It’s impossible for a reboot of a beloved franchise to please everyone. These films must find a way to win over diehard fans with significant emotional attachment to the source material, while simultaneously courting a younger fanbase and recruiting a new generation of characters to carry the story forward.
And above all, they have to deliver on what made said franchise so iconic in the first place. For Ghostbusters, that means a blend of inventive creature design and comedic hijinks. Luckily for us, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire understands the assignment, skipping the sentimental overtones of Afterlife for a brisk and inventive follow-up that delivers jokes and scares in equal measure.
Many fans criticized 2016’s Answer the Call for not including the surviving Ghostbusters in the story (though the actors do make cameos). Afterlife offers a major overcorrection, introducing us to Egon Spengler’s daughter Callie (Carrie Coon), a single mom to Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (Mckenna Grace), who moves the family to Egon’s abandoned Oklahoma farm.
The film leans heavily on the 1984 classic, from bringing back the O.G. Ghostbusters to basically copy-and-pasting that film’s third act into the new installment (with plenty of new mythology that is neither necessary nor entertaining). The film offers solid fan service but turns maudlin by the finale. Afterlife was so busy stirring up nostalgia that it failed to include any jokes or comedic set pieces, a franchise cornerstone.
Thankfully, Frozen Empire hits the ground running by relocating the Spenglers (along with Paul Rudd’s goofy science teacher-turned-sorta-stepdad Gary) to New York City, where they move into the iconic firehouse and take up the family business of busting ghosts in the Ecto-1 while damaging iconic NYC property. Joining them are fellow Oklahoma transplants Lucky (Celeste O’Connor) and Podcast (Logan Kim), who get little screen time but enough jokes to justify their return in the jampacked sequel.
While the Spenglers are bustin’ all over town, Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) bankrolls a ghost research lab, where scientists house ghosts and possessed items. Many of said items come courtesy of Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), who hosts a YouTube series that is basically a haunted Antiques Roadshow.
One such item is a metal orb housing a malevolent demon god that plans on using the “death chill” to freeze Manhattan (and the world) to death. The Ghostbusters, old and new editions, must come together to battle this frozen monstrosity alongside a folklore expert (Patton Oswalt) and the orb’s clueless owner (Kumail Nanjiani).
Frozen Empire, unburdened by the world-building of Afterlife, plunges the audience right into the action and doesn’t let up its brisk pace. The film has a lot of plot to cover and many characters to service but director Gil Kenan keeps things moving along from set piece to set piece while allowing character-based moments to land.
Mckenna Grace is once again a standout as Phoebe, the obvious successor to her grandfather’s spectral skills. Despite being more knowledgeable and gifted than the rest of her family, Phoebe is benched from busting until she turns 18 (apparently teen ghostbusting counts as child labor, who knew?). The moody teen strikes up a friendship (or more, depending on your reading of the subtext) with teen ghost Melody (Emily Alyn Lind) who died in a tenement fire. The relationship grounds the film’s wackier elements without sacrificing the humor.
And yes, Frozen Empire is funny. Paul Rudd is reliably entertaining as the overly enthusiastic Gary, while Carrie Coon brings plenty of dry humor as Callie. This film has plenty of laughs which helps gloss over some lingering plot issues.
The film also succeeds at being scary, in a family-friendly way. The creature designs for the new ghosts and the Big Bad feel gooey and tactile, thanks to puppetry and practical effects. There’s CGI, of course, but the monsters feel delightfully homemade. Also welcome is Elmer Bernstein’s original score, which infuses the film with more familiar feels.
The film isn’t perfect (no film is), but Frozen Empire has enough pluck, laughs, and charm to entertain most audiences. Diehards will be satisfied with plenty of callbacks while younger audiences will find plenty of new stuff to enjoy. The spirit of the Ghostbusters remains as bouncy and irrepressible as Ray Parker Jr.’s theme song.
(featured image: Sony Pictures)
