Film Review: “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” (2021)

“The Goonies”: Supernatural Edition

Ever since the 1980’s, “Ghostbusters” has become a pop-culture phenomenon. The first film, released in 1984, is hailed as an all-time classic that I consider to be one of my all-time favorite films. That film would later go on to spawn a forgettable sequel in 1989 and in 2016, an aggressively maligned, female-led remake. While I wasn’t particularly crazy for either film, I didn’t necessarily hate them either. Now, 5 years after the 2016 reboot, we strap on our proton packs for “Ghostbusters: Afterlife”, a sequel/reboot that may or may not be an apology from Sony for 2016. This time leading the cast, however, it’s not SNL Alums like Bill Murray or Kristen Wiig but, a group of neighborhood kids.

Directed by Jason Reitman, whose father Ivan directed the first two films, “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” takes place thirty years after the events of “Ghostbusters II” where a single mother (Carrie Coon) and her two children move to a small town in Oklahoma. They along with the rest of the town are greeted by a series of earthquakes despite not living on any faultlines along with strange activity happening at an old mine that was once in the possession of an alleged occultist. As the kids (Finn Wolfhard, McKenna Grace) discover the history of their late grandfather and the long-forgotten…