Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) Review

 

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

Ghostbusters: Afterlife follows Phoebe, as her family moves to secluded farm in Oklahoma after the death of her grandfather, only to find out he was a Ghostbuster, who had been preparing for the end of the world. 

Often times, when bringing back pre-established franchises for a fresh take (looking at you Ghostbusters 2016) you lose a lot of the magic in the transition because you have to balance the legacy of what came before while simultaneously providing something new for audiences that honor the original’s legacy. And I don’t think there’s a single reboot (I say that lightly, more accurately a spaced out sequel) that gets that quite as right as Afterlife does. As not only does it beautifully honor the original Ghostbusters legacy but also the legacy of Harold Ramis, who passed in early 2014. The care taken to craft a sequel that isn’t just a sequel for sequel’s take but thoroughly makes sense from a story and timeline perspective provides this film the opportunity to bring back everything we know and love, while charting a new course with or without the original Ghostbusters (who are certainly showing their age, aside from Winston, unsurprisingly). 

From a technical level as well, Afterlife also kills it. The saturated colors of the proton blasters never looked so good and seeing faithful recreations of the ghosts, terror dogs, and even Gozer was a hell of a sight. I can’t forget to mention probably my favorite tidbit of this movie though and that’s the score from Rob Simonsen, that perfectly evokes the eery score made popular by Elmer Bernstein, keeping so much of that fun and spooky aurora alive for this outing. 

We get a wonderful cast as well, starring Annie Potts, Celeste O’Connor, Ernie Hudson, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Logan Kim, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Paul Rudd, and McKenna Grace. While I really enjoyed newcomers Grace, Wolfhard, Coon, and Rudd, it was an unbelievably exciting and emotional feeling getting to see the original Ghostbusters return in Murray, Aykroyd, and Hudson, (with Harold Ramis’ ghost joining them, in a real tearjerker) picking up right where left off in ‘89. 

Ghostbusters: Afterlife, directed by original director, Ivan Reitman’s son, Jason, is not only a worthwhile bid to bring back the Ghostbusters in a fresh and extremely fun way, but it also acts as a love letter and touching send-off to Harold Ramis, who, while no longer with is, was quite literally with us in spirit for the return of everybody’s favorite Ghostbusters. 

8.6/10