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Ghostbusters: Afterlife sees Egon Spengler doing some going ghost-hunting in 2021, but is followed by something spooky, which forces him off the road…. hang on, Harold Ramis? Sadly, he passed away in 2014. Without giving spoilers about what happens any further in that scene, while I thought we’d have a digitised face, everything’s all done in the dark, with just a basic outline of his face. Well, I thought – let’s see what’s to come, but the basic premise in the trailer shows that the character of Egon has passed away.
In time, his daughter, Callie (Carrie Coon) – with children Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) – move into his huge, decrepit house, given that she’s in a spot of fiduciary trouble and got evicted. Having discovered Egon’s EPK meter, the nerdy daughter finds more spooky goings-on kick in and she starts putting two and two together. And we know the ECTO-1 will eventually make an appearance becuase it was in the original trailer, albeit with a very unsafe-looking gunner seat (like a modified sidecar seat).
While Trevor takes a job in a diner – and fancies Lucky (Celeste O’Connor), the girl who works there, Phoebe goes to summer school, in a class run by slacker teacher Mr Grooberson (Paul Rudd), and makes a friend in young lad Podcast (Logan Kim). Hence, it’s turning into ‘Ghostbusters: Kids‘.
Oh, and talking of decrepit, the awful 2016 reboot has been struck from the Ghostbusters canon, and it’s not included in the boxset which accompanies this release.
One thing which was obvious was how this is incredibly slow to get going, and even though this film only took $196m at the box office, against a $75m budget – and since movie studios would want a big movie to amass $600-800m on the big screen – Sony are still considering up to three sequels to follow.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife also relies on bringing back old monsters like Gozer and the Marshmallow Man, rather than doing too much that’s new (one new ghost called Muncher is about it, enemy-wise), hence, it has quite a lazy script… and I wrote that before I watched the third act and saw a blatant rip-off of the original film.
It feels more like “Here’s a collection of some good bits in the first film”, with some elements updated, such as ECTO-1’s gunner seat. Still, you’ll also see a Twinkie, and hear the words “Who you gonna call?” The predictable moments write themselves.
Plus, there’s so little humour in it. The original movie thrived on the interaction and jokes between the three leads. They had all worked together on shows like Saturday Live, and had chemistry. That is not the case, here.
For a slight goof I spotted, as Grooberson enters the Spengler house, inbetween two cuts, in one he has his hands clasped behind his back, and then he suddenly has them hanging by his side.
As a couple of asides, I couldn’t see why this is a 12-cert. It’s nothing more than a PG, since there’s a couple of mild swears. Okay, there’s a few daft slightly gory bits, but nothing that isn’t just daft or lingers on the gore, so could easily pass with parental guidance.
Elements of the original soundtrack’s incidental music coming into it, although I remember it more recently from Ghostbusters: The Video Game on the Sony PSP; and since the 2016 movie was junk, Dan Aykroyd has said that he actually thinks of the videogame’s storyline as the ‘third movie’.
Overall, Ghostbusters: Afterlife is better than the 2016 film, but then again, a broken dryer is better than a broken fridge-freezer. Both are still not the most welcome things out there, but one can be lived with a bit longer.
And I’ll add in a section which goes into more things, but includes some slight spoilers:
And there’s a mid- and post-credits scene:
As well as the film looking stunning, and the audio delivering where required, the extras are as follows:
- Summoning the Spirit: Making Ghostbusters: Afterlife (19:50): Director Jason Reitman talks about how he got his idea for the film, with other crew members joining in. Along the way, this extras shows that while a lot of CGI is used, they also used a number of practical effects, such as having a set sparking off, rather than just doing that with computer special effects; as well as a wind machine for when ghosts pass by people.
Then the key cast members are introduced, explaining their roles, plus talking about the ghostbusters outfits, and of course, Harold Ramis.
Obviously, this extra will give away big spoilers…
- The Gearhead’s Guide to Ghostbusters Gadgets (6:12): This featurette includes a trap on wheels, making it look like a 4×4, as well as planting traps under an in-studio dirt farm, that’s meant to be at Egon’s house.
- Spectral Effects: The Ghosts of Afterlife (6:29): More special effects including the new ghost, Muncher (I’m avoiding spoilers after a certain other character).
- Bringing ECTO-1 Back To Life (4:49): The car, of course, and they actually built two for this movie.
- We Got One! Easter Eggs Revealed (7:49): Morelike references back to the original films.
- Ghostbusters: A Look Back (10:37): Looking back at the original film, with everyone from that film who are in this one.
- A Look Ahead (3:44): Continuing from the previous extra.
- Deleted Scene (1:24): Entitled, “Is It Ever Too Late”…
- Audio description: Does exactly what it says on the tin.
Languages and subtitles are detailed below. There are 16 chapters for the film, which is better than most studios who just use 12, but still could do with more, especially for a film running around two hours before the closing credits kick in. I go by the rule of thumb of one every five minutes.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife is out now today 4K Blu-ray and the film is also available on Blu-ray, DVD and Amazon Video.
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FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS |
2.5 10 8 4 |
| OVERALL | 6 |
Cert: 
Running time: 124 minutes
Year: 2021
Distributor: Sony
Cat.no: PRJ1779594BD
Released: January 31st 2022
Chapters: 16
Picture: 1080p High Definition
Widescreen: 2.39:1 (ARRIRAW (4.5K), Dolby Vision, Anamorphic Panavision)
Disc Format: BD50
Languages: 5.1 DTS-HD MA (English, Italian), 5.1 (Czech, Hungarian, Polish)
Subtitles: English SDH, Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovene
Director: Jason Reitman
Producer: Ivan Reitman
Screenplay: Gil Kenan, Jason Reitman
Music: Rob Simonsen
Cast:
Callie: Carrie Coon
Grooberson: Paul Rudd
Trevor: Finn Wolfhard
Phoebe: Mckenna Grace
Podcast: Logan Kim
Lucky: Celeste O’Connor
Peter Venkman: Bill Murray
Ray Stantz: Dan Aykroyd
Winston Zeddemore: Ernie Hudson
Janine Melnitz: Annie Potts
Dana Barrett: Sigourney Weaver
The Ghost Farmer: Bob Gunton
Ivo Shandor: JK Simmons
Skittles: Shawn Seward
Zahk: Billy Bryk
Swayze: Sydney Mae Diaz
Reseda: Hannah Duke
Sheriff Domingo: Bokeem Woodbine
Bunny: Paulina Alexis
Thick Neck: Marlon Kazadi
Burner Girl: Chiara Petersen
Roller Granny: Danielle Kennedy
Rufus: Artoun Nazareth Festekjian
Crystal: Crystal Roseborough
Landlord: Dusan Rokvic
Spirit of Gozer: Emma Portner
Deputy Medjuck: Stella Aykroyd
Waitress: Kim Faires
Muncher (voice): Josh Gad
Gozer (voice): Shohreh Aghdashloo
Elton: Oliver Cooper (uncredited)
Sheriff / Restaurant: Bud Klasky (uncredited)
Hardware Store Owner: Tracy Letts (uncredited)
Diner Counter Staff: Faith Louissaint (uncredited)
Mini Stay-Puft Marshmallow Men: Sarah Natochenny (uncredited)
Dr. Egon Spengler: Harold Ramis (uncredited)
Walmart Customer: Daniel D’Angelo Sparks (uncredited)
Gozer: Olivia Wilde (uncredited)
Mini Stay-Puft Marshmallow Men: Shelby Young (uncredited)
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.