Ghostbusters

by | Jan 16, 2015 | The Horror Review News | 0 comments

Ivan Reitman created one of the best-loved comedies of all time with his portrayal of three lunatic paranormal exterminators, the Ghostbusters. Aside from being nominated for an Oscar for original song and best visual effects, the work would go on to be one of the four hundred candidates in American Film Institute’s cataloguing of the top one hundred movies of the first century of film before coming in at number twenty-eight on the Institute’s 100 Years, 100 Laughs. After their grants are terminated at Columbia University, three parapsychologists, Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Raymond “Ray” Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), and Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis), quickly opt to put their research where their mouths are and open up “Ghostbusters,” a paranormal extermination company, just as Dana Barrett’s (Sigourney Weaver) apartment in Central Park West becomes a gateway to an extra dimension, led by the Sumerian deity Gozer the Destroyer (Slavitza Jovan), who threatens the whole of New York. As with Tim Burton’s Beetle Juice, after watching Ghostbusters, many stop and wonder what type of twisted mind put such a work together. However, unlike Beetle Juice, one needn’t look behind the camera for answers because Aykroyd, Ramis, and Moranis (uncredited) merely did what Burton would do four years later: They took a standard horror storyline–a paranormal plague begins before a gateway to Hell opens, i.e. Michael Winner’s The Sentinel and Lucio Fulci’s City of the Living Dead and The Beyond–and brought it to its logical conclusion. (Funny how logic, when allowed to run its course, comes across as strange and fascinating.) The screenwriters where all too aware of this little nuance because they decided to add more “lunacy” atop their framework craziness in order to accentuate the fact, creating–like Burton’s film–one of the greatest comedies of all time. The masterstroke to the film is the wry cynicism witnessed throughout, first and foremost of which is our being allowed to watch as the ghost busting team, comprised of everyday people (no innate heroes here), new to the trade, bumble along as they figure out how to rid New York of its pesky ephemeral infestation. For instance, as Stantz stands outside the university which he worked for only moments before, he fearfully admits to Venkman, “Personally, I liked the university. They gave us money and facilities. We didn’t have to produce anything. You’ve never been out of college! You don’t know what it’s like out there! I’ve worked in the private sector. They expect results.” After arriving on their first official assignment (via a retired hearse, a carriage for the dead, conveniently converted to transport the spirits of the dead), Stantz announces his regret of not having tested the ghost busting equipment, which is in part comprised of nuclear accelerators which are securely strapped to each members’ back. Once the team becomes fluent in paranormal extermination, and as the demand for such escalates, they quickly place a help wanted ad in the paper. To mock the obviously highly technical aspects of the job two-fold, the writers introduce Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson), a less-than-qualified job applicant (the charter members all hold doctorates). Janine Melnitz (Annie Potts), the Ghostbusters’ secretary, interviews him, asking, “Do you believe in UFOs, astral projections, mental telepathy, ESP, clairvoyance, spirit photography, telekinetic movement, full trance mediums, the Loch Ness monster, and the theory of Atlantis?” to which the prospective employee replies, “If there’s a steady paycheck in it, I’ll believe anything you say.” Finally, a satirical, modern day King Kong appears in the less-than-serious guise of the film’s antagonist (which was foreshadowed in Barrett’s apartment as well on in an ad on the side of a building). Yet the humor-ladden script isn’t solely comprised of sardonic quips and scenarios. Some of the comedy is more blatant while other instances are subtler. For instance, Venkman’s scatological in-joke, “Our courteous and efficient staff is on call twenty-four hours a day to serve all your supernatural elimination needs,” is uttered completely in context during the end of their first commercial for the agency, thus taking the unassuming viewer by surprise. In a predictable–but nonetheless enjoyable–scene, Barrett and Tully, both being possessed and becoming Zuul the Gatekeeper and the Key Master respectively, have sex, thus placing the Freudian key in its hole. The makeshift nature of the study of parapsychology is further evidenced in Spengler’s attempts to monitor Tully’s brainwaves via a spaghetti strainer with all the experimental bells and whistles adhered to it. After the first paranormal citing in the public library, Alice the librarian (Alice Drummond), states that the only case of mental illness in her family was seen in her uncle, who believed himself to be Saint Jerome, the patron saint of librarians no less. Finally, for the horror aficionados out there, Barrett, possessed as the Gatekeeper, tells Venkman, “I want you inside me,” to which the ghostbuster replies, “It sounds like you’ve got at least two or three people in there already.” (This rather risqué, eyebrow-raising exchange in a family film is placed alongside the protagonists smoking profusely throughout the movie.) Most solid storylines don’t congeal because they seem, however slightly, construed and artificial. However, we buy into the less-than-feasible premise after watching Stanz mortgage his house for the third time in order to finance the ghostbusters’ foray into self-employment before their popularity begins to rise, signaled by their own theme song (which would stay on the top of the music charts for quite some time), as well as watching various real-life broadcasters–including Casey Kasem, Larry King, Roger Grimsby, and Joe Franklin–report on the paranormal extermination team. Furthermore, as with the team members, the secondary cast is comprised of average, unheroic individuals. Louis Tully (Rick Moranis) does what most of us would do if a demonic pit bull arrived in our apartment where we were giving a party. Unlike many films in which the host organizes the evacuation effort, Tully damn near breaks the land speed record, leaving everyone behind to do what they will with his home and his possessions, as he flees out of the building and into the city streets. However, as we are laughing, some very poignant ideas are coyly slid under the critical radar. As with the aforementioned instance of a Freudian in-joke, the primary ghost busting team is comprised of three very distinct individuals: the overly cognitive and orderly Spengler, the manically sexual Venkman, and the sensitive, concerned Stantz. Thus, the trio can be viewed as the three parts of either the Aristotelian or Freudian psyche as we are presented with the rational/superego, sensitive/ego, and nutritive/id respectively. Though I wouldn’t ordinarily include the Greek philosopher’s notions of the soul as a possible reading considering Sigmund Freud’s prowess in such manners, Reitman presents, at the crux of the film no less, an age-old philosophical problem. Gozer tells the Ghostbusters to select the form of their doom, that is, the figure which will house the entity that will destroy them. As the gentlemen attempt to clear their minds, endeavoring to think of literal nothingness, Stanz blunders, obviously realizing the stream-of-conscious paradox in the concept of thinking of Nothingness proper. Hence, we are slyly issued one of the greatest Ancient Greek dilemmas right before one of the most ludicrous villains in all of cinema appears onscreen. After honing his skills early in his career working alongside David Cronenberg, Ivan Reitman gave the world his masterpiece, Ghostbusters. Though he has yet to rival his manic horror comedy, the work remains a steadfast, frantic romp through the Big Apple, which continues to fascinate audiences today, evidenced by the film being a popular choice for midnight showings. Perhaps regretfully, Ghostbusters created a subgenre of comic paranormal/extraterrestrial investigation effigies, most notable of which is Barry Sonnenfeld’s Men in Black. -Egregious Gurnow

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