Ghostbusters: Afterlife Parent Guide

Life isn’t easy for a single mom, and when Callie (Carrie Coon) gets evicted from her home, she’s left with just one option: her recently deceased father’s rundown farmhouse on the edge of Summerville, Oklahoma. While she’s not thrilled about the prospect, her children Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (McKenna Grace) find ways to make it work. Trevor picks up a job at the local burger joint to hang out with Lucky (Celeste O’Connor), a pretty girl he meets there. Phoebe, on the other hand, discovers her late grandfather’s basement workshop, which includes, among other things, a sizeable collection of mold, spores, and fungi, a set of matching brown jumpsuits… and an unlicensed particle accelerator. Unfortunately for Phoebe, those are going to come in handy (well, maybe not the spores).

As Phoebe explores the homestead, she learns that the mysterious rumbling emanating from an abandoned mine might be related to an ancient Sumerian deity of terrible power, who isn’t planning to stay sealed up underground much longer. With the whole world at risk, it’s down to Phoebe, Trevor, Lucky, Phoebe’s friend Podcast (Logan Kim), and their summer-school teacher Mr Grooberson (Paul Rudd) to figure out how to trap it once and for all.

I had a bad feeling about this movie, and it’s mostly because of the last Ghostbusters revamp. My feeling was that Ghostbusters is one of those classic films that deserves to be left alone. And while I still think that Hollywood needs to make some effort to create new stories instead of rehashing the greatest hits of the 80s to cash in on our seemingly bottomless nostalgia budget, I must admit I really liked this movie.

I know, I know – me, liking a movie? It does happen. And there’s a lot to like here. The film is fast, fun, and perhaps most surprisingly, really funny. The script has a lot of the dry sarcasm that made the original so popular, and the cast has the comic timing dialed right in. Mckenna Grace is particularly spectacular, but I can’t leave out Paul Rudd and Carrie Coon either.

Fans of the first film might be relieved to hear that this is a much more family suitable option. Eighties comedies are many things, but raunchy is usually one of them, and there are more than a few off-color moments to be had in the original Ghostbusters. I was actually shocked by how clean this movie is. That said, it’s chock full of terrifying moments with ghosts and demonic spirits, some of whom possess main characters, making it grossly unsuitable for children. (Religious viewers who object to pagan deities might also prefer to avoid this film.)

What appeals to me most about this reboot is that it feels like it genuinely cares about the original. Especially compared to the 2016 version, this movie is much closer both visually and tonally to the 1984 classic. I suspect that has to do with the fact that director Jason Reitman is the son of the original director, Ivan Reitman, and actually cares about the franchise’s legacy. The film also functions as a remarkably touching tribute to the late, great Harold Ramis, who originated the role of Egon Spengler. But when it’s not being heartfelt, it’s being a great family action comedy – and those are even rarer than ghosts these days.