My youngest son recommended that I check out this one so we could move on to watch the “new” one. I’ve been reluctant but relented. Does it resurrect the franchise from the dead?
A man is running. He is running from an unseen entity. Though there are no words spoken, it is evident that whoever this man is, the thing chasing him wants him dead in the worst way. He runs across his yard holding what any fan of the series knows as a ghost trap. Standing on his front porch, trap in hand, arm extended, he taunts the unknown and unseen specter. As it approaches, a switch is thrown and the trap is set, only something goes wrong. He scurries back into the house, hides the trap, and sits down. Nothing left to do now but wait for the inevitable to come. Which it does.
Somewhere else around the country, a woman and her two children are about to be evicted. She tells the landlord that she was just informed that her estranged father has passed away and she is on her way to collect whatever inheritance she is due. The landlord gives his condolences but only half-heartedly as he says he will wait till she leaves to change the locks and evict her anyway.
Callie and her children Trevor and Phoebe travel from Chicago to her late father’s farm in Summerville, Oklahoma in the hopes of finding out that she has inherited a fortune, or a large desirable farm, or … land, something, anything that they can sell to make the money back for eviction. When they arrive at the run-down farm it becomes obvious that there wasn’t a lot left on the surface of any real value. Talking to the locals they find out that her father was known as the “Dirt Farmer” because he was never seen doing any actual farming. He died and left seemingly nothing to his daughter but bills and dirt.
As they start to adjust to their surroundings for the summer Callie reveals that they may be here a bit longer than expected. This new place IS their home for now and the foreseeable future. Trevor, though upset, finds his only escape from this bad situation in the local drive-in diner where he gets a job and attempts to get a girlfriend. Phoebe throws herself, as she always does, into studying and books. She starts to attend a summer class at her local school. Instead of watching Cujo and other assorted horror VHS tapes the teacher, Mr. Grooberson, puts on, she becomes more interested in his seismological information and questions about the town of Summerville. What they all find is that this town holds a lot more inside of it than any of the few residents knew.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife, much like Spirit, aren’t the traditional gory, sweary, nudity-filled horror movies that I review every year. However, this is also still a movie about ghosts, hauntings, and even possessions. So having said that, I feel like this still qualifies as a horror movie, even if it is aimed more at kids. Kids watch horror movies too. As I said, my 10yr old son watched this one in the theater when it first came out and he said there was “only maybe one real scary part” in the whole thing. I would agree with that. There was one jump scare in the whole thing but as an adult and someone that has seen 1000 horror movies, I could see it coming a mile away.
I know that a lot of purist fans of the series have trashed the previous attempt to reboot the franchise, and have also looked down their nose at this version. However, once you get past all the petty and spiteful nonsense this is a very good movie. The story is a little contrived and hangs pretty heavily on you knowing the original films, but it manages to update the series as well as treat the previous ones with just enough reverence. People tend to dump on Paul Rudd recently as he continues to play the comedic and almost stereotypical “Every Man” in almost all his films, but, you know what, he’s good at it. The rest of the cast does a great job at their respective stereotype roles as well. The aloof but still loving older sibling. The Mom trying to do literally anything she can to help her kids. And, of course, the nerdy younger sibling that is the catalyst of basically the whole plot. Hell, I’m just stoked they tried a make good for Ernie Hudson and made him a rich philanthropist keeping the other guys afloat.
I am very happy that I watched this one. Not only because it is a good film, but also because my son was excited to watch it with me, and move on to the next installment; Frozen Kingdom. I would say that if you have kids that are basically of the same age (~10) and aren’t particularly afraid of ghosts, you could do way worse than Afterlife. While it will NEVER match up to the first scare in the first movie (that damn librarian still freaks me out) it has enough star power, spookiness, and even heart to make this a good family watching experience.
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