“Ghostbusters: Afterlife” is, in many ways, the reboot that the 2016 feature should have been. It takes the action out of New York City for the first time and moves to the wide-open spaces of Oklahoma, where we focus on the family of the now-deceased Dr. Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis), who dies in the opening scenes. His daughter Callie (Carrie Coon) and grandchildren Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) and Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) find themselves in over their heads as they move into Egon’s farmhouse and discover supernatural hauntings led once again by Gozer (Olivia Wilde).
The movie does suffer from some of the same pitfalls as the previous two entries on this list, as it seemingly recycles plot points from the earlier films. But this time, it is the performances from Grace, Wolfhard, and Coon –- along with comic relief from local teacher Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd) –- that add a new dimension to the horror-comedy set up outside of a core of four ghost fighters. But it’s the appearances of the three living Ghostbusters (Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Ernie Hudson) from the first two features that add a nice balance between nostalgia and passing the supernatural fighting torch to a new generation.
