In a time when there are literally thousands of hours of viewing choices out there, I still have a Blu‑ray player. I have a Blu‑ray player for movies like this. Ghostbusters: Afterlife belongs alongside those early films. It is, at least in my opinion, just as strong. Frozen Empire isn’t a bad piece of entertainment either.
Spoilers approaching — but for a six‑year‑old film, I think we’re okay. The original Ghostbusters turn up for a few minutes at the end.
If you were like me, those films were a big part of your childhood. So if you are like me, this may come as an unwelcome reminder that it wasn’t yesterday. In my mind, the Ghostbusters carried on off‑screen. They would always be as they were in 1984. So when these now‑old men turn up at the end — and knowing that Egon (Harold Ramis) isn’t with us anymore — it’s a bit of a gut punch.
The nephews come up a lot in these blogs, something I hope they won’t resent later. But something happened while taking them to watch Frozen Empire, the sequel to Afterlife. After the intro scene finished and we got the Ray Parker Jr. theme, I saw them watching this (frankly brilliant) younger cast taking on the Ghostbusters mantle. Somewhere in the laughs and the jump scares, I understood: these aren’t my Ghostbusters anymore. It belongs to them now — the young cast on the screen and the young eyes watching. As it should be.
Of course, I had inflicted my Blu‑ray collection on them previously. It must have had an effect. The youngest said, “Oh no, they’re in the library,” covered his eyes, then asked, “We go now, we go now, we go now.”
The very same jump scare got me too, around 30 years earlier, on a VHS rented at Barry’s.