31 Days of Halloween: Day Nineteen

Ghostbusters (1984 – Rated PG in the US for spookiness, wackiness and the stay puft marshmallow man)

Summary (from IMDB):

Three odd-ball scientists get kicked out of their cushy positions at a university in New York City where they studied the occult. They decide to set up shop in an old firehouse and become Ghostbusters, trapping pesky ghosts, spirits, haunts, and poltergeists for money. They wise-crack their way through the city, and stumble upon a gateway to another dimension, one which will release untold evil upon the city. The Ghostbusters are called on to save the Big Apple.

RB Wood’s rating (out of 5) 4.5 doogs and cats living together

No movie on this list will have more quotable lines than this flick.  No so much a horror flick, but a horror spoof.  Sure there are wonderful scary moments like when Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver) is yanked into her fridge by the key master and the gate keeper, but this film is just a boat load of fun.  Three scientist of the paranormal studies department of NYU, Dr. Peter Venkman (Bill Murry), Dr. Raymond Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) and Dr. Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) are tossed out of their cushy tenured positions for being frauds. Venkman certainly sees his career as a dodge, but Stanz and Spengler are serious scientists who have developed a series of inventions to help– not only to prove the existance of ghosts, but to capture and contain them.  With a third mortgage on Stanz’s family home, they fund a business to rid New York City of ghosts–the Ghostbusters.

Evil is afoot in the Big Apple, when an occultist designed tower in the city (where Barret and Rick Moranis’ Louis Tully reside) opens up a portale to another world allowing the dead to float around the city causing mayhem.

This is comedic genius written by Aykroyd, Ramis and the uncredited Moranis.  Although the effects are a bit dated, the story works and is an absolute riot from Venkman’s experiment to pick up a hot co-ed in the beginning to the attack of the stay puft marshmallow man at the end.  I still laugh out loud at the many one liners and site gags ever present in this movie and the cast plays their parts perfectly.  I still, to this day, see people dressed as the Ghostbusters for Halloween and I encourage you to give it a viewing this season.  And I’ll bet real money that Ray Parker Jr.’s famous didy popped into your head while reading this.

Tomorrow: I see dead people

Peace