus waits alone beneath the spines.
Behind the chain, a saw endures the cold.
Confined to casks a mood beset the wines.
A spirit haunts the frozen, empty hold.
Extended seconds steal the hour's light.
Another set of bagels graced the plate.
A mochi man could bake the will to fight.
The armour setting skipped a destined date.
With thoughts of light and shade the picture moves.
A ghost replaces flesh before its time.
The wheels of bone would scream in bloody grooves.
In drafty yards there rang a frightful chime.
A nervous laughter drifts behind the pine.
A hungry ghost demands a sun to shine.