Ghostbusters!
(1984)
Ghostbusters is a 1984 comedy directed by Ivan Reitman and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. While many people talk about how funny this movie is, how awesome the practical effects are, which is not wrong by any means; I love to focus on the cross genera style this movie has.
Ghostbusters has many science fiction elements that I believe go overlooked. I first watched this when I was a young boy with my father. The jokes in this movie went way over my head at the time and I though this was a more serious movie. This movies world building was so enriched and felt so deep that I was completely enveloped in it. This is what I believe makes Ghostbusters stand out. You have a 4 main Ghostbusters, Ray the fun loving heart, Egon the brains of the operation, Peter the ladies man, and Winston the everyday straight man. With each personality complimentary to one another, the film feels as though it could be set in any genera of cinema. Because not everyone is cracking jokes the movies heavy moments and moments of tension have more significance than they would if everyone had a quip to say about each situation. In fact the only character I would call a comic relief is Luis Tully played by the great Rick Moranis. He is the only goofball character in the hole film.
The film works as a science fiction horror film because it takes its self seriously. The threat is real, and the world is real. Dealing with budgets, health codes, and city politicians could be a great avenue for comedy, but instead the film treats it as small issues to overcome, like an underdog story. We are rooting for the team. We are invested in there success because we can relate to the hardships they face. Ghostbusters also uses its practical effects to invoke feelings of dread, danger, and terror. It would have been very easy to make each ghost a goofy and silly creature, but instead they are all unique and vile beings. Yes I understand that some of them are in comedic situations, like the taxi driver ghost, but that ghost is creepy as hell!
The horror aspect of this movie is one of its strongest pillars. We have great tension building up in Dana’s apartment. The dread we feel when Peck shuts down the reactor, and of course when the Gatekeeper herself first breaks free form the stone she is kept in. this movie is a master of what I call “The Coming Storm” tequneque. We see the events of something bad happen before it happens. We watch the beast free itself on the roof of spook central. Then we are met with a camera that does not stop moving circling Dana like a predator circles its prey. All the while our stomach churns in dread. When Winston talks to Ray about the coming of judgment day right after, and Peck shows up to shut down the containment unit all work together to give the audience a since of hopelessness.
The overall comedy in the movie, definitely helps out too, I wont say it doesn’t. But this movie works just as well, if not better as a science fiction horror movie.
The Usual Suspects
(1995)
“The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled, was convincing the world he doesn’t exist.”
The Usual Suspects is a 1995 crime, noir, “whodunit” Directed by Brian Singer. It is one of my absolute favorite films of all time, and there was a time where that sentence would have marked me as a person who hasn’t seen a lot of movies. This movie is the best film Singer has done in my opinion and I hate that it is tied to him. It is one of the few movie I would say is perfect from start to finish. We have an amazing opening that gets us hooked on what the story will be about, a very compelling and interesting middle, and a legendary ending that rivals the ending of The Godfather.
The movie has the double narrative framework most film noirs have, and its complimented by the tones of each. The interrogation and the story of what really happened. On the criminals end we have what feels like a heist movie that morphs into a “one last job” movie and on the detective’s side we get a compelling cop story tracking down a notorious ghost story.
I call this movie a whodunit because the film introduces a character known as Kiser Sose. Sose is this faceless being of great knowledge and power that is compared to the boogieman. He is completely unknown to the audience and there are little details sprinkled out like breadcrumbs for us to discover his identity before it is reveled. Much like a whodunit. Unlike a whodunit however, we are treated to a film where the identity does not matter really at all, because he got away with it from jump. I will keep the twist a mystery even though the film is approaching its 30 year anniversary, because it really is the twists of all twists.
The film uses a lot of close – ups and dark lighting to both harken back to the old 40s crime films as well as give the audience a feeling of closeness to the characters. Each one is likeable and lovable in there own respected ways and we spend a very long time getting to know each one very well. By the end of the film it almost feels as though we are one of them too and Sose is coming for us.
Brian Singer really made a great film here and I absolutely love it and recommend everyone watch it. It just really sucks that Singer is who he is otherwise I would recommend more of his work.
