Retrospective Film Review

Ghostbusters (1984) • 40 Years Later — for the definitive ’80s comedy, who you gonna call?

Three parapsychologists forced out of their university funding set up shop as a unique ghost removal service in New York City…

Books floating in a library basement. Drawers opened untouched, with cards shooting out wildly. This is unmistakably the work of a poltergeist. But whom do you contact for such a problem? William Friedkin’s The Exorcist (1973) suggested sending a letter to a priest, while Tobe Hooper’s Poltergeist (1982) suggested a more novel approach by hiring parapsychologists.

But there was never anything quite like the Ghostbusters. Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), and Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) are a group of academics specialising in parapsychology. Fired by their university and thrown out onto the streets of New York City, they decide their only option is to start a ghost-catching business from an old fire station in the city. However, they’re unaware of a supernatural storm brewing on the horizon, far larger…