In 1997, two generations of animated heroes teamed up to face a city-wide threat in Extreme Ghostbusters, the sequel to the original team’s beloved animated series. In 2024, everything old is new again, with two generations of live-action heroes teaming up to face a city-wide threat in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, the sequel to 2021’s surprise hit Ghostbusters Afterlife.

Read on to learn if the new film is a worthy sequel, or if the filmmakers should have quit while they were ahead!

The story

Phoebe Spengler (Mckenna Grace, Annabelle Comes Home), her brother Trevor (Finn Wolfhard, Stranger Things), mom Callie (Carrie Coon, TV’s Fargo, The Gilded Age), and teacher Mr. Grooberson (Paul Rudd, Clueless, Quantumania) are making their presence felt in the Ghostbusters’ former stomping ground of New York City. When the team’s old nemesis, Walter Peck (William Atherton, Die Hard) rears his head as city mayor,

Phoebe is removed from active duty, driving a wedge between her and her family. This couldn’t have happened at a worse time, as the unearthing of a supernatural artifact will require the efforts of Ghostbusters old and new to prevent the return of an ancient evil.

Back in action

As a gruesome prologue gave way to the Ecto-1 screaming through Manhattan streets in pursuit of a translucent eel entity, this lifelong fan was positively giddy. The characters involved may have been new, but the iconography and legacy of what they represented was undeniable: the Ghostbusters were back in business. As written and directed by Gil Kenan (who also wrote Afterlife), the film’s opening served as an effective (re)introduction to the new status quo, as Afterlife’s introspective family drama is swapped out for spectacle and worldbuilding.

Growing pains

Phoebe remains the emotional center of these sequels, her love for science and corny jokes surviving the move from Oklahoma intact. Another aspect that’s carried over is her tendency to seek solace in the undead whenever she and her mother have an argument. Phoebe’s burgeoning friendship with Melody (Emily Alyn Lind, Doctor Sleep) is entirely unlike the franchise’s past instances of human-ghost interactions (sorry, Slimer), but the two actors generate a believable rapport that helps smooth over the Grand Canyon-sized leap in logic that kicks off the final act.

The big bad

The finale centers around the Garraka, the latest in a long line of “evil god” archetypes bent on destroying and/or ruling the world by way of New York, and he’s perfectly adequate, as far as these things go. His horn-headed design may not be as instantly iconic as Gozer or Vigo, though his primary power of lowering the temperature would probably be welcome in the brutal Manila summer. It would have been nice to see more examples of his powers at work, but what we do get is enough for a couple of good scares, and he fulfills his purpose of giving the heroes an excuse to banter before blasting him back to the netherworld.

The old guard returns (again)

Forty years on, Dan Aykroyd’s real-life (and onscreen) enthusiasm for the occult is as infectious as ever. It’s great to see Ernie Hudson’s character taking on a more significant in-universe role, with Winston having grown into the team’s financier. While his paranormal research center clearly exists primarily to drive future sequels and spinoffs, it’s a good source of visual gags and easter eggs.

As the primary mystery unfolds, the old guard takes a more active role in the action, which is no mean feat, given their advanced ages. While Bill Murray’s Peter and Annie Potts’ Janine pop in and out for glorified cameos, Hudson’s Winston and Aykroyd’s Ray hang around long enough to agree that they should probably be in retirement.

But hey, who you gonna call?

An embarrassment of riches

Delightful as their presence is, something had to give, and in this case, it’s breathing room – with no less than eight (or nine) returning protagonists, a slew of new supporting characters, and far too much story to cover, Frozen Empire is honestly overstuffed. Thankfully, the film’s brisk pace and excellent cast (including newcomers like Ratatouille’s Patton Oswalt and The Eternals’ Kumail Nanjiani!) mean that the embarrassment of riches is never so overwhelming as to derail the experience – on the whole, Frozen Empire is unapologetically fun.

Ghostbuster: After Nostalgia

Afterlife brilliantly set the stage for a new era of storytelling, and while Frozen Empire does run with the concept to some degree, it still relies largely on referencing and reprising what’s come before. Having grown up on the franchise, it is endlessly joyous for this writer to see the surviving cast in any context, but even I have to admit that seeing the Library Ghost again was a bit much. Nostalgia can’t power any series forever, and if Afterlife proved anything, it’s that this universe is robust enough to welcome new blood. Indeed, given how well that film passed the torch, one wonders when Phoebe and friends will finally be allowed to take the lead.

The bottom line

Overreliance on nostalgia notwithstanding, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire fires on all cylinders, uniting new and classic characters in a blockbuster adventure while setting the stage for more to come. With the franchise more alive than it’s been in decades, one hopes that the filmmakers eventually believe in the new crew enough to carry future adventures on their own. Ultimately, it’s a great time to be a Ghostbusters fan — between this film and Netflix’s upcoming animated series, we can’t wait to where the Ecto-1 goes from here.

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