Frozen Empire Director Explains Why “This is a Scary Ghostbusters Movie”

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is gearing up to deliver on the success of 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife, with a brand-new adventure that will see the original team of Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, and Winston Zeddemore back in the fray and taking on a new wave of spooks and specters. With the movie set for its debut next month, director Gil Kenan has promised that the latest addition to the franchise will be both funny and definitely scary, just like the 1984 original.

Following the warm reception of Afterlife, the new installment not only once again reunites the beloved original cast members—Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Ernie Hudson—with the fresh faces from the previous film, including Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, and Mckenna Grace, but it also introduces a chilling new threat to New York City, aptly named the “death chill” alongside a sinister villain, Garraka.

Speaking to SFX Magazine, Kenan explained that this time around there was a conscious effort to deliver those unexpected scares that are all part of the Ghostbusters legacy. While noting that there will still be enough humor to counter the darker moments of the movie, Kenan explained how pivoting from one to the other will be the most important part of the film’s success.

“This is a scary Ghostbusters movie, I set out to go for the thrills. As a big-screen experience, I think it’s going to play like a scary, funny movie. The secret is that the scarier a scene is, the funnier the next joke is going to play. That’s the way that the pendulum swings with tone. Twisting that lever to make sure that the scares land is a way of making sure that the jokes are funnier.”

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is Delivering For Long-Term Fans

The trailers for Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire have done an excellent job of teasing the comedy and horror of the movie, with the appearance of several chilling – pun intended – spooks being countered by the droll one-liners of Bill Murray’s Venkman. This balance has been a staple of the franchise from its opening library scenes in 1984, with each subsequent installment adeptly mixing ghostly action with memorable one-liners and slapstick humor. Ghostbusters: Afterlife notably leaned into nostalgia and emotion, especially towards the climax, and it seems that Frozen Empire will continue to offer some smile-raising callbacks to the original movie, but will also deliver a new villain and story that also takes cues from The Real Ghostbusters animated series.

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Naturally, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is expected to gain a PG-13 rating, meaning that the scares will not be too much for younger fans of the franchise, but may give them a couple of sleepless nights all the same. However, this is exactly what the Ghostbusters franchise does best, so sticking to that format is almost certainly guaranteeing that the sequel will perform well at the box office, something that is in short supply right now. Exactly how well the movie does is still something that cannot be predicted, but we don’t have too much longer to wait to find out.