Ghostbusters

Director: Ivan Reitman

Starring: Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Rick Moranis, Sigourney Weaver, Ernie Hudson and Annie Potts.

Release Date: June 8, 1984

Rating: PG

Runtime: 108 minutes

Distributed by: Columbia Pictures

So we were late getting this out…again! Guess I am gonna be the mean editor! That being said with all the news over the past few weeks regarding Ghostbusters 3 we decided to pick Ghostbusters as the Fused Film Friday Classic pick of the week!

Developed and released in 1984 this sci-fi/fantasy/comedy film was major hit. Starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis as three eccentric parapsychologists living in New York City who turn into ghost exterminators.

The three parapsychology research professors that specialize in ghosts, Drs. Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis), Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), and Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) are kicked out of Columbia University after their research grants are terminated. To maintain their livelihood, they found Ghostbusters a “professional paranormal investigations and eliminations” service. Using an old firehouse as their headquarters and a 1959 Cadillac Miller-Meteor Ambulance dubbed Ecto-1″ to get about the city. Their funds are nearly dried up before they get their first major client, a hotel having recent problems with a resident ghost. They capture it successfully, using their nuclear accelerator proton packs to force it into a small holding trap for later transfer to a containment grid in the firehouse. On the heels of this endeavor, the Ghostbusters suddenly find themselves overwhelmed with calls from prospective clients, to the point that they take on Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) as a fourth member to handle the workload.

Now enter Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver) living in a Central Park west apartment she asks the team to investigate some paranormal activity going on her refrigerator. Venkman is more than eager to take the case being that he wants more than her money (he wants some ass too!). The name Zuul is heard, which is enough to freak anyone out. A demigod her minion is named Gozer. Of course this explained in the later part of the movie. Before this is determined Barrett is captured by the spirit of one of Gozer’s beast like Guardian’s known as the Gatekeeper. Down the hall Barrett’s smalltime accountant neighbor, Louis Tully (Rick Moranis), is possessed by another beast known as the Keymaster.

The Ghostbusters must race to find the source of all the paranormal activity but not before Walter Peck steps in to take out the main storage grid, housing all the captured ghosts. Due the amount of ghosts getting freed by Peck the Ghostbusters assisted by the city must stop the swell of an inter-dimensional gate opened by the meeting of the Keymaster and Gatekeeper. Gozer appears in coporreal form as, what looks like a 1980s punk rocker. After ill-attempts to destroy her with proton packs, Gozer disappears and tells them to choose the form it will take. Stantz fails in blanking his mind thinking of the most innocent thing he could, The Stay Puff Marshmallow Man.

The team finds that a giant version of this tasty brand mark has begun to lay waste to the city, making its way to Central Park West so it can climb the building, and their proton packs have no effect against it. Spengler realizes that their only hope is to cross their energy streams, destroying Gozer and the interdimensional gate, despite the fact that they themselves may die from that act. As the giant pastry pusher reaches the top of the building, the team executes this plan, causing the gate to explode and reducing the Stay Puft Man to liquid marshmallow fluff. The Ghostbusters not only find that they have all survived, but that both Barrett and Tully have returned unharmed to their normal unpossessed human forms. The crowd of onlookers cheers as they leave the building and drive away. The End!

The concept of the film actually came from Aykroyd and his own personal fascination for the occult. The movie was designed to be a film to star himself and friend, John Belushi. Aykroyd’s original vision of the film differed from the version that was shot, featuring the Ghostbusters going through time, space and other dimensions, destroying various amounts of ghosts. After his pitch, the script was needed to be overhauled. Ramis and Aykroyd paired up and hammered the new version with parts originally intended for John Candy, John Belushi and Eddie Murphy. Belushi died and Candy and Murphy couldn’t commit.

Ramis ended up taking the role of Spengler after other more prominent actors of the time were considered, such Chevy Chase or Micheal Keaton. Ultimately this proved to be a move that reimaged his acting career as he had planned to do more off-screen work. The film received a 93% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The franchise is currently in the process of developing its second sequel as well as a new generation console video game.

This is truly one the greatest films of all time. It is creative, funny and just one of the iconic staples that made an era.