RFF version of Ghostbusters

As I’m sitting here I should be thinking about what motifs to write about, but all I can think about is Ghostbusters. Apparently the new Ghostbusters movie set to release in 2016 is going to be Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones, Kate McKinnon, and Melissa McCarthy. So right out of the gate my expectations are different. Instead of going to see how they’re going to rekindle the heart of my inner child, I’ll be going to see what interesting new direction they’ll take the franchise. So as I’m sitting around trying to imagine what they’ll do with the reboot, I start thinking about the original and realize there’s a few holes in the concept. Maybe this is covered in the film and I just haven’t seen it in a million years so I forgot, but if Gozer the Destroyer was worshiped by the Hittites, why did she/he/it take so long to cross over into our world, and happen to come through in the same window of time that the technology to fight him/her/it was invented? I mean it’s conceivable that it was only able to be invented because of the increase paranormal activity that Gozer brought. So naturally I start wondering thinking how RFF would have done it?

First off, if the busting of ghosts is a real and possible thing, it must have always been possible, and the kind of busting that makes one feel good is just a modern iteration of a much older (forgotten) trade. If Ghostbuster was made these days the original team wouldn’t have been professors, but ghost hunters, like in the 1996 Discovery Channel show Ghosthunters (not to be confused with Ghost Hunters, a 2008 show on Syfy).

In addition to being a lousy ghost hunter (because they have to start out as hacks) one of the main characters would be the direct descendant of Charles Dickens, who (I’m not even making this up) was himself a ghost hunter in 1862. He belonged to a group in Cambridge called The Ghost Club, and they went around busting magician’s illusions that had to do with summoning spirits.

One of the possessions (I’m back to writing fiction) this descendant of Dickens would have is a journal or something recording his time in the club and how the people loved to hate the Ghost Club, but there is also a note in there about a technique one of the Ghost Club members, a clergyman had for drawing ghosts out of haunted places, it was a simple rite of exorcism, but they found that it only worked on ghosts who believed in a Christian God. An unspookable atheist at heart this descendant, let’s call him Charles, follows Dickens’ advice about working the crowd and disregards the note until...

The movie opens with the a new member joining Charles’ ghost hunting team. A woman named Twelve, who is a professor of history (cute but dark, like Aubrey Plaza meets Wednesday Adams). They are obviously interested in each other and the romantic tension blurs with the spooky tension. Eventually she shows him her collection of haunted dolls and they butt heads over whether ghosts are real or not. He’s not convinced, and it seems like they won’t get together after all. They part, but Charles feels bad. Their working relationship sucks, and it starts driving a wedge in their team and the business.

…to be continued.