Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Aims To Bring Genuine Scares Along With The Laughs

The "Ghostbusters" franchise turns 40 next year, and, judging from the teaser trailer for 2024's "Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire," it appears that director Gil Kenan (who's taking over for "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" helmer Jason Reitman) has conjured a big New York City adventure that will play like a supernatural "The Day After Tomorrow." The Zoomer busters introduced in the last film (played by Finn Wolfhard and Mckenna Grace) will join forces with the elder contingent (Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Bill Murray, Carrie Coon, and Paul Rudd) to combat a shadowy evil force capable of wiping out humanity via something called the "death chill."

This sounds far more ominous than anything the Ghostbusters have faced in the last three installments, which is encouraging if, like me, you believe one of the crucial components of the 1984 original was its capacity to occasionally scare audiences senseless. I'll never forget watching Ivan Reitman's classic in a packed theater, and being surprised that he kicked off the film not with a barrage of jokes but with a masterfully constructed suspense sequence that peaked with a jump scare. Then, five minutes later, after eliciting some belly laughs via his trio of comedy superstars, he went for the jugular with a huge jolt that had the entire audience screaming.

The horror element of "Ghostbusters" has been MIA since 1984, and this is a major reason why the sequels have failed to connect in a major way with mainstream moviegoers. Yes, they were generally box office hits, but they weren't genuine blockbusters like the first film. I think this is because the mixture has been off. So it's heartening to hear from one of the franchise's new additions that "Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire" is getting back to frightening basics.