Franchises: Ghostbusters. Ghostbusters (1984)

Like Young Frankenstein, Ghostbusters is a very popular movie that I was many, many years late to the party on. However, I was aware of the franchise's existence from a young age, as I saw some bits of the Real Ghostbusters cartoon (the one that sticks the most in my mind is one of the episodes involving the "boogieman"), and I also remember those Hi-C Ecto Cooler juice pouches that were still popular even when I was in elementary school throughout the 90's. At some point, I realized there was a live-action movie when I saw the VHS tape with that classic logo on its front, although I thought the cartoon came first (this is one of two such movies where I thought that; the other you will see reviewed on here next week). In any case, since I wasn't that invested in the cartoon, despite seeing some episodes, wasn't around when this first movie was released, and was only two when the second one came out, I wasn't a Ghostbusters kid and so, seeing this was not very high on my pecking order as I got older. I was so out of the loop on it that the first time I learned much about it or saw a good amount of clips and images was when I first watched the Angry Video Game Nerd's three-part series on Ghostbusters games in 2008. By extension, I also saw a number of videos by the people on Channel Awesome and Ghostbusters would pop up there fairly frequently. Between that and finally grasping what an enormously successful movie it was when it was originally released, as well as getting Ghostbusters: The Video Game for Christmas in 2010 (I never finished it, as that copy was totally glitched), I decided it was time I finally saw this thing. I bought the Blu-Ray at some point in either 2011 or 2012 and, I'm sad to say, the same thing that happened with Young Frankenstein kind of happened here. Not to sound like a broken record but, like with that movie, I won't deny that Ghostbusters is very well-made, with cool special effects, a number of memorable scenes, a very catchy music score and soundtrack, lots of visuals and imagery that have become iconic, to say the least, and, most significantly, characters who are truly unforgettable. But, it was still a case of too little, too late for me, as I'd seen and heard about every well-known line, moment, and character to the point where it didn't have the impact it could have. I think the concept and the franchise as a whole is an inspired one and I can see why it caught on, but after that first full viewing, while I can say I enjoy the movie, I wasn't and am still not totally enamored with it like so many are.

One of the things I do find interesting about Ghostbusters is how it's very much the creation and baby of one of its stars: Dan Aykroyd. Aykroyd has always been fascinated with the paranormal (I have, too), as his family has had connections to it for several generations, and he's also interested in quantum physics and parapsychology. Thus, he came up with the idea of doing a modern version of past ghost-oriented comedies like the Abbott and Costello movie Hold That Ghost, Bob Hope's The Ghost Breakers, and Ghost Chasers, with the Bowery Boys. It was also Aykroyd's idea for the movie to be directed by Ivan Reitman, who'd produced Animal House and had recently had a major hit on his hands with 1981's Stripes. And, more than anyone else associated with the original, Aykroyd is the one who's really cared about and continued to have enthusiasm about the series in the decades since, always doing everything possible to get the long-discussed third movie made.

All that said, Ivan Reitman's contributions to the movie can't be underestimated either, and not just in that he was the producer and director. He was the one who suggested Aykroyd severely pare back the extravagance of his original concept and base it more in reality, and also asked him to make it into more of a comedy, whereas it was originally going to have stronger horror elements. In order to make these changes, Reitman brought on Harold Ramis, whom he'd worked with successfully before, to help with the rewrites and also decided that Ramis himself should play one of the Ghostbusters. Most significantly, Reitman was able to get the movie financed by pitching it to Columbia Pictures and coming up with a budget somewhere in the neighborhood of $25 to $30 million (which Reitman said he pulled out of thin air by multiplying Stripes' budget by three). Ultimately, though he's made a number of well-known and successful movies, I think it's safe to say that Ghostbusters is, by far, Reitman's most famous and iconic movie.

I have to commit an act of heresy to some people and admit that one of the reasons why I was reluctant to see this movie for a long time is because I went through a period where I was not a fan of Billy Murray. I know he's a beloved actor, and I would never say he's not talented or funny, but the stories of what a total douche he often was in real life during the 80's and 90's really rubbed me the wrong way, chief among them how he cut all ties with Harold Ramis after he acted like a complete dick to him and everyone else during the making of Groundhog Day, and that it took Ramis becoming ill and almost on the verge of death for Murray to finally bury the hatchet with him. I'm also still not a fan of how Murray makes people jump through hoops and go through so much time-consuming aggravation just to get a script to him, as it makes me think, "Man, people don't have time to play your games!" But, to his credit, Murray does seem to have mellowed out in his later years, as have I, as I realized that if I refused to watch movies that featured actors or were made by directors whose personal reputations I didn't care for, I might as well not watch movies, period. Thus, I dropped my bias against Murray and watched this, as well as some of his other movies (I've grown to quite like Groundhog Day, actually). While I think it would have been interesting to see what Michael Keaton, one of the considered actors, could have done with Peter Venkman, Murray does indeed make the role his own. Out of all the Ghostbusters, Venkman is the one who's obviously the least interested in his profession. The only thing that actually does interest him is women, as in his introductory scene, where he's testing two people on their supposed psychic abilities and is cheating the girl into winning so he can get with her. Later, when they've officially become the Ghostbusters and Dana Barrett comes to them, Venkman jumps at the chance to take her case, again just so he can have a go at her. Otherwise, Venkman is just a sarcastic smartass who, initially, doesn't even believe in ghosts, until he comes face-to-face with the one in the library at the beginning. After that, when he overhears Egon say that he's gathered enough data to where they can actually catch and contain ghosts, Venkman realizes he and Ray know what they're talking about and becomes more involved and supportive of them.

Significantly, when the guys get thrown out of Columbia University, Venkman is the one who comes up the idea of them going into business for themselves as professional paranormal investigators and eliminators, though he's obviously interested mainly in the lucrative aspects, despite decrying their time at the university by saying Einstein did his work when he had a job as

a patent clerk. He has a slick, salesman kind of personality, talking Ray into taking out a mortgage on his childhood home for startup cash and haphazardly checking Dana's apartment, acting like he knows what he's doing, when he's really just flirting with her. Due to his interest in Dana, he becomes determined to fix her problem so he can impress her into going out with him, making it

something of a happy, or unhappy, accident that her case just happens to be the lead-in to a cataclysmic event that could destroy both New York and the world. Most notably, Venkman is really the straight-man of the group, as he's often frustrated and annoyed by Ray and Egon's technobabble and obsessive interest in the paranormal, and has the most natural scared and weirded out reactions to the ghosts they encounter, all while maintaining his

wisecracking attitude (the scene where he shows up for a date with Dana, only to learn she's been possessed by Zuul, is where he especially shines in that regard). I like how, during the third act, Venkman retains that aspect of his personality while also slowly but surely realizing the gravity of the situation and then trying to help his friends warn the mayor. And during the climactic battle with Gozer, Venkman is just as committed to saving the city, and Dana, as the others, becoming really driven and even take charge about it, with great lines like, "Alright, this chick is toast!", "Let's show this prehistoric bitch how we do things downtown," "Mother pus-bucket," and, "Nobody steps on a church in my town!"

I think another of the things that had me annoyed with Bill Murray in regards to this film is how so many people act like he's the end all, be all when it comes to Ghostbusters, when in reality, Venkman is one part of a finely-tuned ensemble. Just as vital is Dan Aykroyd's Ray Stantz who, appropriately, is often described as the heart of the team. Indeed, in stark contrast to the cynical, snarky Venkman, Ray is like an excitable little boy, one who's ecstatic at the prospect of any evidence of the paranormal, even if it's nothing more than a "sponge vibration." His introductory scene has him come in on Venkman when he's putting the moves on the girl he was testing for ESP, talking excitedly about the sighting of the ghost at the New York Public Library and what this could mean for them, and becomes all the more excited when they find corroborating evidence at the library. When they come across the librarian ghost, while Venkman is taken aback, Ray and Egon are both totally fascinated, though neither of them knows what to do about her, as they clearly didn't think that far ahead. That leads to Ray coming up with the plan to try to communicate with the ghost, and when that doesn't work, he impulsively decides to have them grab her, only for her to send them running out of the building in a panic. Ray is the one who's the most crushed when the dean of Columbia University tosses them out, as he liked the security they provided, and he's initially not so sure about Venkman's plan for them to go into business for themselves, but when they start laying the groundwork for Ghostbusters, his childlike enthusiasm comes back. While Egon is not a fan of the firehouse they set up shop in, saying it should be condemned, Ray absolutely loves it, and later spends $4800 on a beat-up old ambulance that is a major fixer-upper, though it eventually becomes the iconic Ecto-1. Ray's personality is balanced out by his knowledge of technology and parapsychology, as he often speaks in advanced technobabble that few laymen, including Venkman, usually understand. He also proves to be quite knowledgeable about the Bible (despite his answer about whether or not he believes in God simply being, "Never met him,") and, most significantly, he discovers in his research the significance of Dana's apartment building, in that it's meant as a portal for Gozer to enter our world. Also, we can't forget how Ray causes the creation of the giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

My personal favorite Ghostbuster is Harold Ramis as Egon Spengler. Even though he doesn't have a lot to say or do, I just get a kick out of how stoic and serious he is about everything and yet, manages not to be a total killjoy. Not only is he really knowledgeable but he also has his charming quirks, like when he says he doesn't read because, "Print is dead," and that, in his spare-time, "I collect spores, molds, and fungus." Of course, you can't forget his using a Twinkie as a symbol of the current amount of psychokinetic energy in New York, saying it would be 35 feet and weight 600 pounds, prompting Winston's line, "That's a big Twinkie." Speaking of which, Egon is the one who predicts that a major paranormal event is looming on the horizon, and when he researches the significance of the name "Zuul" in Tobin's Spirit Guide, he learns that the architect of Dana's apartment building was a mad doctor and the head of a cult that worshiped Gozer, performing rituals on the roof of the building to open a doorway enabling him to cross over and take over the world. One of my favorite moments with Egon is when, after Walter Peck shuts down their storage facility and releases the ghosts, he angrily lunges at Peck, yelling, "Your mother!", when he lies to the cops, saying they caused the explosion and demands they be arrested. And finally, Egon is the one who comes up with the plan that allows them to defeat Gozer, which is to cross their proton energy beams at the gate he came through.

Even though he joins the group quite a ways into the movie and ultimately doesn't get to do much that significant, I've always liked Ernie Hudson and he brings that sense of coolness he carries with him to his role of Winston Zeddemore. He's the most down-to-Earth of the Ghostbusters, as he's just a blue-collar guy who's looking for work and decides to join the team, even though he doesn't seem to believe in the paranormal at first. But, over the course of the time he spends with them, any doubts he may have had disappear, and, being knowledgeable about the Bible himself, he also starts to wonder if the increased amount of ghostly activity could be a sign that Armageddon is coming. The best thing he does is, when the Ghostbusters are brought before the mayor amid numerous reports of ghosts, he assures the mayor that it's all real, making him more inclined to believe the others' claims that New York is heading for a disaster of biblical proportions and that he needs to let them out so they can deal with it. That, and he also taught us to say yes when someone asks if we happen to be a god.

At first, there was some resistance to the casting of Sigourney Weaver as Dana Barrett, given how Weaver was known for being in really serious movies and playing tough women, particularly Ripley, but since she's as talented as she is, she proved she could do comedy as well (in fact, her background at Yale was predominantly comedy). Actually, for the first half of the movie, Dana is an everyday sort of woman who's just going about her life as a cellist, living in a typical New York apartment, and dealing with Louis Tully's interest in her, when she has a freaky experience in her apartment that includes eggs cracking and boiling on her counter, as well as a demonic portal in her refrigerator. Terrified at this, she deserts her apartment for two days and goes to the Ghostbusters, having seen one of their commercials. When she goes there, she's examined by them, then has to deal with Ray and Egon's unorthodox theories as to what's going on and Venkman's vigorous flirting with her. When she goes back to her apartment with Venkman, he finds no sign of any paranormal activity, much to her frustration, and she quickly starts to find his flirting annoying, especially when he won't leave after not finding anything. She very quickly hurries him out the door when he comes up with the notion of finding out the source of her problem in hopes to woo her, and doesn't see him again until after the Ghostbusters have been successful. He does bring her some information about Zuul and Gozer, but is still intent on asking her out above anything else. At this point, she's charmed by him and decides to see him on Thursday... unfortunately, she gets possessed by Zuul that very night. 

When Venkman shows up at Dana's apartment and finds she's not herself, Weaver is able to show off her comedic chops and be really over the top. She appears all seductive to him, accepts his claim to be the Keymaster at face value, and allows him inside, saying they must prepare for the coming of Gozer. She proceeds to get really amorous and slinky, asking him, "Do you want this body?", and

demanding, "Take me now," before mounting him on the bed. When he fights off her advances and continuously demands to talk to Dana rather than Zuul, she becomes progressively angry, to the point where she starts letting out demonic growls and levitating several feet above the bed. This leads Venkman to sedate her with enough Thorazine to kill an ordinary person before leaving the apartment, though Zuul and the Keymaster do manage to meet up and perform the ritual for Gozer's arrival.

Although it would have been nice to see John Candy in the role of Louis Tully, as he was originally supposed to be, Rick Moranis is quite perfect in the role, coming off as a very nerdy little guy who desperately wants to be with Dana but has a tendency to turn her off with his constant, awkward yammering, which is either about his job as an accountant, his being a health nut, or just an attempt to make small-talk with her. There's also a sad, pathetic vibe about him in how he tends to lock himself out of his apartment, has a party but invites his clients rather than friends (he claims it's because he's giving it as a "promotional expense" but I get the feeling he doesn't have any actual friends), and he's clearly disappointed at the possibility of Dana dating Venkman and when she turns down his party invitation in favor of a date. Then, as if things couldn't get any worse for Louis, he gets chased down and possessed by Gozer's other minion, the Keymaster, Vinz Clortho. Unlike Dana, Louis' personality doesn't change that much when he's possessed, as he still talks incessantly, spouting off about Gozer and asking anyone he comes across, including a hansom cab horse, if they're the Gatekeeper. When he's taken to the Ghostbusters, he tells Egon all about Gozer, how he takes numerous forms, and that his coming means the end of civilization. He's also not violent or overzealous, merely odd and curious about everything around him, sniffing and inspecting whatever he comes across. In the confusion that happens when Walter Peck shuts down the containment facility, Louis slips away and meets up with the possessed Dana at her apartment building. There, the two of them prepare for Gozer's arrival, eventually transforming into the demon dogs that originally possessed them. Even at the end of the movie, after Gozer is defeated and the two of them are freed from their possession, Louis can't catch a break, as no one has any interest in interviewing him and he's taken away in an ambulance rather than getting to go with the Ghostbusters like Dana.

Although his reasoning for wanting to see the Ghostbusters' storage facility, to assess whether or not their business is having any environmental impacts, is actually kind of fair, Walter Peck (William Atherton) comes off as such a pompous douche about it, refusing to recognize Venkman's PhD's, deriding their ghost-catching business, and aggressively threatening to come back with a court order if he doesn't show him the facility right away, it's small wonder why Venkman tells him to piss him off. But then, he really proves to be an asshole when he not only shows up with a court order and demands the power grid be shut off, but refuses to listen to anyone, including the Con Ed he brought with him, about how dangerous that could be and seems to be doing this purely out of spite for Venkman, telling him, "You had your chance to cooperate, but you thought it would be more fun to insult me. Well, now it is my turn, wise-ass." And to top it off, he intends to make sure they're held responsible for whatever happens, a threat he makes good on when, after all hell breaks loose when the facility is shut down, he has them arrested, saying it's their fault. In the meeting with the mayor, Peck continues to shirk any responsibility and insists that the Ghostbusters are con-artists who use gases to make people hallucinate that they're seeing ghosts in order to drum up business, right in the face of bizarre events happening across the city. Naturally, after the Ghostbusters make their case about the oncoming disaster, the mayor has Peck removed from the office and he gets his comeuppance in the end when he gets slathered in melted marshmallow after Stay Puft is blown up. (Given his threat to get revenge on them, and his appearance in the 2009 video game, I was surprised that Peck wasn't in Ghostbusters II, given how Atherton played the similarly despicable character of Thornburg again in Die Hard 2.)

Ghostbusters is one of those movies where even the minor characters are really memorable, such as Janine (Annie Potts), the guys' wise-cracking, sarcastic secretary whose only true interest is Egon, whom she has a mad crush on. Though her initial flirting with him, where she talks to him about hobbies, doesn't seem to be reciprocated, in later scenes, the two of them have clearly become quite close, with Egon comforting her when she becomes scared about something bad happening to him. Otherwise, when she's not answering the phone, she mainly just snarks and talks in the same monotone voice and heavy New Yorker accent, although she is as excited as the guys when they get their first actual case. But, as they get more business, Janine begins to feel overworked, compounded by their not finding people to help her. Venkman's less than understanding response leads to her grumbling, "I've quit better jobs than this," and answer the next phone call with a hostile, "Ghostbusters! Whadda ya want?!" Regardless, she's dedicated enough to the job to where she tries to help Egon keep Walter Peck from switching off their power grid, and after the battle with Gozer, she comes running back to Egon, having been worried about his safety.

Other notable characters include Lenny (David Margulies), the mayor of New York who, when faced with numerous reports of paranormal phenomena throughout the city and the possibility of an oncoming calamity, makes the right decision in letting the Ghostbusters do their job (Venkman's mentioning that he would be saving millions of registered voters is an added incentive) and the

uptight manager (Michael Ensign) of the Sedgewick Hotel, who hires the Ghostbusters to deal with Slimer and asks them to be discreet, which, of course, they're anything but. Reginald VelJohnson appears briefly as the police officer who lets the Ghostbusters out to go see the mayor (I tend to forget he's in this movie, and when he pops up, I'm always like, "Oh, yeah, Carl Winslow's here too!"), television and radio personalities Roger

Grimsby, Larry King, and Joe Franklin appear as themselves in the montage depicting the Ghostbusters' growing success, and Casey Kasem's voice can be heard on the radio talking about them. Speaking of Kasem, his wife, Jean, appears as a guest at Louis Tully's party, and even Ron Jeremy can be seen as a bystander in one scene.

Originally, Dan Aykroyd intended for the movie to be set in the distant future, with the Ghostbusters being part of a widespread, intergalactic and inter-dimensional system, but when Ivan Reitman came aboard, he had Aykroyd and Harold Ramis work together to bring the concept down to Earth and set it entirely in modern-day New York, as he felt the original concept was both too fantastical and impractical as far as budget was concerned. While it would have

been interesting to see what the futuristic vision of the movie would have looked like, setting it in everyday New York did help give it more of an immediate identity and, in a way, make it more iconic. Plus, the movie is something of a tour guide for those visiting New York, given how principal photography took place there and made use of numerous locations that have since become well-known as a result. Chief among them are the New

York Public Library, both its exterior, with those big lion statues (which a writer for The Amazing, Colossal Book of Horror Trivia thought come to life and fly away at one point), and its main reading room; Firehouse Hook and Ladder Company 8, which serves as the exterior of the Ghostbusters' headquarters; and 55 Central Park West, which is Dana's apartment building (as well

as possibly the Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, which Stay Puft stomps on). They also used the actual Columbia University, New York City Hall, the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (where Venkman meets up with Dana in front of its very impressive fountain out in front), Columbus Circle, and Tavern on the Green in Central Park, where Louis is chased down and possessed by Vinz

Clortho. However, since they couldn't get permits to shoot everything in New York, they had to relocate to some actual locations in Los Angeles to fill in the gaps, like Fire Station 23 for the inside of the Ghostbusters' headquarters, the Millennium Biltmore Hotel, which was used as the Sedgewick Hotel, and the Los Angeles Central Library for the New York Public Library's basement.

One thing Reitman was correct about was that using normal settings in New York would make the supernatural events more effectively "real," as you're seeing these things in settings and environments you can relate to. For instance, there's how the Ghostbusters turn a disused, rundown firehouse into their headquarters, with their main office and reception desk, as well as the garage containing the Ecto-1 and their equipment,

on the first floor, their living and recreational area up on the second, and down below is their spiritual containment center, where they house the ghosts they capture. Another example is the ritzy interior of the Sedgewick Hotel, where the Ghostbusters encounter Slimer as he guzzles down all the food he can see and chase him through the halls and ultimately trap him in the ballroom, which they all but destroy. The New York Public Library's dark

basement is one of the few genuinely creepy places in the film and one where you'd expect to see a ghost, but it's offset by the busy main reading room upstairs. Speaking of genuinely creepy places, Aykroyd has claimed that the jail cell the Ghostbusters are put into following their containment system getting blown sky-high was actually haunted. After said event, you see ghosts

wreaking havoc throughout the streets of New York, but the biggest example of an ordinary place becoming anything but as a result of the paranormal phenomena is Dana and Louis' apartment building. This place seems very innocuous, with fairly bland hallways and comfortable apartments you wouldn't think twice about, which makes the appearance of the demon

dogs Zuul and Vinz Clortho, their initial manifestations, and their eventual attacks on Dana and Louis after breaking out of the gargoyles on the roof that they were contained in all the more impactful. It progresses all the more when you learn this seemingly normal building was built with the purpose of drawing in spiritual energy, then the

back wall of Dana's apartment gets blown out, and she and Louis walk up a flight of stairs where the refrigerator used to be to reach the roof. And then, of course, the roof and the building's spire become the spot where the portal allowing Gozer to cross over into our world manifests, with a misty staircase leading up to the doors of a crystalline temple.

Everything about the Ghostbusters, including their equipment and iconography, is just as iconic as the characters themselves. That includes their exterminator-like gray coveralls, their proton packs, which fire those colorful, rope-like beams used to ensnare and wrangle ghosts, their ghost traps, their ghost-detecting PKE meters, and the Ecto-l, or the Ectomobile, which the filmmakers made from a 1959 Cadillac Meteor-Miller

ambulance and which may not have any special abilities like a Batmobile but looks cool and lets people know the Ghostbusters are on their way. As many have stated, what makes this equipment appealing is how, while it has high-tech functions, it has a homemade look and feel to it, alluding to how the guys are brilliant scientists who had to cobble the stuff together from whatever they could get their hands on. I also like how, even if it does

come off as a lot of technobabble, there is some scientific logic behind their equipment, like how the proton packs function by using high-energy positrons to contain the negatively-charged ghosts and that crossing the streams results in "total protonic reversal," leading to molecules exploding. Finally, there's the iconic "no ghost" logo, which is such a simple image and yet, both it and the ghost

itself have not only become synonymous with this franchise but are also now major parts of popular culture. Dan Aykroyd described it in his original screenplay but art director Michael C. Gross, along with artist Brent Boates, were the ones who came up with the final design and, again, what can you about it that hasn't already been said other than it just sums up everything you need to know in a very simple package?

Looking at the movie as an adult, I wonder what kind of an effect it would've had on me if I saw it as a little kid because, had it not been rewritten to be more of a comedy and been cast differently, this could have easily have been a straight horror film. Even as it is, it walks a very fine line between being fairly family friendly (Ray's dream about a ghost giving him a blowjob notwithstanding) and funny, and having moments of genuine spookiness

and terror, like the opening in the New York Public Library, Venkman, Egon, and Ray investigating and coming upon the ghost there, Dana's first encounter with Zuul and her later possession, and Louis getting chased down by Vinz Clortho. Also, even though they are done in an over-the-top manner, the ghosts themselves are rarely played for laughs, with even the comedic Slimer coming off

as threatening at points. When you get into the third act, while there is something of a feeling of dread and impending doom during the buildup to Gozer coming through the gate, I feel that things get very comic booky and thus, not as scary, but before that, you can see a little bit of the darker vision that Aykroyd had in mind in his initial concept.

The ghosts themselves are mostly memorable for their appearances and their designs rather than for being actual characters. Case in point, the Library Ghost at the beginning, who messes about in the basement of the New York Public Library, moving books around, stacking a big pile of them in the middle of one aisle, flinging library cards about, and leaving a bunch of ectoplasm on the card catalog. She scares the living crap out of the

librarian but, when Venkman, Egon, and Ray encounter her themselves later on, she's not doing anything creepy other than merely existing. When the guys try to grab her, though, she becomes a ghoulish, skeletal apparition that sends them running out of the building. Both of her forms are memorable for their see-through, purple-colored appearances, with her second one especially leaving a mark even though it's onscreen for only a

few seconds, with its violently flaring white hair, skull-like face, and nasty teeth, as well as the monstrous yell she lets out. The next ghost they encounter is the iconic Slimer, who they find wreaking havoc at the Sedgewick Hotel, freaking out guests and stuffing down whatever food he comes across. While he would become much more of a character in the cartoon series, here he's just a

disgusting, blobby glutton who proves to be a major pest for the Ghostbusters, covering Venkman in his slime and forcing them to chase him all over the hotel before they finally catch him in the ballroom. His design is among the most well-known of the characters featured in this franchise and I've heard he was meant as a tribute to John Belushi, who was Dan Aykroyd's intended costar

for the movie before his untimely death. After Walter Peck shuts down the Ghostbusters' containment grid, you see a couple of other ghosts, like this white one with mantis-like arms that comes out of a subway and a zombie cabbie, as well as another look at Slimer when he's pigging out on some hotdogs at a vendor. And let's also not forget Ray dreaming about that lovely ghost who pleasures him, which was originally part of a subplot they decided to delete.

The ghosts who have the most character to them are actually Gozer's two minions, Zuul and Vinz Clortho. When you first see them as dark-colored, horned, red-eyed demon dogs who do nothing but snarl and chase people (although, Zuul does say her own name when Dana first sees her), you wouldn't expect that, but when they take possession of Dana and Louis, they prove to have very strong personalities. Zuul is the more forceful of the two,

eager to bring about the coming of Gozer and seducing anyone one who professes to be the Keymaster. She also doesn't take kindly to anyone attempting to make contact with the actual person she's possessed, as she snarls at Venkman that Dana isn't inhabiting her body anymore, and then levitates above Dana's bed like Regan did in The Exorcist. Vinz Clortho, on the other hand, seems to be influenced by Louis' personality because, after

he possesses him, he runs frantically around New York, yelling about Gozer and that he's looking for the Gatekeeper. When he's brought to the Ghostbusters by the NYPD, he's quite cooperative when Ego examines him, makes no move against him, and even tells him all about Gozer. But, in the confusion that happens after Peck shuts down their containment system, Vinz Clortho makes his way

to Dana's apartment building and meets up with Zuul. The two of them make their way up to the top of the building and perform some kind of sexual ritual that results in the gate being opened for Gozer, after which they turn back into demon dogs and Dana and Louis aren't rescued until Gozer is defeated.

Getting to Gozer the Gozerian, I've always found him to be an underwhelming villain. They build him up throughout the entire movie, with ominous signs of his coming like freak storm clouds, earthquakes, and the increase in paranormal activity, us learning about how he's a shape-shifting entity worshiped as a god by past cultures, and that Dana's apartment building was built as a means for him to enter our universe and destroy it, and then,

come the final act, when he finally does come through, he doesn't do much. First, his initial form of an androgynous-looking woman (Slavitza Johan) with a David Bowie hairstyle (kind of looks like Bowie in the face as well, don't you think?) and wearing a spandex leotard with bits of webbing and boil-like spots here and there is hard to take seriously, red eyes and booming, demonic voice or not. Second, when the Ghostbusters face him, he does little other than nearly blast them off the roof, dodge their proton beams, disappear when they try to blast him again, and then shake the building a little bit. In fact, he leaves the biggest impact when he takes the form of the giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and stomps through New York, mainly because of the image of something so silly and overly friendly-looking becoming a giant, destructive monster. More people likely recognize this form than Gozer's initial one, as Stay Puft is about as iconic as the Ghostbusters logo. Still, he doesn't last long enough to cause too much damage before the Ghostbusters close the gate and vanquish him. I guess it comes down to the notion that Gozer would have really caused some damage had he not had the Ghostbusters to deal with and that he was so powerful that they had to resort to the hazardous method of crossing their proton streams to defeat him, but I've still always felt that he had a lot of untapped potential. (Actually, as we'll get into, I haven't found any of the main villains in these movies to be that impressive.)

As many have noted, the mixture of practical and visual effects used to bring the ghosts to life has held up well over time. Going back to the Library Ghost, they used very simple techniques like moving books around on wires and blowing the library cards up into the air with blasts from copper tubes to first signal her presence, then used Ruth Hale Oliver to play the ghost in her humanoid form and a cable-controlled puppet for when she goes

from that to a skeletal ghoul. They also used an actual person, specifically a Playboy Playmate, for the lovely ghost who appears in Ray's dream and gives him a blowjob. Slimer, who was designed by Steve Johnson after he'd taken over three grams of cocaine due to annoying studio interference, was also a foam rubber puppet and he looks quite convincing when he's matted into the environments he appears in. Also, while he's only onscreen for a

few seconds, I really like the zombie cab driver who appears after the containment grid is shut down (he was the only bit of effects work they actually did on location in New York). He looks really cool and convincing, and is probably the creepiest-looking ghost in the movie. Johnson said he based him on the puppet he used for Jack Goodman's fully decayed corpse in An American Werewolf in London, which probably explains why

he's so awesome. I also like the practical puppets used for Zuul and Vinz Clortho, which look really menacing (there's a subtle difference between them; Vinz has longer horns), and the scene where Dana gets possessed by Zuul is also nicely done, with demonic hands bursting up through Dana's chair and a creepy-looking door that looks like it's being pushed by something on the other side,

before opening to reveal Zuul. And the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man was done through the good old-fashioned kaiju movie technique of having someone in a foam rubber suit stomping amidst some miniatures; Bill Bryan, the effects artist who also portrayed Stay Puft for the most part, even said he based his stomping walk on that of Godzilla. They made eighteen foam rubber suits and all but one of them was destroyed when Stay Puft gets set on fire, and they also had three different heads with various expressions and it all comes together really well.

Because Ghostbusters was one of two inaugural films for Richard Edlund's Boss Film Studios (the other being 2010: The Year We Make Contact over at MGM) and also because they ended up with just ten months to build the studio and do the effects shots for both movies, most of the shots were done in one take, which may explain why some look better than others. A lot of the visual effects, like the matte shots and paintings of Dana's building

and the gathering storm-clouds and lightning above it, the wide shot of it with the blown out section of her apartment, and the visions of Gozer's gateway and when it actually appears still look good, if maybe a little crude by today's standards, and the same goes for the animated proton beams, the balls and streams of light that erupt after the containment grid is shut down, and the purple-colored lightning that flashes from the sky at points

and which Gozer blasts at the Ghostbusters (since Edlund used to work at ILM, I wonder if that latter effect was influenced by the Emperor's Force lightning attack on Luke in Return of the Jedi). Also, during the Stay Puft scene, the compositing of him and the miniature set with the live-action elements works quite well, although it's more noticeable in high-definition. But, as much as it

pains me to say this because I love this kind of stuff, the stop-motion of Zuul and Vinz Clortho when they're in action doesn't hold up that well. I feel bad saying that because it was done by Randy Cook, who's a really good stop-motion animator, and I've read it was a really tough job, particularly for when the latter chases Louis, due to how big and bulky the puppets were, but the matting of the

animation into the live-action sets is pretty suspect and the switch to the practical puppets is very noticeable. That said, though, the shot of Dana and Louis turning into Zuul and Vinz Clortho on the roof looks really good.

The movie's opening nicely sets the mood for the balance of comedy and horror we're about to embark on, with an eerie, electronic, theramin-like bit of music playing over the Columbia Pictures logo, then escalating into a big, menacing piece when it opens on the New York Public Library. Inside, a librarian takes a cart of books out of the main reading room and carries a small handful down to

the basement. When she wanders down one aisle and stops at the end to put the books away, several books float through the air from one shelf to another behind her, though she only has a vague sense that something out of the ordinary is going on. But when she walks down a corridor beside a card catalog and the drawers blow open, sending cards flying everywhere, it doesn't take her long to see it

and runn off down another aisle in a panic. She rounds several corners, only to come face-to-face with something terrifying that remains offscreen but casts a bright light over her and blows a gust of wind at her as she screams. After that, following the title, we're introduced to Peter Venkman as he conducts an ESP test on two volunteers, a guy and a girl, asking them to try to visualize what's on the

other side of various cards he's holding up. The guy fails, saying what's on the other side of one card is a square when it's actually a star, and Venkman buzzes him through some electrodes strapped to his arm. He then turns to the girl and asks her what she thinks is on the next card he holds up. She asks if it's a star and he says it is, although we see it's a circle. It's the guy's turn again and he guesses that his next shape is a circle, but it turns out to be a

square and he gets shocked again. The girl's next shape is a plus sign and, as she tries to guess, Venkman silently roots for her. She guesses it's a figure eight and he, again, tells her she's right, jokingly asking her if she can see the cards' other sides or not. The guy, who's getting tired of being shocked by this point, fidgets around as Venkman quizzes him again. He guesses, "A couple of wavy lines," which is almost right, but because it's three

instead of a couple, Venkman marks him as wrong again. Despite his protests, he shocks him again as well and he has an outburst, yelling that he's sick of it. When Venkman explains, "I'm studying the effect of negative reinforcement on ESP ability," the guy retorts, "The effect?! I'll tell you what the effect is! It's pissing me off!" He proceeds to storm out of the office, telling Venkman he can keep the five bucks he was going to pay him.

Once he's gone, Venkman tries to make a move on the girl, Jennifer, assuring her that she does have psychic powers, when Ray Stantz comes in, proclaiming, "This is it! This is definitely it!" He starts gathering equipment together, while Venkman smacks him over the head, telling him he's in the middle of something. Ray tells him that ten people saw a "free floating, full torso, vaporous

apparition" at the New York Public Library, and though Venkman tries to talk him into going down there without him, Ray makes him come, telling him that Egon Spengler is already down there, as the PKE readings were off the scale. After Venkman asks Jennifer to come back by his office at 8:00 that night, he reluctantly joins Ray in heading down to the library, deriding his and

Egon's interest in studying ghosts. There, they find Egon examining a table with a stethoscope and Venkman plays a trick on him by knocking on the table and then slamming a book down on it, startling him. When he sees his friends are there, Egon tells Venkman there's definitely something there. They interview the librarian, Alice, who describes the ghost she saw as not having legs but

definitely having arms, which it used to reach out for her. While this excites Ray, Venkman asks Alice if she or anyone in her family has been diagnosed as schizophrenic or mentally incompetent; she answers, "My uncle thought he was St. Jerome." He then asks if she's using drugs, following that up with if she's menstruating at the moment. When the administrator asks what that has to do with anything, Venkman tells him, "Back

off, man. I'm a scientist." Egon comes running in and tells them the ghost is on the move. The three of them run down to the basement and, in one aisle, find books stacked to the ceiling. Egon and Ray are impressed with this, Ray commenting, "Symmetrical book stacking. Just like the Philadelphia mass turbulence of 1947," but Venkman snarks, "You're right. No... human being would stack books like this." Ray then says,

"Listen. You smell something," which clearly makes Venkman think, "What?!", and they continue on. They find that the card catalog drawers are covered in ectoplasm and Egon has Venkman get a sample of it, much to his aggravation and disgust, as he tries to swipe it off his hand and flings it on the drawers and the book shelves behind him, then realizes he got some on his shoe.

Venkman catches up with the other two and gives Egon his sample, when a bookshelf up against the wall falls down at them and just barely misses. Venkman asks Ray if this ever happened to him before and Ray silently answers no, with Venkman being like, "Huh." They head on, as the signal from Egon's PKE meter gets stronger until the antennae on either side of it raise up horizontally. They walk

out into an open area beyond the aisles and come across the ghost as she floats amid some other shelves, looking at a book. Though Ray and Egon are amazed to see this, they don't have an answer to Venkman asking them what they should do. He makes them come back into the aisle with him and, again, asks what they should do. Ray suggests they try to communicate with the ghost and both he and

Egon eye Venkman, who just sighs and walks back out into the corridor. As they film and take pictures of him, he attempts to speak to the ghost, saying, "Hello. I'm Peter. Where are you from... originally?" The only response he gets is the ghost shushing him, and with that, Venkman forces the guys back into the aisle. Ray then says he knows exactly what to do, and leads the other two back

out and towards the ghost. They creep towards her and Ray goes, "Get ready. Ready. Get her!" But that's when the ghost becomes a terrifying ghoul that roars at them, sending them running out of the building in fright. The library administrator chases after them, asking what happened, but Venkman just says, "We'll get back to you." On their way back to their office at Columbia University, Venkman mocks Ray for his impulsive plan, when Egon

tells them that, thanks to the data they collected, they have a chance at catching and containing ghosts. Hearing this, Venkman tells Egon he's going to take back some of the things he's said about him and gives him a candy bar, saying he's earned it. But then, they learn they're being thrown out of the university, with the dean telling Venkman, "We believe that the purpose of science is to serve mankind. You, however, seem to regard

science as some kind of dodge, or hustle. Your theories are the worst kind of popular tripe, your methods are sloppy, and your conclusions are highly questionable. You are a poor scientist, Dr. Venkman... And you have no place in this department, or this university."

As Venkman then hits Ray with the plan for them to go into business for themselves, they take out a loan, and find the dilapidated firehouse they plan to make into their headquarters, we're introduced to both Dana Barrett and her apartment building, with its unique gargoyles looming over the road below. Dana gets out of a taxi carrying some groceries, walks over to her building, and takes the elevator

up to her floor. On the way to her apartment, she gets stopped by Louis Tully, who talks incessantly, attempting to invite her to a party he's throwing for his clients, and also telling her she shouldn't leave her TV on so loud when she goes out. Dana finds this strange, saying she didn't think she left it on, as Louis goes on about climbing out onto the ledge to try to shut it off for her, then says he turned his up

really loud too so people wouldn't think it was just her. She finally closes the door in his face and he goes back to his own apartment, loudly telling Dana he'll give her a call and that he's going to have a shower... only to find he locked himself out of his apartment. As Dana prepares to put away her groceries, she sees a TV commercial for the Ghostbusters but doesn't pay it much mind and turns off her TV set. She takes her bag into the

kitchen and begins putting stuff away, when the carton of eggs she left on the counter shakes, then pops open, and the eggs jostle and crack. The yolks pop out onto the countertop and actually start to sizzle, as if they were on a stove. Seeing this, Dana then hears the sound of low growling coming from her refrigerator and when she opens it, she sees a bizarre vision of a gateway floating in space, as well as a creature that rears its head up and says, "Zuul!" (Most of the ghost voices in the film are done by Ivan Reitman himself.) Dana screams and slams the door shut.

The Ghostbusters are shown getting their headquarters together, with Venkman standing outside, watching the sign getting put up, when he hears a siren and sees a gray station wagon-like car pull up. It turns out to be Ray, who gets out and says, "Everybody can relax, I found the car," then adds, "Needs some suspension work... and shocks, and, uh, brakes, brake pads, lining, steering box,

transmission, rear-end." Venkman asks how much it cost and Ray tells him it was "only" $4800, then goes on to say, "Maybe new rings, also mufflers, a little wiring..." After that, while everyone is working inside, Dana comes in, sheepishly walking by Ray as he works on the car, and comes up to Janine's desk. Confirming that she's in the right building, she says she'd like to talk with someone

and Venkman immediately jumps to his feet, hops over the small gate leading to his office, and runs right up to Dana. Introducing himself, he has her come back into his office and later, as Egon and Ray examine her, she explains what happened. There's a moment where Egon accidentally blinds Venkman with a headlamp he's wearing when he turns to talk to him (my dad does that to people all the time and gets aggravated when you call him out on it), and

then Ray suggests, "You know what it could be? Past-life experience intruding on present time," while Egon adds, "Could be a race memory stored in the collective unconscious. I wouldn't rule out clairvoyance or telepathic contact, either." Neither suggestion is helpful for her, but Ray says he could go to the Hall of Records to see if the building has a history of hauntings, while Egon says he could look up Zuul in literature, specifically Tobin's Spirit Guide. Venkman says he'll take Dana back to her apartment and check it out, but has a Freudian slip and says, "Check her out," which he knocks himself on the forehead for.

When the two of them reach her apartment, Venkman insists on going first, saying if something's going to happen, he wants it to happen to him. He flings open an empty closet, then walks to the living room and taps two keys on Dana's piano, saying, "They hate this. I like to torture 'em. That's right, boys. It's Dr. Venkman." He stands in the living room and holds out some kind of wand

attached to a box, while squeezing a large button at the end of a cord also attached to the box. Dana asks him what he's doing and he simply answers, "It's technical. It's one of our little toys." Dana starts to realize she's being hit on, especially when she says nothing happened in her bedroom and he says, "What a crime." After she comments that he's more like a game-show host than a scientist, the two of

them walk to the kitchen. Venkman notes the eggs on the counter, which she told him about, and after she presses him, he decides to check the fridge. When he opens it, he is, indeed, shocked... at all the junk-food she has in there. Dana becomes frustrated at this, and even more so when Venkman says he's not getting any readings but he's pretty sure he's using his equipment correctly. Annoyed that her kitchen is either haunted or she's crazy,

Dana then has to deal with Venkman's continued advancements afterward, as he says, "Let me tell you something about myself. I come home from work to my place and all I have is my work. There's nothing else in my life... I meet you, and I say, 'My God, there's someone with the same problem I have.'" Despite her saying, "Yes, we both have the same problem: you," Venkman tells her he's in love with her, and she proceeds to make him

leave. As he does, he comes up with the idea to prove himself by solving her problem, saying that, when he does, she'll see him as someone who can get things done. She basically has to shove him out the door but he does leave, although the sight of him leaving her apartment does hurt Louis, who then gets locked out of his own apartment again.

That night, the Ghostbusters are eating Chinese food in celebration of their first, and only, customer, when Venkman learns they just used up all of their startup capital. Down below, Janine answers a call and has this conversation, "Hello, Ghostbusters... Yes, of course they're serious... You do?... You have?... No kidding! Just gimme the address... Oh sure, they will be totally discreet.

Thank you!" She hangs up, excitedly yells, "We got one!", and hits the button for the alarm. When they hear that, the guys quickly slide down the fire-poles, get their uniforms out of some lockers below, and take off in the now fully painted and furbished Ecto-1. They arrive at the Sedgewick Hotel and, in the lobby, Venkman comes out and asks, "Hey, anybody seen a ghost?!" The manager

comes in and tells them there have been reports of haunting activity on the twelfth floor before but, up until recently, it's been rather quiet. He then says, "I hope we can take care of this quietly, tonight," and Ray, as he puts on some goggles, says, "Yes, sir, don't worry. We handle this kind of thing all the time!" The Ghostbusters walk to the elevator, where their outfits catch the attention of a man waiting there. Venkman tells him, "We're

exterminators. Someone saw a cockroach up on twelve." The guy notes, "That's gotta be some cockroach," and Venkman says, "Bite your head off, man." As they get into the elevator, the guy decides to wait on the next one. On their way up, Ray says he wishes they'd had more time to test their equipment, and when Egon switches on Ray's proton pack for him, the very loud hum and buzzing it emits makes him and Venkman stay as

far away from him as they can. Departing the elevator, Ray and Egon take out and arm their proton beams, while Venkman stays casual. The other two are so trigger-happy that, when a maid comes down the hall behind them, they swing around and blast her cart with their beams, Venkman having to make them stop. When they do, the maid yells, "What the hell are doing?!", and the Ghostbusters sheepishly apologize, Venkman saying, "We thought you were someone else." As she gathers up what items weren't fried, Ray suggests they split up, Venkman adding, "We can do more damage that way."

They go off into separate hallways, only for Ray to stop at the head of one when he sees Slimer just around the corner, pigging out on leftovers on a room service cart. Ray yells for Venkman but doesn't get an answer. He decides he's going to have deal with the ghost himself and powers up his proton pack. When he fires, he misses Slimer and hits the wall behind him, leaving a burning streak

across it. Slimer flies off down the hall, carrying the cart behind him, and disappears through the wall, while the cart smashes against a small table holding a vase that was up against it. Following a moment where Egon is surveying another hall with his PKE meter and, when an old man steps in front of him, he pokes him to make sure he's solid, Venkman comes across Slimer when he floats into

the opposite end of the hall he's just entered. He takes his walkie-talkie and contacts Ray, telling him the ghost is there and is looking at him. Ray tells Venkman not to move, that Slimer won't hurt him, but then, Slimer comes barreling down the hall at Venkman, who lets out a frightened yell. This brings Ray running, rounding a number of corners searching for him, and when he finds him,

he's lying on the floor, covered in ectoplasm. While Venkman is, naturally, disgusted, Ray is excited about their having had physical contact with the ghost. Egon then contacts Ray and, after asking him to save some of the slime for him, tells him that Slimer went into a ballroom. In the next scene, they reach the ballroom and Ray advises the manager to wait outside with his staff. They close the door behind them and then, from the curtains

just beyond the door, Ray uses his goggles to scan the ballroom. He spots Slimer circling a chandelier and when Venkman looks, he says, "That's the one that got me." They walk into the room and blast their proton beams at Slimer, but they only manage to bring the chandelier crashing down onto a table below it. That's when Egon remembers to tell them not to cross the streams and of the hazardous consequences that arise from doing so. 

They then spread out around the room and find Slimer downing some wine from the craft services table in the back (the wine goes right through him and leaks onto the table). On Venkman's command, Ray blasts at him from the left, and when Slimer tries to escape, Egon blasts from the right. It totally destroys the craft services table and the recoil from the explosion sends Slimer flying behind the bar.

Egon blasts at him there, but Slimer, again, manages to escape and Egon destroys many of the bottles behind the bar. Slimer heads for the ceiling, as Venkman and Ray yell for Egon to stop with his blasting. Meanwhile, outside, the manager is having to assure a woman that the ballroom will be ready by the time her guests arrive. With Slimer floating up near the ceiling, clearly winded, Ray

tells the others to give him some room to put the ghost trap down and they push several tables out of the way, the sound of which doesn't go unnoticed by those outside, much to the manager's growing exacerbation. Venkman takes the opportunity to rip a tablecloth out from under everything on it and manages to do so without disturbing the flowers (although he breaks everything else). Ray shoves

the trap underneath Slimer, then tells Egon to blast him with a stream. He does, and Ray has Venkman blast him from the other side to keep him contained. With Slimer totally ensnared, they bring him down towards the trap, being careful not to cross the streams, as Venkman boasts, "Maybe now you'll never slime a guy with a positron collider, huh?" Slimer lets out a farting noise as he's brought down towards the trap, which Ray then opens,

telling the others not to look directly into it (Egon does anyway). He tells them to deactivate their streams as soon as he closes the trap and when they do, Slimer is sucked down into the trap and contained. They gingerly approach the trap, Venkman tapping it with his foot, and realize they just caught their first ghost. Ray boasts, "Well, that wasn't such a chore now, was it?", and Egon eyes him in a manner that says, "Are you kidding me?"

The Ghostbusters emerge from the ballroom, with Venkman triumphantly declaring, "We came, we saw, we kicked its ass!" Ray shows the manager the smoking trap, informing him, "Sir, what you had there is what we refer to as a focused, non-terminal, repeating phantasm or a class-five full-roaming vapor. A real nasty one, too." They then talk about payment, and when Venkman tells the manager the price is going to be $5,000, he refuses to pay. But when they go to put Slimer back in the ballroom, the manager stops them and agrees to pay their price. Venkman leaves him the bill and the Ghostbusters head out with their catch.

Thus, we get into the montage of the sudden boom in business for the Ghostbusters. Various reporters talk about the increase in paranormal activity in the area; news headlines about the Ghostbusters' activity and newfound fame in publications like the New York Post, Time, Omni, and the Atlantic are seen; and the guys themselves are shown hard at work, capturing a ghost in Chinatown and other

parts of the city, running amid crowds, and becoming adored by the public. All the while, Dana sees and hears about this. Though Venkman, at one point, declares to some reporters, "24 hours a day, 7 days a week. No job is too big. No fee is too big," after a while, they're clearly starting to be run ragged by all the jobs. Amidst this comes the part where Ray dreams about being pleasured by a very

lovely ghost, likely meant as a sign of how much the guys have had ghosts on the brain lately. Even though it's a dream, it's so pleasurable that his eyes cross and he moans passionately, falling out of bed in reality. At the end of the montage, Winston Zeddemore shows up at the Ghostbusters headquarters. He's interviewed by Janine, who asks, "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?" His response: "Um, if there's a steady paycheck in it, I'll believe anything you say." Venkman and an exhausted Ray come in, the latter holding two traps, and when Janine introduces them to Winston, Ray hires him on the spot, as they desperately need the help. He has him help by putting

away the two traps. The movie then slows down for a bit, with Venkman meeting Dana at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and telling her about how Zuul was a demigod worshiped by the Hittites, Mesopotamians, and Sumerians, and also gets her to agree to have a date with him Thursday night. Ray shows Winston the ropes, going through the complicated process of transferring ghosts from their traps to their

containment system. Venkman has his first tense meeting with Walter Peck, who threatens to get a court order if he doesn't show him their containment facility and Venkman, in turn, threatens to sue him for wrongful prosecution if he does. Finally, Egon tells Ray and Winston that he believes there may be a big, perhaps dangerous, paranormal event coming soon.

As ominous clouds gather above Dana's building, accompanied by bolts of lightning, one of the dog-like gargoyle statues on the roof begins to break from the inside, as whatever is contained within it is making its way out. Meanwhile, Dana makes her way back to her apartment and tries to sneak past Louis' door, hearing the party going on behind it, but he opens it just as she's going by. He's quite

disappointed when she tells him she has a date that night but promises him that the two of them may drop by later. Louis, telling her they're going to play Twister and do some break-dancing, tries to go back in but, once again, finds himself locked out and yells for those inside to let him in. Dana walks into her apartment and receives a phone-call from her mother. She talks with her mother for a

bit as she removes her shoes and her sweatpants, then tells her she has a date and is forced to admit that the man in question is a Ghostbuster. After she finally gets her mother off the phone, she leans back in her chair and breathes a sigh of relief. That's when she sees that the door to her kitchen has light shining through around the edges and is being pushed in from the other side. Before she can

do anything, demonic hands rip up through her chair, muffle her screams and press her to the chair, The chair swings around to face the door, as it opens to reveal Zuul in a cloud of mist. Unable to do anything, Dana is pulled into the room with the demonic dog and the door closes behind her. A quick cutaway back to the roof shows that both gargoyles are now gone, and then, we're in Louis' apartment in midst of his party. He walks through,

talking nonstop about various things (Rick Moranis improvised all of the dialogue here), when a tall, blonde woman threatens to leave. Louis gets her to dance, saying that the others may join in, when the doorbell rings and he answers it to greet two more of his clients, Ted and Annette. He takes their coats and tosses them through a door on the left side of the room, not seeing that he flung them over Vinz Clortho's head. He closes the door and asks if anyone wants to play Parcheesi, when Vinz snarls loudly behind the door.

Louis, trying to alleviate everyone's worries, asks, "Okay, who brought the dog?", when Vinz bursts through the door and crashes down onto the table full of the refreshments. As everyone screams and either tries to find cover or run, Vinz focuses on Louis, who runs out the door and into the hallway. Vinz smashes through the wall as Louis manages to enter the elevator, while a woman comes out of her

apartment to find out what the noise was, only to duck back in when she sees Vinz. Louis runs out of the building and across the street, yelling that there's a bear loose in his apartment, and climbs over a wall leading into Central Park. Vinz comes charging out the building's front doors, runs across the street, and jumps the stone wall in his pursuit of Louis. Louis, saying he's going to talk about this at

the next tenant meeting, runs to Tavern on the Green. He tries to get in but finds the door locked and then pounds on the glass, yelling for help, but the glass muffles his voice so much that everyone inside ignores him. Louis turns around and presses up against the glass, as Vinz closes in on him. He screams, then slides down the window with his back up against it, and while those inside the

restaurant see this, they apparently can't see Vinz and go back to enjoying their meals. Venkman arrives at the apartment building and notices some police officers taking people's statements. He asks one officer what's going on and he answers, "Some moron brought a cougar to a party and it went berserk." He goes on up to Dana's floor, notices the big hole in the wall and the police officer talking with people inside Louis' apartment, then knocks

on Dana's door. Dana opens the door, looking and acting quite different than before, with a slinky orange dress, a wild hairdo, and a lot of flowing air around her. After getting the door slammed on him when he initially says no, Venkman is allowed in when he placates her asking if he's the "Keymaster," and he realizes something isn't right when Dana refers to herself as Zuul and he sees ectoplasm dripping here and there and the glow on

the other side of the kitchen door. That's when Venkman is nearly seduced by Dana, as she flings him onto the bed and mounts him, but he fights off her advances, saying he makes it a rule not to get involved with possessed people. He makes things worse by repeatedly saying he wants to talk to Dana, enraging Zuul to the point where Dana's body floats above the bed and she lets out demonic growls and snarls. Venkman asks her to come down and she snarls in his face.

Louis, now disheveled and possessed by Vinz Clortho, runs about Columbus Circle, randomly yelling that he's the Keymaster and talking about Gozer the Destroyer. There's a moment where he mistakes a hansom cab horse for the Gatekeeper, only for the driver to say he's the one who makes the deals when it comes to his use. Louis turns to the driver, his eyes glow red, and he growls

demonically, before telling the horse, "Wait for the sign, then all prisoners will be released." He runs off, yelling, "You will perish in flames!", stumbling over a homeless woman's bag as he goes, while the driver sits there and says, "What an asshole." Louis is picked up by the police and brought to the Ghostbusters headquarters, where Egon decides to take him in when he gets a very strong PKE

reading from him. Egon tells Janine he doesn't think Louis is human, and in the next scene, he sees he's right when, while examining him, he sees an image of the demon dog's head on the monitor when he hooks him up to his machines. He asks him what he meant when he said before that he was waiting for a sign and Louis explains, "Gozer the Traveler. He will come in one of the pre-chosen

forms. During the rectification of the Vuldrini, the traveler came as a large and moving Torg! Then, during the third reconciliation of the last of the McKetrick supplicants, they chose a new form for him: that of a giant Slor! Many Shuvs and Zuuls knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of the Slor that day, I can tell you!" Egon then gets a call from Venkman, who tells him what's happened with Dana, as he sits in her completely trashed

bedroom and that he's pumped her full of Thorazine. Egon, in turn, tells him about Louis being the Keymaster and Venkman says he'll be there as soon as he can. He leaves Dana, who's panting heavily in her sleep, while Egon says he needs to find Ray. Speaking of which, Ray and Winston on their way back to headquarters, the former studying the blueprints of Dana's building, while the latter suggests the end of times might be coming, which is why there's been so much ghostly activity lately. Pondering this, Ray turns on the radio as they head across the Brooklyn Bridge.

That's when Walter Peck arrive at the Ghostbusters headquarters, along with a police sergeant and a man from Con Ed. Janine tries to stop Peck, saying he needs a warrant or something, but he holds up some papers, saying, "Cease and desist all commerce order, seizure of premises and chattels, ban on the use of public utilities for non-licensed waste handlers, and a federal entry and inspection order." Peck pushes past her and heads downstairs

to the storage facility, where Egon is attempting to perform another test on Louis. The men come down, Janine trailing behind them, and Peck orders Egon to shut the machines down. Egon tries to tell him how hazardous that would be but Peck tells him they'll shut them down for him if they have to. At that moment, Venkman arrives and walks down to the basement as Egon and Janine are blocking the shutoff switch. Of course, Peck isn't inclined to

listen to Venkman either and tells the Con Ed man to shut it off. The man says he's never seen equipment like they have down there but Peck doesn't care and tells him to just shut it off. Venkman tries to appeal to the man but the sergeant makes him step back and the man throws the switch. Immediately, a red light starts flashing and a warning alarm sounds. Everyone rushes upstairs

and then outside, as the machinery begins to explode internally, followed by a blast ripping up through the roof. Across town, Dana feels the influx of supernatural energy, and as a red-colored beam explodes through the headquarters' roof and a huge gust of air blasts out the door, Louis takes this as the sign he's been looking for and wanders off. Ray and Winston arrive and, when they join

Venkman and Egon, the latter explains what happened. Realizing they've lost Louis, they try to find him, when Peck, being the self-righteous asshole he is, has them arrested, telling a police captain, "These men are in criminal violation of the Environmental Protection Act, and this explosion is a direct result of it!" Egon doesn't help their case when he becomes enraged at this and tries to attack Peck.

The energy spreads all across New York, with various ghosts and other entities popping up, such as the zombie cabbie that appears when some energy goes up through a cab's exhaust pipe (the guy who gets into the cab tells him not to dawdle and the zombie fulfills his wish, as he recklessly drives through the streets, cutting off cars and causing one to crash) and Slimer appearing at a hotdog stand. Most of the energy heads for Dana's

building, where she watches as it blows open the window in the back of her apartment; at the same time, Louis follows it across town. Meanwhile, as the Ghostbusters languish in jail, they look over the blueprints for Dana's building, as Ray explains to Venkman, "The whole building is a huge, superconductive antenna that was designed and built expressly for the purpose of pulling in and concentrating spiritual turbulence. Your girlfriend

lives in the corner penthouse of spook central." Egon further elaborates, "Something terrible is about to enter our world, and this building is obviously the door. The architect's name was Ivo Shandor. I found it in Tobin's Spirit Guide. He was also a doctor. Performed a lot of unnecessary surgery. And then, in 1920, he started a secret society..." Venkman correctly guesses that said society was made up of people who worshiped

Gozer and Egon continues, "After the First World War, Shandor decided that society was too sick to survive." He pauses when he realizes he just said that among a bunch of prison inmates but then goes on, "And he wasn't alone. He had close to a thousand followers when he died. They conducted rituals up on the roof, bizarre rituals intended to bring about the end of the world. And now it looks

like it may actually happen." After a pause, Venkman suddenly starts singing, "So be good, for goodness sake. Whoa, somebody's comin'!", while the others discuss telling somebody in high authority about this. That's when they're told the mayor wants to see them and they're allowed out, Venkman telling the inmates, "I gotta split. The mayor wants to rap with me about some things." Meanwhile, Louis makes it to Dana's building and meets up with her in her destroyed apartment. The two of them kiss passionately and head up to the roof via the staircase beyond the destroyed walls where Dana's kitchen used to be.

The Ghostbusters arrive at the mayor's office, followed by Peck, who tries to make them out to be con-artists, until Ray tells the mayor that their containment system was working fine until Peck shut it off. That's when Venkman makes the comment about Peck having "no dick," prompting him to lunge at him before being restrained. Other officials report bizarre activity, and even a priest, whom the mayor knows personally as Mike, shows

up and tells him, "Lenny, officially the church won't take any position with the religious implications of these... phenomena. Personally, Lenny, I think it's a sign from God, but don't quote me on that." With the mayor still skeptical, Winston speaks up for the others, telling him, "I've only been with the company for a couple of weeks but, I gotta tell ya, these things are real. Since I joined these men, I have seen shit that will turn you

white." The others then warn the mayor of what's coming, leading to some of the most memorable quotes, with Ray saying, "Old Testament, Mr. Mayor. Real wrath of God type stuff... Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling!", Egon adding, "Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes! Volcanoes!", Winston putting in, "The dead rising from the grave!", and Venkman finishing with, "Human sacrifice! Dogs

and cats living together! Mass hysteria!" Venkman also says that, if they're wrong, they'll go to jail without a fight, and adds that he will save the lives of millions of voters if he lets them do their thing. With that, the mayor throws Peck out and asks the Ghostbusters what they need from him. They proceed to get a police and military escort to the site, as dark clouds gather over the top of the

building and everyone with faith is praying for salvation. The Ecto-1 pulls up alongside a police barrier and as they disembark, Venkman plays up to the crowd, even getting some love for Ray. As everyone cheers for them, they strap on their proton packs and prepare for the daunting climb up the building, with the dark clouds and lightning become all the more threatening. The scene

becomes darker and darker and the spot shakes violently, with parts of the building's front falling off and the road rising up and ripping open. The Ghostbusters even fall through a large gap in the road, followed by the front of a police car getting smooshed in above where they fell. Then, it quiets down and becomes totally silent. It seems as though the Ghostbusters were killed before they even

entered the building, but they pull themselves out of the crack. As the crowd chants, "Ghostbusters!", Venkman assures them that they're fine, and the four of them put their hands in together before walking through the door. However, their trek up to the top floor proves to be an arduous one, as they're exhausted long before they reach the 20's. Venkman comments, "Well, when we get to twenty, tell me. I'm gonna throw up."

Up on the roof, Dana and Louis both rise off a stone slab they were laying on together, as the energy gathering above the building increases all the more. At that moment, the Ghostbusters reach the top floor and stagger into the hallway, barely able to stand; Egon comments, "Art deco. Very nice." Venkman points them to Dana's apartment at the end of the hall, while Dana and Louis get into position where their respective gargoyles used to

be. The Ghostbusters enter the apartment, literally knocking down the door, and find that its interior has virtually frozen over and the back wall has blown open. Ray notices the stairs and the guys head up them, Venkman leading the way... until a flash of lightning and a thunderclap makes him decide to bring up the rear instead. They reach the roof as Dana and Louis absorb blasts of energy from the clouds and the gateway begins to open in

front of them. Rounding a corner, they see Dana and Louis absorb the energy until, with a loud blast, they transform into Zuul and Vinz Clortho and snarl at the Ghostbusters. Venkman and Ray exchange glances, with the former saying, "Okay. So... she's a dog." The demon dogs run through the gateway and up to the mystical temple beyond. The Ghostbusters follow them and stand at the bottom of the stairs. They watch as the crystalline gates of

the temple open and a figure appears in front of them. The figure, an androgynous-looking woman, walks over to Vinz and caresses him on the head. Egon tells them the woman is Gozer merely taking the form of a woman. Venkman declares that, woman or not, Gozer has to get by them, then tells Ray to get her. Exchanging glances with Venkman, Ray steps up onto the bottom step and yells,

"Gozer the Gozerian?" Gozer turns and looks at him, as he says, "Good evening. As a duly designated representative of the city, county, and state of New York, I order you to cease any and all supernatural activity and return forthwith to your place of origin or to the nearest convenient parallel dimension." Venkman sarcastically replies, "That oughta do it. Thanks very much, Ray." Gozer asks

Ray if he's a god, and when he answers no, they all get blasted back through the gate, with Winston landing on the stone slab and the others nearly falling off the edge of the roof, the onlookers down below scream at this. They manage to save themselves and get back to their feet. After Winston admonishes Ray for not saying yes to that question, they decide to quit playing around.

All four of them march up the stairs towards Gozer, pull out their proton barrels, and activate them, as Gozer crouches down like a cat ready to pounce. As he hisses and snarls at them, they fire, only for him to jump up into the air, fly right over them, and land on the slab behind them. Turning and facing him, they fire again, this time at maximum power, and to their surprise, Gozer almost instantly disappears. For a few seconds, it looks as though

they've triumphed, but as Venkman, Winston, and Ray are about to celebrate, Egon looks at his PKE meter and says it doesn't look good. The building begins shaking, with bits of rubble and the statues carved into it falling towards both them and the street below, endangering the onlookers. Gozer's voice erupts from the sky, telling them to, "Choose the form of the Destructor." Venkman, realizing what it means, tells the others to empty their heads

and not think of anything, when Gozer then declares, "The choice is made! The Traveler has come!" Venkman cries foul, saying that nobody chose anything, when they notice that Ray is silent, with a very guilty expression on his face. They all confront him and he says, "I couldn't help it. It just popped in there." He's about to explain himself, when they hear the sound of people screaming and

Egon yells, "Look!" They run to the edge of the roof and see the giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Man as he comes stomping through the city, sending people running and causing cars to crash into each other. Horrified and guilt-ridden, Ray babbles about trying to think of something that could never harm them. Egon, at the same time, admits, "I'm terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought,"

as Stay Puft stomps towards the building and roars up at them. Walter Peck happens to be loitering around on the street below as Stay Puft stomps on the Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, much to Venkman's anger. All four of them blast Stay Puft around his neck and torso but, while they almost cause him to lose balance and manage to set him partially ablaze, they don't stop him and he begins

climbing up the building towards them. As they try to think of something, Egon then comes up with a desperate plan to close the gate: cross the streams in front of it. Despite the obvious risk, with no other options, the Ghostbusters rush towards the gate, as Stay Puft's big, burning hand grabs onto the edge of the roof behind them.

They stop at the bottom of the stairs, Venkman telling Ray, "See ya on the other side," before blasting his proton beam at the gate. Ray adds, "Nice working with you, Dr. Venkman," and blasts his beam as well. They then entangle their beams and both Egon and Winston follow suit, until their beams are one concentrated stream heading right for Gozer's temple. A massive explosion then rocks the temple and the rooftop. Stay Puft, who reached

the top seconds before, is completely incinerated as the explosion reaches up towards the clouds. Chunks of the marshmallow man rain down on the crowd below as they flee, with Peck getting the worst of it when a big downpour of melted marshmallow hits him as he stands right next to the Ecto-1. The ominous clouds above the building and the city start to dissipate, while on the totally destroyed roof, after several seconds of dead

silence, the Ghostbusters awaken to find that they're covered in melted marshmallow (although Venkman, who ran for a better spot of cover, didn't get nearly as much on him), but have survived the blast. They walk through what was the gateway, when they come upon the charred remains of Zuul and Vinz Clortho. Ray makes the remark of how it smells like "charred dog hair," then realizes the

implications and apologizes to the clearly hurt Venkman. But then, a hand breaks its way through Zuul's torched carcass and the Ghostbusters rush to it and open it up to help get Dana out. They then hear Louis yell, "Somebody turn on the lights!", and while Venkman sees to Dana, the other three rush to his aid. Seeing what's happened to the roof, Louis notes how angry the superintendent is going

to be, then when he learns his saviors are the Ghostbusters, he asks, "Who does your taxes?" Everyone starts heading off the roof, with Venkman escorting Dana, Ray and Egon helping Louis, intending to study him (he says yes to Egon saying they'd like to get a sample of his brain tissue), while Winston declares, "I love this town!"

Usually, a movie like this would end after the big, climactic battle, as you don't often see the immediate aftermath of the heroes collecting themselves, packing up, and going home, but here, you do. You see Venkman and Dana standing out in front of the cheering crowd, with Venkman laying one on her, Ray lighting a much-deserved cigarette, Egon getting hugged by Janine, Louis being taken away by paramedics, Winston and Egon packing

their proton packs into the Ecto-1, and some priests actually giving some chunks of Stay Puft the last rites, before the Ghostbusters drive off and head for home amid the adoring crowds and reporters. The last bit is a shot of Slimer flying right at the screen with his mouth open.

The score, which I knew a little bit of before I saw the movie because they used it in Ghostbusters: The Video Game, is by Elmer Bernstein, who'd worked with Ivan Reitman before on both Meatballs and Stripes. Like the movie itself, Bernstein had to use the music to balance out the dual tones of fun and spookiness, a task he found really challenging, to the point where he would describe it as the hardest score he'd ever written. I think he pulled it off rather well, coming up with a memorably down to Earth, comedic, yet not overly so, leitmotif for the Ghostbusters themselves, which you hear early on in the movie, as well as making use of the theramin-like ondes Martenot to come up with some really creepy, eerie sounds, like what you hear when the movie first starts and at various points like when the guys are investigating the library and Venkman and Dana enter her kitchen. He also used the ondes Martenot as part of a nice, lovely theme for Dana, and also did well with making the scenes involving Gozer and his coming feel big, mystical, and overwhelming.

Music-wise, though, what everyone remembers about Ghostbusters is the title song by Ray Parker Jr., which, like parts of the score, I'd already heard many times before I saw the movie. What can you say about this song that hasn't already been said? It's fun, it's bouncy, it's energetic, and makes you ready to cheer for the Ghostbusters when they get to work and start blasting ghosts. It's played at various points in the movie, like when you see the title, during the montage of the sudden increase in jobs the Ghostbusters reach, and during the ending credits, and you also hear instrumental versions of it here and there. Either way, it's awesome, and I'm not surprised it was such a hit outside of the movie and was nominated for an Oscar (I would say it deserved to win but, when I heard it lost to Stevie Wonder's I Just Called to Say I Love You, which was featured in The Red Shoes, I had to admit that that's a great song as well). Other notable songs on the soundtrack include Cleanin' Up the Town by the Bus Boys, which your first hear a little bit of when Venkman, Egon, and Ray get chased out of the library and is later heard when the Ghostbusters get their first job; Magic by Mick Smiley, which plays as the ghosts wreak havoc on New York after having been freed from the containment system; and Savin' the Day by the Alessi Brothers, which plays when the Ghostbusters head out to confront Gozer. I don't think any of these songs are as memorable as the title one but they do work in the context that they're used.

While I may not have any nostalgia for it and its effect was stunted by the time I first saw it, Ghostbusters is still a really good movie. It has a great cast that play their characters wonderfully, Ivan Reitman's direction is right on target, as is the writing, the locations in New York and the settings, in general, are used well, the ghosts themselves are all very memorable, the special effects are really cool and most of them still look great to this day, the music score and songs are very catchy, and the movie serves as another great example of how to balance laughs with chills. Other than visual effects not holding up that well and Gozer being all buildup and little payoff, I don't have any qualms with it whatsoever. I may not absolutely love it, but I can understand why millions of other people do.