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“Ghostbusters: Afterlife” continues legacy

Story By : Elliott Woodmansee-Siress

Originally airing in 1984, Ghostbusters quickly became a pop culture icon in the Halloween scene thanks to a mix of campy but equally stunning effects, witty and lovable characters, and the unique setting and prop design that made every kid that year go out hunting for ghosts rather than candy. 

The Ghostbusters themselves became household names much like how they become in their own films, and even decades later we’d find the nametags of Venkman, Stantz, Spengler and Zeddemore popping up as collectable LEGO minifigures and sported by the young leads of Stranger Things. 

Now, after a debatable sequel and a controversial reboot, Ghostbusters are making their grand return along with a young new cast to possibly carry on the Proton Packs. Coming November 19 of this year. Phoebe (played by Mckenna Grace), Trevor (played by Finn Wolfhard), Podcast (played by Logan Kim), and Lucky (played by Celeste O’Connor) will make up the next generation of Ghostbusters along with Paul Rudd’s science teacher Mr. Grooberson and Carrie Coon’s Callie, mother of Phoebe and Trevor. The film will follow these new kids as they attempt to solve a decades-old mystery tied to a supernatural phenomena from 1984 and their grandfather Egon Spendler, creator of all Ghostbusters’ equipment. 

The film has been met with mixed reception, some relating it to Star Wars: The Force Awakens in the sense of it being a decently strong sequel that takes the pre-established world and expanse on it, with a heavy dose of easter eggs and call-backs thrown into the ectoplasm soup for good taste. Others criticize it as a lazy and half-baked attempt to continue a story without the need for a sequel, but regardless the fans seem to love it. The child actors play their roles well, Mckenna Grace’s Phoebe emulating her grandfather Egon quite perfectly without turning into an offspring caricature of him.  

Afterlife promises to breathe new life into the series, revamping the feel and style of New York’s finest ghoul hunters, but only time will tell if the newer generation is gonna answer the call and uphold their iconic legacy. 

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“Halloween Kills” any chance of success

Story By : Eric Esquivel 

The sequel to the movie 2018’s Halloween, Halloween Kills, written and directed by David Gordan Green. Even though this movie is a sequel, this is the twelfth addition to the Halloween franchise. If you want to get into the Halloween spirit, this isn’t the movie anyone would want to watch. 

After 40 years of peace from the bloody hands of Michael Myers, the killer emerges from the ashes of the last film’s house fire finale, leaving Laurie Strode (played by Jamie Lee Curtis), her daughter and granddaughter, a vengeful deputy (played by Will Patton) and a group of other Myers survivors to band together against Michael. However, Haddonfield is ready to fight back, a mob forming to take Myers down as he goes on the hunt for the Strode-Nelson family. 

Right from the beginning of this movie, you can already tell this is going to be really boring, and it never really gets anywhere. The movie slugs from scene to scene, leaving audiences begging for it to end. Throughout the film the only interesting parts are just the action shots. Other than that it’s just a lot of back and forth talking.

Unless you have watched every single one of these movies in this franchise that just can’t die, you wouldn’t really understand anything going on. The film has a lot of easter eggs referencing past movies, but to non-fans you are kind of left there confused on a lot of those scenes. It doesn’t help when the franchise has been rebooted too many times to keep track even if you are a serious fan. 

Michael Myers always ends up dying numerous times throughout the franchise, but comes back to life for the next sequel. He is literally indestructible in all of the movies. For some reason he’s always able to fight off multiple people by himself like it’s nothing, but yet he moves so slow which makes no sense. He’s laughably weak and incredibly strong depending on what Hollywood needs from him and overall that takes away from anything scary or even remotely intimidating about the killer. 

This franchise is way too long anyways. Halloween Kills is the twelfth edition to this long never-ending franchise. The first Halloween movie came out in 1978 and it’s currently 2021 and it still has the same plot as the first film. That goes to say, Halloween Kills offers nothing new to the table and only promises the same old noise coming next year. 

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“Squid Game” revives a horror subgenre

Story By : Isabelle Perez

While on its last life, Netflix has given its viewers its new hyperfixation, a little Korean drama by the name of Squid Game. Squid Game follows Gi-Hun (played by Lee Jung-jae), the last of 456 players in a competition of deadly children’s games with their lives and 45.6 billion won on the line. Games like red light, green light, tug-o-war and dalgona take a grizzly, blood-splattered turn. With every player sinking in financial debt, – Gi-Hun especially included – no one plans on opting out, leaving all of them to fend for their lives both inside and outside the games. 

The series has 9 episodes each just under an hour long, and after running through the show, it’s easy to see just why and how everyone got hooked so quickly on this gut-wrenching series. 

Its ranking as a thriller is no joke. Squid Game is filled with almost comedic gore. While the challenges might not sound difficult, they are in the face of death. They know if they lose, they die and normally can see what’s going to kill them as they struggle to complete a competition or win out over other opponents. 

But while the show kills off player after player, it keeps one thing alive, even brings it back from the dead, and that’s the survival horror or “death game” genre the show is built upon. Popularized by 2012’s The Hunger Games, the “death game” genre is as simple as it sounds, a movie centering around the idea of “death” “games”. But it didn’t start over here in the west, but really got its start with Japanese films like 2000’s Battle Royale. 

Squid Game’s high rise in popularity has brought this genre back into the spotlight, even bleeding out into other Asian horror-thriller series like the Japanese science fiction drama Alice In Borderland, which follows a similar death game story but on a city-sized scale. It’s exciting to see a new genre of work get the praise it deserves, but it’s even more exciting to wonder what new gorey and thrilling works are possibly on their way to keep the genre alive.