The Ghostbusters Franchise

I really like that trailer, the idea of the grandkids discovering the legacy of their gradparents. It's a good way to bring that kids charm that Hollywood so desperately seeks with the realities of the time it has passed since the last movie.

The foot looks like that of either the Keymaster or Gatekeeper. And there's some background references that might actually be plot relevant judging from the set up.

Looks interesting. And like it'll balance the comedy and horror better than 2016...which I never really hated like so many others do.

Though I'll agree Leslie Jones could have done a better job as the Winston analogue. That's all I'll say.

What about Extreme Ghostbusters?

The original films had some quite scary moments, from the librarian ghost to Dana being captured on the chair to the river of slime to Janoz taking Oscar. It's just mitigated by how the premise is scientists developing the ability to combat supernatural creatures, while ghosts can be scary you have a way to fight back. But compare the opening of the original films that play on Nothing Is Scarier and Adult Fear to the remake, which has a bland guy wandering in to a brightly lit basement.

Even when they don't win against the ghosts they fight, the blue collar approach to the things they encounter prevents most of them from being scary, as well as most of the big villains of the series being larger than life and grandiose rather emphasized as terrifying.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Dec 9th 2019 at 7:50:29 AM

So even in this film Egon is also dead huh?

No one could play Egon other than Harold Ramis. Since Harold is no longer with us (and we can't exactly summon his ghost to reprise his role), this is honestly the closest we'll get to have all the original Ghostbusters return for one last ride.

Going to take a stab at WMG'ing the nature of the supernatural threat: As the Ghostbusters were aging/drifting apart, Egon sought out a long term solution for ghost containment. You can't just leave them in the basement of a building they were leasing in NYC forever. So he created a larger containment grid on his family farm. Perhaps it's more than another containment grid; maybe it actually collects ambient spiritual energy like the Shandor building, and that's why ghosts have been unheard of for 30 years. However, in the present, it's starting to fail and leak psychokinetic energy, causing the tremors.

So it's basically the ghost equivalent of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant? I can see that.

After the unfunny anti-humor and lack of scares that the 2016 movie provided, I'm looking forward to the shift into horror.

I don't know why people keep saying that the original Ghostbusters was scary. Perhaps it was because I saw actual horror movies before I saw that film, but Ghostbusters was never scary to me. It was funny and there moments of tension, but it was never scary.

Hell, I wouldn't even call it "horror comedy," just a straight up comedy. To me, Evil Dead II or Cabin in the Woods in horror-comedy, not Ghostbusters.

It's a comedic action story about horror monsters. Not unlike Buffy the Vampire Slayer in that regard.

The basic premise is that there are these scary and dangerous forces of horror in the world that would naturally be horror monsters in any other story. But in THIS story, we have these dudes who can beat the shit out of horror monsters and make them go crying home to Jason.

Horror, as a genre, depends on the protagonists being helpless victims to drive its fear factor from. The scales are so thoroughly unbalanced that the audience is left to wonder how the protagonists could possibly survive. A supernatural ghost or demon or zombie (or, sometimes, just a dude with knife) descends upon hapless citizens and horror happens.

Stories like Ghostbusters and Buffy rebalance those scales. So, tonally, y'all are not wrong to say that Ghostbusters isn't a horror film. What it is is it's an action-comedy about a Horror Movie Monster Extermination Squad. It's about creatures that would be horror movie threats if the Boys in Gray weren't here to blast nuclear fire down their throats.

Also, has made me totally want to see the Ghostbusters duke it out with the Organization from Cabin in the Woods. There's already a (quasi-canon!) fan-film about them busting Freddy Krueger.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Dec 10th 2019 at 10:15:52 AM

x4

I didn't know about that one. I was thinking Yucca Mountain, but same diff.

Not going to lie, I feel depressed seeing Red Letter Media quotes everywhere. I don't care for them and I don't care for this franchise. All I know is that they are law and we must obey them.

Define "everywhere."

Mostly chat rooms but their opinions on the trail is on You Tube's front page.

I'm blowing things out of proportion and taking "Don't ask questions. Just consume products and then get excited for the next products." too personally, aren't I?

Edited by ChicoTheParakeet on Dec 11th 2019 at 1:26:11 AM

...Seriously? THAT'S what you were defining as "everywhere?"

Yes, you are. Ridiculously so.

Edited by dRoy on Dec 12th 2019 at 11:41:47 PM

Maybe they should have added "Everywhere I've been"

(sniff sniff) What is that? Is that...?

Oh! Is that drama importing that I smell?

I agree with the where the sentiment that nobody can play Egon but Harold Ramis is coming from; it would be incredibly tacky to bring him back with CGI.

But don't forget, Maurice La Marche also played Egon, with a ton of hours clocked in across two series. The cartoon and it's continuity may be regarded as a side note, but it influenced the first movie sequel, the video game sequel, and I think it's safe to say it bolstered the longevity of the fandom greatly. If Afterlife was to get a sequel, I'd love to see cameos from the surviving voice cast.

Imo, the issue with Egon probably isn't acting, it's directing.

I like the Real Ghostbusters' Egon, but imo most versions of him lean too hard into "Hollywood Nerd without emotions and social skills" and don't remember the amount of nuance, humor and personality Ramis brought to the character. He often goes from being an eccentric stoic with an odd way of looking at things to being a robot.

Even the IDW comics, which otherwise does amazing things with the characters and is one of my favorite pieces of canon, makes this mistake with Egon.

For him to be a part of an upcoming movie, no matter who he's played by, they would have to have writers/directors who won't do that.

I haven't seen "The Real Ghostbusters" in years but I seem to recall all 4 of the Ghostbusters' personalities not really matching up with the live-action originals. Like, wasn't Ray kind of a moron in the cartoon?

Agreed. Ramis's Egon was quirky and weird, and he had a very noticeable monotone to his voice. He had a profound interest in the weird and inexplicable, to the point that Venkman once had to stop him from trepanning himself. He tends to hyperfocus on his interests and has no social filter. But that's not the same thing as being emotionless. Egon does have feelings and he expresses them in the films.

After Walter Peck causes the containment unit to explode by ignoring Egon's warnings, Peck pins the entire disaster on the Ghostbusters' environmental recklessness. Egon responds to the accusation with "YOUR MOTHER!!!" and violently lunges at Peck.

And let's not forget this delightful moment from Ghostbusters II, singing along to the hum of the proton packs.

• Peter: (switches on) Do...
• Ray: (switches on) Re...
• Egon: (switches on) Egon...

Complete with a wry grin. Egon was very pleased with himself for that bit of wordplay.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Dec 13th 2019 at 11:59:15 AM

Recycled: The Series adaptations always have to take some liberties, especially when you only have one movie to work with. Ray was just as nerdy as Egon, it just manifested more as childlike excitement. Winston was also supposed to be the Naïve Newcomer but he got undermined by the script changes and his Only Sane Man behavior was partially fulfilled by Peter anyway, it is notable that he became just as excitable as the others in Ghostbusters 2 rather than staying The Everyman he was supposed to be.

I am thinking though that the video game implies that the manifestation of ghosts in New York for both films came from Ivo Shandor's experiments, and his defeat in the game would result in a significant paranormal drop. Given the statement that ghosts are no longer around, the shot of Shandor Mining and the question of why Egon would buy a house in the middle of nowhere, that definitely gives some interesting hints as to what the story is going to be about.

With regard to live action vs their cartoon characterizations (and keep in mind this is all personal subjective opinion):

On the whole, a lot of nuance was lost from everyone, except maybe Winston (who gained a ton of backstory and characterization). Egon definitely became a flatter character and Peter was heavily sanitized and shifted from aloof detachment in the movie to being more along the lines of 'easy going and cheerful with a hint of impishness'.

With Ray in the cartoon, they really latched on to the scene in the film where he's all hyped up to have an old fire station as a headquarters and his glee and being able to slide down the pole. Instead of being a exceptional moment in between scenes of him chain smoking and reciting bible verse, they treated it as his character's core. The cartoon made him a naive big kid from the country. They diminished his engineering and mechanical expertise, and in the cartoon, Winston became the one who was usually depicted maintaining Ecto-1. Ray's wheelhouse seemed to now lean primarily towards folklore and pop culture.

Edited by CitizenH on Dec 14th 2019 at 6:48:15 AM