By Brandon T. McClure
The fourth entry in the Ghostbusters franchise (fifth overall) has arrived and was a modest success with a gross of a little more than $200 million. But while Ghostbusters fans and naysayers have largely left the movie in the past, there is one element of the film that people should still be talking about. If you start peeling away characters like Venkman, Podcast, Lucky, and maybe a few nostalgic fetch quests, the heart of the story is a queer star-crossed lovers' coming-of-age tale centered around Phoebe Spengler. Or at least, it should be and is only stopped from being so because Sony is scared of angering a very fickle fanbase.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire sees the Spengler family move to New York City to take up residence in the old firehouse headquarters of the original film. This new film has a lot of moving parts and isn’t able to dedicate the kind of time that is needed for each one. This has the unfortunate side effect of failing arguably the most interesting part of the movie (and its successor): Mckenna Grace’s Phoebe Spengler. The Spengler family, and Grooberson (Paul Rudd), have fully embraced the Ghostbusting lifestyle, but after a particularly destructive run-in with the Hell’s Kitchen Sewer Dragon, the mayor, returning character Walter Peck, played by William Atherton, forces Phoebe to quit being a Ghostbuster. This devastates her, so she goes to the park after dark to play chess by herself (you know, like a teenager would do) but meets the franchise's first talking ghost named Melody. Melody and Phoebe begin to form a very queer-coded relationship, with Phoebe experiencing the equivalence of “gay panic” practically every time they meet. The story progresses with the two of them getting closer until Melody fulfills her unfinished business and passes into the afterlife. Leaving Phoebe alone. It’s a tragic ending to a queer awakening story, but one that has been told numerous times in different films throughout the 21st century and beyond.
The Spegler and Grooberson family (Carrie Coon as Callie, Mckenna Graces as Phoebe, Paul Rudd as Gary Gooberson and Finn Wolfhard as Trevor)
The only issue is it's not explicitly queer. The movie stops just short of explicitly saying anything one way or the other. It frankly feels like a miracle that any form of their flirting remains in the film. Sony has been so scared of angering the Ghostbusters fandom ever since the wildly toxic reaction to the 2016 remake directed by Paul Feig. The toxicity around that film was so bad that a disgraced former President released a video complaining about it before it was released (before he was elected). It’s been eight years since the release of that film and the fandom is still complaining about it. Ghostbusters: Afterlife is basically an apology to that fandom, so Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire couldn’t do anything but play it safe, otherwise they would risk the wrath of the outrage merchants and potentially alienate a fandom desperate for safety. Although it’s not like the movie broke any box office records, so maybe they should have just gone for it.
Right-wing grifters on YouTube have coined the phrase “identity politics”, to not admit they’re openly racist or sexist. It’s a hollow term that makes them sound like they know what they’re talking about when they claim that something has been made “political” or “woke.” But let's call a spade a spade here: these people only care about complaining that there are women, queer and POC characters in their movies now and they don’t like it. But Sony is so cowardly that they would rather hope to appease these people than incur their performative wrath. Sony isn’t even the only one, they’re just the ones that did it recently. This means that Phoebe's story is wildly undercooked and the potential of telling this kind of star-crossed lovers tale has been wasted by a studio with no backbone. If the filmmakers behind the new films are more interested in playing it safe by keeping a vocal minority happy, then why even bother to keep going?
Ghostbusters: Afterlife introduced a wonderful new character in Phoebe Spengler and fans of that film were looking forward to watching her grow and develop as the lead of a new Ghostbusters franchise free from the nostalgic confines of that film. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire had the responsibility to focus on Phoebe’s story and progress it to the next stage, but there’s so much going on in the film that she gets lost in the weeds. Not to say there isn’t an arc for her in the film, she definitely drops that chip on her shoulder, but the film is trying to please too many masters. So much so that you end up wondering why the film would rather spend so much time on a subplot between Slimer and Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) when it could be focusing on Phoebe. The lore of the film matters more than the characters. Between trying to please the executives at Sony, the fans of the original, and the fans of the new, it either loses sight of Phoebe as the main character or is too scared to take the film where it clearly wants to go (into Melody’s ghostly arms).
Melody (Emily Alyn Lind) and Phoebe (Mckenna Grace)
This is not to say that the movie isn’t good. There are lots of great moments between the main cast of characters and the main villain is pretty cool. Even what little of the queer story that is there is very sweet. Melody and Phoebe are incredibly cute together as they steal away little moments and grow closer through their desire for connection. The relationship isn’t even subtextual either, it’s very much in the text of the film. Through dialogue, stolen glances, and even framing, the film tells the audience that these two are falling in love. There was likely a cut of this movie that ended with a kiss between Phoebe and Melody, but that’s just speculation (and a lot of reading too much into their final scene). Melody’s final line “I’ll see you in the fabric of the universe” might be one of the most romantic lines in the history of film. It’s just a shame the story wasn’t fully realized in the final film.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife doesn’t work because the cast gets to say goodbye to Harold Ramis, or that Gozer is the villain again. It works because of Phoebe and her family. But in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire they feel like an afterthought. It’s depressing to sit there and see the potential for more and know that the opinions of some angry YouTuber upset over supposed “identity politics” matter more than those who are desperate to see themselves represented. Phoebe’s queer awakening had the potential to be aspirational and meaningful to so many Ghostbusters fans around the world. But Sony has made it clear that Ghostbusters doesn’t belong to those fans, it belongs to the grifters.