Why You Gonna Call?

Film: Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
Format: Streaming video from NetFlix on Fire!

What are we to make of the Ghostbusters franchise? The original film is still a classic and still holds up—iconic cast, iconic lines, and moments that will go down as some of the best in horror/comedy ever filmed. The sequel is a bit of a mixed bag, again having some fun moments, but not living up to the original. The female cast reboot tanked, sadly, because I think it’s a better film than its reputation. Then we got Ghostbusters: Afterlife that really wanted to carry on from the original film. It was good, and it spawned the sequel, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, and this movie doesn’t know what it wants to be, and it’s going to make that a problem for everyone watching it.

Right off the top, there’s a massive issue with Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, and it’s one of the biggest issues from Ghostbusters II. In both films, we have protagonists who have essentially saved the world from a massive influx of ghosts are now essentially running on a shoestring and essentially maligned by everyone. I get that heroes sometimes fall, but we’re not given that story. It’s just that suddenly the people who saved the city now have a target on their backs and they’re barely making ends meet.

We’re back in New York, and we’re back in the fire station from the original film, but with the new generation of Ghostbusters. Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd) has married Callie Spengler (Carrie Coon), and are raising her kids Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) in the city, and busting ghosts at night, causing havoc and getting in trouble with New York mayor Walter Peck (William Atherton), the human foil from the original film. The new team is funded on the downlow by Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson), who is now a wealthy entrepreneur. Other originals from the team are still around—Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) has a podcast dealing with haunted items. Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) is around as well, and even Janine Melnitz (Annie Potts) is still working with Winston. So, it’s old home week for the paranormal crowd.

Anyway, the new Ghostbusters get in trouble and Phoebe, who is underaged, is booted off the team until she is old enough to do the job. Meanwhile, Nadeem Razmaadi (Kumail Nanjiani) sells a bunch of haunted items to Ray Stantz, include a spherical trap that holds a terrible and dangerous entity, which means that before the movie ends, that thing is going to get out and cause mayhem around the city. All of this happens while Peck is trying to shut down the Ghostbusters and release all of the ghosts from containment. Kicking all of this off is Phoebe making friends with a ghost (Emily Alyn Lind), who may have ulterior motives.

There are a lot of moving parts to Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, and while they all fit together in terms of making a story work, they don’t all fit together in a way that is comfortable for making a story that works in the context of the world that is being created. This is another film that has no idea of what it wants to be. There are definite moments here that are looking to be at least mildly scary—rated PG scary, not anything brutal or gory. These moments often happen right next to moments that are meant to be funny. We get a ghost inhabiting a trash bag and leading everyone on a merry chase followed immediately by that same ghost possessing one of the stone lions in front of the New York Public Library and nearly killing several people. We get slapstick followed by people being killed or injured followed by one-liners. The movie feels schizophrenic.

And that is the problem here. No Ghostbusters movie is ever going to be really scary, but there are moments that can at least be tense and give us the characters in danger. The original film managed to perfectly manage the combination of humor and mild scares, but this one is trying far too hard to get there. The jokes feel forced, so they fall flat. Worse, for a film that runs nearly 2 hours and has plot threads going in a lot of directions, it feels like it wraps up too quickly and in a way that feels very unsatisfying. The last 10 minutes or so feel like a deus ex machina, and the closing moments are wildly unsatisfying.

There’s a good story here, and there’s a Ghostbusters universe that could be made and made interesting. That universe does not include a conversation where Paul Rudd and Carrie Coons recite the lyrics of the original Ghostbusters them in conversation. Sadly, Ghostbusters: Afterlife essentially does contain that scene.

Why to watch Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire: A lot of the original Ghostbusters cast is back.
Why not to watch: The scares aren’t scary and the jokes aren’t funny.