Ghostbusters is, first and foremost, a comedy, but, you can't bust ghosts without a few creepy specters and scary moments. When the Ghostbusters reboot was first announced, some "fans" were concerned that an all-female remake wouldn't be as funny as the original (you know, because despite the success of movies like Bridesmaids and Spy, funny women are still a rarity on-screen, apparently), but there wasn't a lot of concern for whether or not the movie would be scary. The original Ghostbusters isn't that frightening, especially to today's audiences, who are used to insanely detailed special effects and non-stop action, but what about the reboot — is Ghostbusters really scary?
It definitely has its moments. For director Paul Feig, making the Ghostbusters reboot was as much about the scares as it was about the comedy. "I want ours to be scarier than the original, to be quite honest," Feig said in an interview with Empire Magazine in 2015, and in a separate interview with Entertainment Weekly in 2014, he said he wanted to modernize the technology used by the Ghostbusters and make it "really scary." But, just because Feig, who co-wrote the film with writer Katie Dippold, wanted to make the movie scary, doesn't mean he didn't want it to be hugely entertaining, too.
There are plenty of laughs in Ghostbusters, but technological advances helped the new movie deliver a fair amount of scares, too. In its review of the film, The New York Times pointed to one sequence as being particularly refreshing and scary. "Mr. Feig has offered up some unexpected touches, including a cavalcade of beautifully designed old-timey ghosts and a genuinely creepy bathroom scene that adds a few horror-flick shivers," wrote NYT 's Manohla Dargis. On Twitter, meanwhile, comedian Patton Oswalt declared the movie "scary" via a short review. And fans will likely agree, considering the several truly creepy scenes present in the film, featuring ghosts and possessed humans alike.
If you're worried Ghostbusters will be too scary for you, though, don't be. The updated special effects and Feig's dedication to making it as scary a comedy as it can be might make for a few jumpy scares, but overall, Ghostbusters is just one fun movie. In other words: the scares are silly, because they are driven by a certain degree of comedy. As far as comedic scary movies go, the Ghostbusters reboot is more Shaun of the Dead than The Cabin in the Woods. (Which is to say that it's more funny than terrifying.) Also, take comfort in knowing that the film is rated PG-13, not R, so how scary can it be, really? About as horrifying as star Kristen Wiig getting scared by a ghost on The Ellen Show.
If you can handle that, you can handle Ghostbusters.
Images: Columbia Pictures
