- February 10th, 2018, 9:18 pm#49030111. This isnt a comedy universe, GB is in the real world, with real, relatable people. It just happens that the people we're following are funny people. The humour is organic, the comedy should be character driven, their (very different but complimentary) individual personalities, chemistry with each other, their reactions to things are where the humour comes from. The scares should be real, the romance should be real. GB is not about skits or pratfalls or silly over-the-top characters who'd never exist in the real world. Its about real people reacting to unreal situations. The original movies are not simply a vehicle for jokes or letting comedians improv or dance in front of a camera. They are character-driven, finding humor in the interaction between its characters, as well as their reactions to ridiculous situations and minor characters.
2. The main "villain" and storyline should be played totally straight, as though it could just as easily work in a straight horror film. Just as Gozer and the terror dogs and Vigo could have. Have some fun with secondary ghost catching like Slimer or the montages of catching jogging ghosts and jewel store poltergeists etc, but the main villain should be a serious, high stakes threat. Not joking around like a cartoon villain like Rowan. The film should always be straddling that point between being real and scary and being silly and over the top, but not crossing too far into either.
3. The element of the surreal and weirdness. Things so out of place they are both funny and disturbing because of how wrong they are - ie Stay Puft, giant ghost monsters in central park, a woman being chased by her fur coat thats come back to life, the "Winston" echo in the train tunnel, Janosz walking in the hallway and later dressed as a nanny, the Harbour masters reaction to the Titanic arriving etc. Spooky, odd and kind of funny moments like that.
4. An assortment of unique, memorable side characters. Like Janine, Louis Tully, Walter Peck, Janosz, Mayor Lenny, Judge Wexler etc.
5. A plot line that somehow involves an investigation, that requires the GB to put down their proton packs and do some Ghost CSI.
6. A quirky, offbeat and atmospheric score and eclectic soundtrack.
7. Dont be too polished. We dont want a GB movie looking like a Marvel film. Make it a little bit gritty, make the monster effects a little old school.
8. There should be science fiction elements to GB. In-universe rules should always apply, like a good sci-fi film. For instance the way ghost catching and holding works should always remain the same. You cant be catching ghosts in one scene, then "killing" them with blasters in another scene. We should also know where all this equipment comes from. We dont need to know how it works but we need to know that, for example, Egon designed it and we should have some jargon about "unlicensed nuclear accelerators" and "total proton reversal" etc, just to make all this stuff feel real, and to remind us that these guys are just scientists at the end of the day, not superheroes.
9. Dont lose the blue collar work aspect and dont forget this is a BUSINESS (which I think the 2016 movie did). These guys are "paranormal eliminators" and have a business model (and uniforms and vehicle) that is essentially like a pest extermination business. They advertise and self-promote themselves and are in it for the money.