Ghostbusters (1984 & 2016)

What a light-hearted note to end a term full of dread and terror (both literally with the world and study wise with ghosts). I used to watch the original Ghostbusters with my dad all the time when I was younger. My dad is an avid anti-horror person. Yet, his genes produced someone who enjoys it. The joke is how big of a disappointment I became by dropping my studies to be a plastic surgeon to write horror. Anyway, Ghostbusters is a staple in the horror-comedy genre. If you can get past the humor and graphics to think about yourself being in the shoes of the actual busters, it's quite terrifying. Can you imagine taking on their job? One thing I will say, this term has made me want a Ph.D. in Parapsychology or Paranormal Science, and I am now seriously considering it...

So, we were tasked to watch both the original 1984 film and the 2016 remake for this one. I'd never seen the 2016 remake before this. So, I took a trip down memory lane and rewatched the original and the remake right after. Yes...I spent four straight hours in the name of ghostbusting this assignment. Doing this helped me see how similar the two plots are. They kept the main idea but modernized it in the remake. You followed pretty much the same series of events, with just flipped characters (all female dominate in the 2016 remake) and more modernized places. However, the only real up the remake had was the graphics and technological advances. I may be biased, but the original is still much better than the remake. Both kept the tremendous comedic relief, but somethings in the 2016 version were just too goofy, even for me. 

Alright, let's talk about some tropes. Both films featured that one scientist that doubted until they witnessed it. In the original, Venkam was a creep. In the remake, Erin was trying to keep her reputation clean. What is it about the belief in ghosts and the paranormal that ruins reputations? I guess it's the same thing about being a horror writer? In both films, we get spirits in broad daylight for the majority of the investigations. The common trope they broke is "things going bump in the night."

It's nearly essential I repeat that Ghostbuster is a horror-comedy. Think of Evil Dead II if you have to, but they aren't meant to scare you. "Ghostbusters is laughable and should not be horror." WRONG. Yes, laughable is THE WHOLE POINT. But, it belongs in horror, and let me tell you why. Ghosts. That's the whole court case, folks, ghosts. Spirits are staples of horror, whether they are used to be funny or not. 

I'm kidding. Of course, I have more. Ghostbusters features vortexes and the idea of a post-apocalyptic world but instead of zombies, an army of spirits (the actual dead). Should I bring back around Poltergeist, The Exorcist, or Paranormal Activity, or are we catching on to why this belongs in horror? Again, horror isn't the genre made to scare you. It is anything that unsettles you. There's a whole subgenre that revolves around fears. Clowns don't leave me feeling anyway, but plenty of people are unsettled, creeped out, and terrified of them. Watch Terrifier, even if you're like me, and aren't scared of clowns. You'll see my point. Or give Arachnophobia, a classic, a shot. What about Scooby-Doo made you like it so much as a kid? THE FREAKING GHOSTS, or finding out that it's always people that are bad. If you didn't like Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? just go ahead and hit the X on this tab. You're not welcome here. BUT, both ghosts and psychos are subgenres of horror, whether you like it or not. 

So, how does Ghostbusters fit in a term filled with dreadful and intense hauntings? It's comedic relief, literally. Sometimes, you need a good horror-comedy, and one made as such. Sorry, Evil Dead II. I love you, dearly, but you are only a comedy because you had no budget. 

Outside of that, you see that even in the most straightforward cases of ghosts, people are doubted, made fun of, and treated like they are mentally unstable. At the end of the 2016 version, the government wanted them to keep investigating...quietly. Yeah. I'll never forget when my dad and I went to a Safeway gas station, and there was a van for a small paranormal investigation team. I wanted to talk to them so badly, but all my dad did was laugh and say the world is full of wackos. I was in my teens, so I wasn't as firm as I am to stand up to a parent figure as I am now. If there is one thing to be learned about haunting fiction, mental illness is often the go-to diagnosis, or fraud (you can than Lorriane Warren singlehandedly for this one, LOL). It's taboo, and whether it's funny or terrifying, people love taboo topics in their private time. But take all the humor out of these films, imagine if a big city like New York and someone opening a vortex to start an apocalypse of the dead. That is horrifying to think, and that is horror.