Horror Movie Review #27 - Ghostbusters (1984)

I know what you're going to say before you've said it.  "But, but.. Ghostbusters is a COMEDY!"  And then you're going to give me that :-o face.  Yea, Ghostbusters is as much a comedy as Frighteners, which also made my list this month.  Both movies are written as comedies, I grant you, but both have a hard edge of horror to them that you just don't generally see in most comedic movies.  Think about it.  Ghost Busters.  You're dealing with ghosts, the paranormal, supernatural entities, moldy babylonian deities, sorry, make that sumerian deities, and what the hell part of that is funny?  All of it, but my point is, it's based on a horror subtext, so if the actors weren't doing it for laughs, then this whole movie would be classified as horror.

Ghostbusters (1984) stars Bill Murray, Dan Akroyd, and Harold Ramis (who also co-wrote the script, I believe, but don't quote me on that) who are three paranormal researchers working for the University.  After a botched call to investigate a ghost at the campus library, the three of them are thrown out of their comfortable college existence and decide to go into business for themselves as...  you guessed it...  The Ghostbusters.  Unfortunately, their timing couldn't be worse, because their latest client's (Sigourney Weaver) hauntings include an ancient sumerian deity of destruction that is about to be unleashed!  Yes, now you can do your :-o face, because that shit's scary.

You've seen this movie, I am sure.  I've seen this movie about a hundred times.  I watch it every damn time it's on TV.  Even the song is stuck in my head.  I mean, let's be serious here, given all the horror movies you have ever seen, if you HAD an option to turn to someone for help, Who ya gonna call?  GHOST BUSTERS!  Damn straight.  Because if they can't handle whatever it is you've called them for, you can be sure they'll at least distract it long enough for you to get away.  lol  You've got Bill Murray, Dan Akroyd and Sigourney Weaver at the heights of their comedic careers.  Sure, Bill Murray and Sigourney Weaver have done more serious roles since then, but who cares?  Not me.  I'm a monster and horror movie fan and I don't really give a damn about their other movies.  Well, except Sigourney Weaver has that whole Aliens franchise thing going, which I am a big fan of, and I hope she can return to someday,  but she does comedy in THIS movie, and that's pretty much the extent of her comedic career.  lol

Also, this is one of the few movies where you can see Jennifer Runyon at her beautiful best.  She plays a test subject for one of Venkman's experiments early in the film, but she's also been in such films as Up The Creek! and Carnosaur (after which she retired from acting, unfortunately).  I probably fell in love with her character in Up the Creek, but I think I was in my mid-teens at the time, and had a tendency to fall in love over the course of an hour and a half movie, so that was nothing unusual for me.  lol

Just like Frighteners with Michael J. Fox, this movie has a lot of funny moments, but the gist of it is straight up horror.  From the first startling scene in the library to the goings-on at the apartment complex that Dana Barret (Sigourney Weaver) lives in, there is some scary shit going on here.  I must admit, first watching this movie, the library scene alone had me tense and scared.  Sure, Venkman (Bill Murray) was putting up a brave front, trying not to take the ghost stuff seriously, but he was right out in front of the pack when they were running out of the library at full speed afterwards!  lol  Even "Slimer" (as he was referred to in the cartoons that this movie spawned) was a bit scary, a ghost that could eat real food can certainly interact with the living in some godawful way.  Plus, how many moldy Sumerian deities do you know of that look like a slovakian glamour model?  EXACTLY NONE!  This movie was the first to showcase the Sumerian deities as they truly are.  Yes, that's right, the Sumerian deities all look like Slovakian glamour models.  Who knew?  The Ghostbusters did, that's who.

I could watch this again and again, and I challenge anyone to watch this movie and not like it.  I even liked William Atherton as Peck!  He was so incredibly annoyingly perfect in his acting skill!  lol  When he got covered in hot marshmallow at the end of the movie, I laughed my teen aged ass off.  Even nearly 30 years after this movie came out, it still kicks ass.  Why the HELL can't we make movies nowadays that are this good?  Hell if I know, but dammit, there's no good reason why we can't, except we aren't trying hard enough.  You can watch this one on Netflix, right now if you want.

Come on, where's Ghostbusters 3?  Ghostbusters 2 pretty much sucked, but there can be a 3!  We don't need Bill Murray if he doesn't want to show!  Look, all the actors are old now, so play that up.  Ray Stanz, Egon Spengler and Winston Zeddmore are getting too old to be running around snatching up ghosts on a daily basis nowadays, so they're training a new team of ghostbusters...  an all female team.  Oh yea.  An all female team of ghostbusters that like to do the ghostbusting in the nude!  yes!  It's perfect!  And we can have Slimer back to slime them with ectoplasmic goo!  And while they're in training, the team learns of some darker threat underscoring some of their recent captures, maybe some ghost-eater is scaring the shit out of ghosts, and the ghostbusters have to deal with THAT mess while training the naked newbs!  I love it!  I'll even volunteer to play Slimer!  :-D

lol  Okay aside from my total pervy-ness, I am sure there's a decent script for Ghostbusters 3 floating around out there somewhere and we'll see it someday.  It may be horrible and it may destroy more careers than it makes, but what the hell.  If Ray Stanz can get a blowjob from a dream-ghost in the original Ghostbusters, I can perv my way into hollywood glory as the next Slimer.  Maybe they'll use my script for Ghostbusters 4: Slimer Vs the Swedish Bikini Team!  It's brilliant!  I'm going to fire off a script to Bill Murray right now!  lol

Okay, I may be a little sauced right now, but I'll see you guys tomorrow night for more horror reviews!  Only a few days left til the end of my month-long horror movie review-a-thon!  Can I keep reviewing movies til the end of the month?  Only time will tell!  Stay tuned!  Same bat-time, same bat-channel!  Biff!  Zam!  Zowie!  And those are just the names of my body parts!  I'm not saying which ones!  :-D