Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Review
I’ve never seen a Ghostbusters movie. Well, that’s not entirely true. I skimmed through the film that started it all in 1984 where viewers first met Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson who would become the key figures Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, Egon Spengler, and Winston Zeddemore in the Ghostbusters universe. I knew enough about the franchise to know how important the latest installment, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, was to the Ghostbusters legacy and I stepped into it ready to fully immerse myself into the experience.
Directed by Gil Kenan, who wrote Ghostbusters: Afterlife – the film that precedes the events in this one, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire picks up three years following the events of Afterlife. The Spengler family, Callie (Carrie Coon) and her children Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) and Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) are in New York City fighting ghosts as a full-time business and cohabitating in the firehouse from the first Ghostbusters film with Gary (Paul Rudd), Phoebe’s former teacher and Callie’s partner. The action for Frozen Empire started off quickly. The villain is established early in the film and his reasonings for destruction are later fully explained in the story, but its intentions are to bring the second ice age.
The return of familiar faces from past and recent Ghostbusters films is what’s going to get fans in the theaters. Annie Potts as Janine Melnitz, Celeste O’Connor as Lucky, Logan Kim as Podcast, along with Bill, Dan, and Ernie will have viewers beaming watching them interact on screen. Kumail Nanjiani, Patton Oswalt, and Emily Alyn Lind were also great additions to the ensemble cast.
There were no standout performances for me though because this is a film where the cast truly shines when they have scenes together as a group or paired off into smaller teams. The way they bounced jokes between one another was a highlight of the film. There are so many good comedic moments in Frozen Empire.
Do you need to watch any previous Ghostbusters films before going into this one? No. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire does an adequate job at laying the foundation of previous films, but knowing Ghostbusters lore from films before this one will make you appreciate Frozen Empire so much more. There were obvious Easter eggs scattered throughout the film, but not to the point where you won’t understand the plot. Seeing past and present Ghostbusters fighting alongside each other and sharing inside jokes created nostalgic moments.
Where Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire fell short was with the running time. I found the film to be a tad too long and it took pretty much the entire movie to finally see the empire get frozen. The effects throughout the movie are stellar though. Capturing the city of New York getting frozen was visually stunning on screen and watching the ghost villain regain its power was enticing. Also, all the other ghosts included in this film were impressively depicted, the costumes looked better than ever, and the Ghostbuster vehicle provides some exciting action sequences.
Make sure to stick around for a quick mid credit scene that doesn’t tease a future for the Ghostbusters franchise, but it will have you leaving the theaters with yet another laugh. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is a perfect love letter to fans of the franchise and delivers a laugh out loud film filled with heart and thrilling action. You’ll leave the theater wanting to watch all the previous films and asking yourself; who you gonna call? Sony, to produce more of these films.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire comes to theaters March 22, 2024.
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Amber Dover is a multimedia journalist with over a decade writing about pop culture. Cat mom with a deep love of horror, you can follow Amber at @Glambergirlblog on Instagram and X.