The classic Ghostbusters are back in director Jason Reitman’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife, a sequel to his father Ivan Reitman’s films Ghostbusters (watch it HERE) and Ghostbusters II (watch that one HERE). To celebrate their triumphant return, we here at Arrow in the Head have decided to take a look back at the original Ghostbusters movies and put together a list of our favorite moments when these ghost-filled comedies leaned into horror territory. Scroll down to see what we picked for a list we call Ghostbusters: Creepiest Moments.
GHOSTBUSTERS: I BELIEVE IT’S MAGIC
At the demand of Walter Peck (William Atherton) of the EPA, the Ghostbusters’ ghost containment unit is deactivated, and what follows is both creepy and cool. As the Mick Smiley song “Magic” plays on the soundtrack, ghosts begin to wreak havoc throughout the streets of New York. A monstrous creature bursts out of the subway, a rotten corpse takes control of a taxi, the iconic ghost known as Slimer raids a hot dog cart… and ghosts make their way toward 550 Central Park West, an apartment building that works as a superconductive antenna, designed and built to pull in and concentrate spiritual turbulence. That building also happens to be home to Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver), a young woman who has become possessed by the demigod Zuul. It would have been even cooler if we had seen ghosts cause more mayhem on their way to Central Park West, but what Ivan Reitman was able to show us still manages to give this part of the movie an epic feeling, and the chosen excerpt from the “Magic” song goes along with it perfectly.
GHOSTBUSTERS: STAY PUFT
Admittedly, it doesn’t sound like the sight of a one hundred foot tall sailor made out of marshmallow, sporting a jolly look on his face, would be creepy at all. And yet the way Reitman shoots the introduction of the Stay Puft marshmallow man, at first just catching glimpses of his head over the tops of buildings, does have a bit of a creepy feeling to it. Even when we do see the entire, goofy-looking creature, there’s still a threatening edge to him because the Ghostbusters are scared of him. As most people would be when faced with a kaiju-sized creature, marshmallow or not. In fact, Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) says he’s “terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought” as he watches Stay Puft approach. This is a great example of how something can be hilarious and creepy at the same time. Then when Stay Puft steps on a church, Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) decides it’s time for him and his fellow ‘busters to open fire on the mother pus bucket.
GHOSTBUSTERS II: SEVERED HEAD SUBWAY
Although the genocidal madman Vigo the Carpathian (Wilhelm von Homburg, with the voice of Max Von Sydow) comes off as more unsettling in general than anything in the first Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters II doesn’t have as many effective horror scenes as its predecessor. It has its moments, though. Most notably a sequence in which Egon, Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), and Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) have to make their way down a dark subway tunnel to find the source of an underground river of slime. When the severed heads of several of Vigo’s victims appear on pikes around the trio, Winston discovers there are scarier things than rats in the tunnel. Seconds later, he’ll be hit by a ghostly train – but those severed heads are way creepier than a ghost train.
GHOSTBUSTERS: LIBRARY GHOST
The opening two and a half minutes of Ghostbusters are pure horror movie. With eerie music provided by composer Elmer Bernstein playing on the soundtrack, we follow a librarian (Alice Drummond) through the New York Public Library – and at first she doesn’t notice that books are floating between shelves behind her, or that an invisible force is messing with the card catalog. When she finally does notice, she freaks and runs off through the maze of stacks. Turning a corner, she’s blasted in the face by a bright light and strong wind… and if it weren’t for the fact that the film’s non-horror-movie logo then appears on the screen, accompanied by the sounds of Ray Parker Jr.’s awesome theme song, it would be easy to believe that we had just started watching a movie that was going to take a more serious approach to its paranormal activity.
GHOSTBUSTERS: DANA’S ARMCHAIR
About to start getting ready for a date with Peter Venkman, Dana Barrett sits down in an armchair in the living room of her apartment… and then the term “armchair” takes on a whole different meaning when monstrous arms come ripping out of the chair, grabbing her and holding her in place. The chair spins around to face a door down the hall, which opens to reveal a creature called a “Terror Dog” on the other side. Then this chair slides down the hall, taking the screaming Dana for a ride into the room with the Terror Dog. Once she and the chair are inside the room, the door slams shut behind her. The next time we see her, she’ll be possessed by Zuul. This is another scene that would have played in exactly the same way if this were a completely serious horror movie.
HONORABLE MENTION – GHOSTBUSTERS: REVELATION
We tried to focus on moments involving the supernatural while putting this list together, but there’s one scene in the first Ghostbusters that deserves an honorable mention even though it doesn’t feature any paranormal activity at all. It’s a quiet scene of Winston and Ray driving through the streets of New York in the Ghostbusters’ vehicle Ecto-1, pondering whether or not the increase of spiritual turbulence they’ve been witnessing might have something to do with the end times prophesied in the Bible’s book of Revelation. They even quote a particularly chilling passage from the book, and creep themselves out so thoroughly that they have to put on some music to take their minds off what they were just talking about. There are no ghosts here, but it’s a great, creepy scene.