This past week, the remake of Ghostbusters was released. It feels so unnecessary to me to remake this thing, but I guess we have to make ghostbusters women for some unknown reason.

Anyway, this movie has received lukewarm reviews and pretty bad box office results, which is not a surprising result for an obvious hack effort.

But what always bugged me about this franchise is this:

What is the deal with these ghosts?

First off, when the existence of ghosts were initially announced to New York in the movie, people seemed to have a bizarrely calm and cavalier reaction to this discovery. Everyone continued to live their lives in a very regular way, well until Zuul came around. But there was no immediate shock or wonder about the discovery of ghosts. The reaction was mainly that of a rat infestation; when things got a tad out of hand, just call the exterminator.

What the hell is that all about? The discovery of ghosts would be the greatest and most profound discovery in the history of mankind. It would partially answer questions like ‘what happens when we die’, or ‘do we have a soul’, or ‘is there a higher power’? But no. There was no such reaction at all. The discovery was met with more annoyance than awe.

So fake.

Secondly, what in the world are these ghosts of? I thought our ghost would take the form of the physical form (like we saw via Ghostbusters 2), so if that is the case, what the fuck is Slimer? Is he a ghost of a monster? Are there monsters now? And these monsters…do they have souls as well? None of this makes any sense at all.

So fake.

Finally, at the beginning of Ghostbusters 2, we find Peter and Co. sued by the city and broke. Broke?!?! How can this be? They were responsible with not only the discovery of these supernatural beings (the greatest scientific discovery of all time), they saved the world from this nth dimension Satan-esque demon. I don’t know, but in my world, these guys would be heroes for the rest of their lives. They wouldn’t need more ghosts to keep their extermination business open. They would be revered across all nations. They would win all sorts of scientific awards. They would never be forgotten and broke.

So fake.

I can only suspend my disbelief so far. Ghosts? Why not. Demon in the fridge? OK. Bill Murray being a love interest to Sigourney Weaver. Ehh, OK fine. But to have weird-shaped ghosts flying around a city that doesn’t care about the fact we have discovered this supernatural phenomena and then these heroes to fall on hard times after all of this? No.

So fake.