‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’ adds nothing new to a flimsy formula

Based on a daft but undeniably original idea by Dan Ackroyd, who hails from a long line of spook enthusiasts, Ghostbusters had a decent script, goofy charm, some groundbreaking effects and an excellent cast led by Bill Murray in his pomp and including Ackroyd, his co-writer Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson, Rick Moranis and Sigourney Weaver. It made a big splash when no one was expecting it to, except perhaps for its director, Ivan Reitman.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire - Official Trailer

Several indifferent sequels followed, but in 2021 Ivan’s son Jason created a surprisingly soulful new instalment that captured some of the exuberance of the original. Ghostbusters: Afterlife was set in the present, but had the charm and wholesomeness of one of those 1980s family adventures Hollywood no longer knows how to make. This film is its sequel.

In Afterlife, single mom Callie Spengler (Carrie Coon) inherited a rundown farm from her estranged father Egon, a former Ghostbuster. And when she moved in, her teenage kids Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) and Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) discovered their grandfather’s paranormal paraphernalia in the basement, and started hunting spooks themselves.

As Frozen Empire opens, we find Phoebe, Trevor, Callie and her boyfriend Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd) in New York, where they’ve taken up residence in the old fire station used by the 1980s Ghostbusters, whose mantle they have assumed.

Most New Yorkers love them, but the city’s scheming mayor, Walter Peck (perennial villain William Atherton) is determined to get rid of them, and after they make a mess of 5th Avenue while chasing a dragon ghost, Peck may get his chance. Phoebe is now 15, and yearns to be taken seriously as a Ghostbuster. But after the 5th Avenue incident, she’s grounded, and sulks in the firehouse while the rest of the family get the glory.

When she’s playing chess alone one night, Phoebe is somewhat taken aback when the opposing pieces start shunting forward by themselves. They’re being moved by the ghost of a teenage girl (Emily Ann Lynd) killed in a tenement fire. The pair become friends, and there may even be a coy mutual attraction, but the spirit is not telling Phoebe everything it knows.

Meanwhile, original Ghostbuster Ray Stanz (Day Ackroyd) has become a collector of paranormal gizmos, and is intrigued when a shifty young man called Nadeem (Kumail Nanjiani) sells him a strange metal orb that seems charged with dark energy. It is, for it contains the raging spirit of an ancient central Eurasian entity that has a grudge against humanity and is about to get his own back.

The problems of Frozen Empire, which starts out amiably enough, are threefold. Firstly, it adds nothing new to a flimsy formula, and neglects newer characters; secondly, it is paced as urgently as a snail’s funeral; and thirdly, its ancient villain is so unsatisfying I felt like booing it. With nothing to play against, the goodies, who are legion, charge around fretting ineffectually while this horned bogeyman prepares for his thoroughly underwhelming entrance.

There aren’t enough ghosts at all actually, and those who do show up are not witty. Paul Rudd provides light relief doing his Paul Rudd thing, but a subplot in which he tries to prove himself a worthy father figure for Phoebe is underdeveloped, as is that teenage crush between Phoebe and her ghost.

The film achieves the contradictory feat of feeling rushed, but also over-long. Dan Ackroyd is a charming and avuncular presence throughout, and while Bill Murray shows up now and then, he isn’t exactly working very hard. Here, ladies and gentlemen, is a franchise stretched wafer thin.​

In cinemas from Friday March 22.