GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE

GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE catches up with the heirs to the Ghostbusters business in New York City, who team up with members of the Old Guard to stop an ancient, evil escaped god with powers to freeze the whole world and rule the Earth. GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE is more serious and scary than fun and funny, unlike the first movie, and promotes a false occult worldview where human ghosts can’t “move on” because they have “unfinished business” and, even if they do move on, they “unite” with the universe instead of going to Heaven and being with Jesus (there is, of course, no mention of Hell and, thus, no real justice in this life or the next).

The movie opens with Gary, the husband of Callie, the daughter of the late doctor who started the Ghostbusters business, leading the family in stopping a sewer dragon. They do some damage to the city, however, and the mayor decides to close their business. The mayor also finds out that Gary’s stepdaughter, Phoebe, is only 15, so using her is against the child labor laws. So, Gary and Callie decide to bench Phoebe from going out on any future ghost hunting trips.

Meanwhile, Winston has become rich since he first joined the Ghostbusters and now funds the entire enterprise. He’s hired a bunch of young paranormal scientists, and they’ve created a new ghost containment field, because the old one in the firehouse is becoming too crowded.

Also, Ray (Dan Aykroyd) has now retired and runs a store for occult books and artifacts. An Indian man, Nadeem, sells Ray an ancient brass orb from his late grandmother that Ray discovers has spiritual power that’s off the charts. He brings it to Winston’s new lab for Winston’s people to study it.

Phoebe is upset that her parents have benched her. One night, she wanders a nearby park to set up a chess board and get away from her troubles. She runs into a female teenage ghost named Melody. They commiserate with each other about their teenage angst.

When Phoebe learns about all the new equipment at Winston’s new lab, she takes Melody there. She steps into a glass chamber designed to separate people’s souls from their bodies for two minutes, in the hopes that she can find some way to let Melody move on with her life. However, when she does, she learns that it’s all a trick. The psychic energy released by the machine enables the evil horned god, Garraka, trapped in the brass orb to get loose.

It turns out that Nadeem’s dead grandmother was the Firemaster, the guardian who kept watch on the orb. In the ancient past, people had managed to cut off Garraka’s horns and trap him in the brass orb. Nadeem is supposed to be the next Firemaster, but he never paid any attention to his grandmother’s occult stories.

Once free from the orb, Garraka takes back the horns that Nadeem’s grandmother was hiding and guarding in her headquarters. He also manages to release all the ghosts from the containment device at the firehouse. With a ghost army under his control, Garraka goes on a rampage.

The Ghostbusters can’t defeat Garraka unless Nadeem discovers his Firemaster powers to counter Garraka’s icy stranglehold on his new ghost army.

Unlike the original 1984 movie, GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE is more serious and scary than fun and funny. It has lots of excitement, but what made the first movie such a big hit was its incredible sense of humor, led by Bill Murray’s hilarious performance as Professor Venkman. Murray returns for the new movie, but the filmmakers seem to be too timid to let Murray cut loose, lest he overshadow the rest of the cast. Of course, that wouldn’t be a problem if you give the other players some great comic bits too.

Also, FROZEN EMPIRE has a strong occult worldview with too much false religion in it. For example, not only does Phoebe communicate with a real ghost. The ghost also tells Phoebe that she’s still wandering Earth because she has some “unfinished business.” In addition, she says that, if she takes care of that business, she can move on to the afterlife, where she can “unite” with the Universe in some way.

Thus, GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE totally rejects the Christian, biblical belief in Heaven and Hell, where God blesses people who are saved by His Grace and love Him and love other people, while those who reject Him stew in the hell their rejection entails. There’s no ultimate justice and no ultimate objective morality in such a silly occult world.

Finally, GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE has some foul language and inserts an implied lesbian attraction between the live teenage girl and the female teenage ghost. The lesbian attraction is not satisfied in any way; it’s just implied.