Movies

'Ghostbusters: Afterlife' Celebrates "Ghostbusters Day" With New Character Reveals And One Spooky (Probably Haunted) Farmhouse

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By Marisa Mirabal

The Ghostbusters franchise creates phantoms that come with more fun than fear, its charm embedded within quirky characters, zany ghosts, and plenty of comical one-liners. The original film was directed by Ivan Reitman and released nearly 40 years ago, but like ghosts, this series keeps coming back. Continuing to keep ghosts (and ghostbusters) in the family, director Jason Reitman is following in his own father's footsteps with the newest film in the franchise, Ghostbusters: Afterlife.

And since today is Ghostbusters Day (which yes, is a real thing), some new images and details about the new film have been conjured online.

IGN conducted an online Q&A with members of the cast and crew earlier today, releasing new images on their Twitter feed that tease one spooky setting and welcoming new characters to the franchise.

One of those new characters is played by Logan Kim, seen in the gif above, who is considered to be "the heart of the movie." He plays a classmate of Phoebe (McKenna Grace) who, as the trailers tease, appears to be the granddaughter of one of the original Ghostbusters. During the course of the film, she uncovers her family history alongside her brother Trevor (Finn Wolfhard), with help from their school teacher, Mr. Grooberson (Paul Rudd), who is fascinated with the Ghostbusters legacy and is a bit of a fanboy. Like the target audience for this film.

And if Phoebe gets a classmate, so does Trevor. Another image reveals Celeste O'Connor, sporting her uniform as an employee at the local Spinners Roller Hop. Locations like this suggest the story really leans into the small town setting, and couldn't be further from the supernatural events that occurred in New York City several decades prior.

"We wanted to go somewhere new," Reitman explained to IGN during the Q&A. "This film had to get out of the city and it had to be about a family discovering who they were."

Ghostbusters Finally Gets a Haunted House

That rural setting also means the franchise can introduce something that's common in horror, but not-so-common in movies set in densely populated urban environments: a haunted country home. This particular building stands out as pure horror imagery compared to other structures within the franchise, such as the New York City firehouse and the top of Dana's apartment building.

Naturally, moving the setting to a sprawling, aging home makes sense when telling a story centered around family. This decrepit farmhouse is inherited by Phoebe and Trevor's single mother (Carrie Coon), and it holds the key to the Ghostbusters legacy. That's why the iconic ECTO-1 is parked out front.

The image shows a classic rustic, Victorian home that is reminiscent of the Addams Family mansion, but covered with satellites. And if you know which Ghostbuster was a tech head, you're probably one step ahead of the cast with that detail.

In addition to the new cast, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Bill Murray, Sigourney Weaver and Annie Potts are all returning to reprise their roles. Ghostbusters: Afterlife is slated to haunt theaters on November 11, 2021.

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