Tag: ghostbusters

Because in three and a half minutes here Harold Ramis manages to pretty much write a hologram for almost the entire movie. Not entirely perfect – no Sigourney Weaver, no Annie Potts – but in terms of plot and characterization you know everything that you need to know. If this is the only clip that survives of Ghostbusters, you could watch it and still know what the movie was all about.

It’s the three and a half minutes that’s really impressive here, too. But that’s also due to director Ivan Reitman, who simply showed you everything, secure in the knowledge that you’d follow along.  How did this movie not win an Oscar?

This Ghostbusters clip is, in its way, an excellent example of: a, why it’s hard to do cosmic horror properly in movies; and b, why horror leans on comedy quite a bit.

Without going too deep into the weeds; the problem here is that Spengler obviously should feel terrified – he’s facing a cosmic horror that’s attempting to destroy the planet – but it’s hard to show something like that on the screen and not make it look clunky.  In a weird sort of way, making it funny can at least help making it clear that what you’re seeing is transgressive, or something like that.  I don’t know.  All I know is that there are at least three bits in this clip that I can quote from memory…