When the University downsizes the parapsychology department, Doctors Venkman, Stantz and Spengler make the leap from scientists to Ghostbusters, investigators and exterminators of paranormal pests! The bewitching Dana Barrett discovers her refrigerator has become a portal into the spiritual dimention, our heros then come face to face with an ancient evil force with plans to raise Hell in Manhatten!

"We came, we saw, we kicked its ass!"                - Dr. Peter Venkman

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          Ahhhhh... Ghostbusters. The film that everyone remembers fondly from their childhood. That is, if you were a child when the film was released. Now, some of you might be thinking, "What the fuck? Why is J.P. featuring Ghostbusters? It's not a Horror film!" I disagree with those who think this is not a Horror film. Yeah, it might not have assorted kitchen utensils gouging out eyeballs and bare breasted coeds running through the woods, but some of the imagery in this film are far more terrifying than alot of so called "fantastic" Horror films I've had the displeasure of viewing. Ghostbusters is labeled as a comedy... and yes... it is hilarious but it still possesses elements of Horror that are undeniable. Here are some examples:
          1. We all fondly remember 'Slimer' correct? Well, Slimer got a bad wrap after being slapped on every juice-box and Twinky wrapper across America. Why did this ruin the Horror aspects of Slimer? Because they made the poor guy into a cartoon character that was about as scary as Pluto the dog. But for those of us who appreciate him for what he was intended to be, a terrifying little green cum blob that eats everything (including pussy) in his path, we appreciate his wrath.
              Example 1
              Example 2
          2. Then we have those gargoyle/dog things that Rick Moranis and Sigourney Weaver morph into. These are straight out of a fucking nightmare. I'm amazed that my parents let me watch this when I was so young, along with The Dark Crystal and Muppets Take Manhattan. (Jim Henson is evil.)
              Example 1
              Example 2
              Example 3
          3. Remember all the different ghosts scattered throughout the film? Yeah, to a child, these are traumatizing. Lets not forget Gozer/Zuul!
              Example 1
              Example 2
              Example 3
          What am I trying to prove here? That Ghostbusters should be considered a Horror/Comedy opposed to just a Comedy. So don't pass over Ghostbusters at the video rental store just because it's in the Comedy section! That would be a travesty.
          There's not much I can say about the film that is bad. I guess the only thing I would've added would've been more ghosts. We get a good helping of them after the "ghost containment center" is shut down and ghosts erupt from Ghostbusters HQ like a fistful of milky tit being squeezed. But I would've added about 10-20 more ghost scenes. Perhaps a ghost felching Rosie O'Donnell's itchy penny. That would surly turn my hair white!
          -- Felching: The act of sucking semen from any human orifice, eg. anus, vagina, it can be done with a drinking straw when semen is deep inside the rectum. --
          All is all, Ghostbusters is great!
          Every wonder what the Stay Puft Marshmellow Man was made out of? Shaving cream!

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          - The role of Louis Tully was originally written for John Candy.

          - The role of Peter Venkman was originally written for John Belushi.

          - According to Ivan Reitman and 'Harold Ramis' in the DVD Commentary, in Dan Aykroyd's original rough draft of the movie, the story was going to take place in the future and that there would be teams of Ghostbusters like there are paramedics and firefighters (thus explaining basing the Ghostbusters HQ in a firehouse). According to Reitman, such a film would cost "at least $300 million in 1984 dollars". So Harold Ramis was brought in to rewrite the script and bring it into modern times.

          - The role of Winston was originally written for Eddie Murphy.

          - Gozer was originally going to be played by Paul Reubens, who turned down the role. In the original script, Gozer appeared as a normal man in a business suit.

          - Punk rocker Anne Carlisle was originally offered the role of Zuul, but turned it down.

          - 'Sandra Bernhard' was originally offered the role of Janine.

          - Dan Aykroyd's original version of the script began with the Ecto-mobile flying out of Ghostbusters HQ, but director Ivan Reitman suggested that it would be better to show how the team got started.

          - Dana's apartment building actually exists at 55 Central Park West in New York City. The building is actually only 19 stories high. For the film, matte paintings and models were used to make the building look bigger and with more floors.

          - The Stay-Puft marshmallow man was originally supposed to come up out of the water right next to The Statue of Liberty, to get a contrast of size, but the scene was too hard to shoot.

          - On the set, Dan Aykroyd referred to the "Slimer" ghost as the ghost of John Belushi.

          - Though never referred to in the script, the green ghost the guys bust in the hotel was dubbed "Onionhead" by the crew, because of its horrid smell. A scene where the ghost haunts two newlyweds showed this characteristic, but it was cut. Since it was never referred to in the movie, the writers of the animated show came up for a different name for the green ghost: Slimer.

          - The eggs which fry themselves are sitting next to a package of "Sta-Puft" marshmallows. There is also a large advertisement for "Sta-Puft" marshmallows (complete with the marshmallow man) visible on the side of a building.

          - In the middle of the film's initial release, to keep interest going, Ivan Reitman had a trailer run, which was basically the commercial the Ghostbusters' use in the movie, but with the 555 number replaced with a 1-800 number, allowing people to call. They got a recorded message of Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd saying something to the effect of "Hi. We're out catching ghosts right now." They got 1,000 calls per hour, 24 hours a day, for six weeks.

          - When Alice the librarian is queried as to whether anyone in her family had ever had any history of mental illness, she replies she had an uncle who thought he was St. Jerome. Jerome is the patron saint of librarians.

          - The demonic voice of Dana/Zuul was performed by director Ivan Reitman. The voice of Gozer was provided by Paddi Edwards.

          - In rehearsal, Bill Murray (Venkman) teased Czech model Slavitza Jovan (Gozer) about her pronunciation of the line "Choose and Perish", which sounded to him like "Jews and Berries"(!) and he'd say "There are no Jews and Berries here!"

          - Most of the deleted scenes are "restored" in the novelized adaptation of "Ghostbusters".

          - The original script had a budding romance between the cynical receptionist Janine and the blissfully out of it Egon, but most of it was edited out of the film. The special edition DVD features a deleted scene of Janine giving Egon a coin for luck before he goes off with the other Ghostbusters to fight Gozer; they are interrupted by Venkman. The relationship between Janine and Egon was explored more in the animated series that followed.

          - The interiors for the hotel scene were filmed (mostly) at the famous Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, on the corner of 5th and Grand. This famous location has been used for hundreds of films, TV shows, commercials and even a few music videos. The three doors that the Ghostbusters walk through in the movie are actually located on the entrance on 5th St. The Grand Avenue entrance leads you to the main lobby, which used to be the hotel ballroom, as seen in the film. (The ceiling is a dead give away.) The room's formerly solid walls have been replaced by glass doors (at the entrance) and archways. The reception desk is where the long banquet table was located in the film. To the right of that would have been the bar that Egon blasts. If you go into the bar to the right of the main lobby, there is a picture of the old ballroom on one of the walls, giving you a better perspective of what the room looked like in the early '80s.

          - Flashbulbs were used on the business end of the proton pack weapons so that the special effects creators could properly synch up the effects with the action (most visible in the dining room scene, frame by frame, when capturing Slimer).

          - All the college scenes were filmed at Columbia University in New York, including the fictional Weaver Hall office/lab interiors. Director Ivan Reitman decided to use an actual on-campus office instead of a soundstage so the film crew could film indoors if the weather turned bad, rather than lose a day's filming. Columbia University agreed to all this, on the condition the school not be mentioned by name on-camera.

          - The firehouse set the Ghostbusters use as HQ was remodeled and used once again as the mechanic shop in The Mask.

          - The original premise of "Ghostbusters" had three main characters: John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy. They fought ghosts in SWAT like suits using wands instead of guns. The ghost named Slimer was known as "Onionhead", and at the end of the movie the Ghostbusters franchise was all over the United States. John Candy also was slated to play Louis. However, with Belushi's death and characters backing out, the script was rewritten and new actors casted.

          - Early publicity for the film was a teaser campaign featuring just the "no ghosts" logo. As the campaign built, the Ectomobile was also driven around the streets of Manhattan.

          - Exterior scenes of the Ghostbusters headquarters were filmed at the Hook and Ladder #8 Firehouse in the Tribeca section of New York City. Inside the firehouse are a Ghostbusters sign and photos taken with the cast and crew.

          - After the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man is destroyed there is a shot of a man down on the street being deluged by a huge amount of marshmallow goo. Due to the extreme angle of the shot most viewers don't realize that this is Walter Peck. A cut scene (included on the DVD) took place a few moments before, at the same angle, where Peck tells the police to go up to the roof and arrest the Ghostbusters.

          - The "marshmallow" goo was actually shaving cream. More than fifty gallons was dumped on Walter Peck almost knocking him to the ground.

          - The schedule for getting the movie into theatres for its scheduled release date in summer 1984 was so tight, director Ivan Reitman said that the final print included incomplete special effects shots and errors like "wires showing" but, "remarkably, people didn't care".

          - One scene shot for the film but later deleted shows Ray and Winston on a call and Ray ends up in Canadian Mounties outfit. Production stills from this scene appear in the published version of the film script.

          - Initally, Ray Parker Jr. was having trouble writing the theme song to the film. The problem was solved when he saw the TV commercial for the Ghostbusters business in the film which inspired him to write the song like a advertising jingle for the business. The song was a #1 hit for three weeks.

          - When Venkman mentions the time Spengler tried to drill a hole in his head, Spengler's response ("That would have worked if you hadn't stopped me") was actually ad-libbed by 'Harold Ramis' .

          - The Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man suits cost Approximately $20,000 a piece. Three were made and all were destroyed during filming.

          - The Ectomobile was originally painted black until it was pointed out that most driving would be at night and the car would be difficult to see. It was then repainted white.

          - The firehouse used is actually two different firehouses that are in two different cities. The exterior is in NY, while the interior is in downtown Los Angeles. The LA firehouse is very popular with filmmakers and has been used in many movies.

          - Bill Murray agreed to do this movie only on the condition that Columbia finance a remake of The Razor's Edge with him as the star.

          - The bum that Bill Murray played in a deleted scene looks and acts just like his character on Caddyshack (and also sports a golfing cap).

          - The party scene where Louis Tully (Rick Moranis) mingles with his party guests (commenting on the price of the salmon, and so on) is not only taken in one continuous shot, but is almost entirely improvised.

          - Huey Lewis and the News turned down an offer to write and record a theme song for Ghostbusters. They later sued Ray Parker Jr. for plagiarism, citing the similarities between his theme song and their earlier hit "I Want a New Drug."

          - Lindsey Buckingham was approached to write the theme song to after the successful collaboration for Vacation. He declined.

          - There was a even more ferocious version of the Librarian Puppet that was going to be used, but it was rejected. However, it was recycled and used in another successful Columbia Pictures film released one year after this one, Fright Night.

          - Before the release of Home Alone, this was the highest-grossing comedy of all time.

          - In the original draft for Bill Murray's character, sexual obscenities were written on Peter Venkman's door; but Ivan Reitman wanted to make his film a target audience for families so the phrase "Venkman Burn in Hell" was added. In fact, this is a nod to the final scene in Stephen King's Carrie - where there is a for-sale sign on the vacant lot where Carrie's house once stood, and someone has graffitied it with "Carrie Burn in Hell".

          - Scenes in the montage sequence of the Ghostbusters running around New York (and also driving in the Ecto-mobile) were done on the first day, largely without film permits. In one scene, someone who looks like they might be a security guard begins chasing after them, and Dan Aykroyd can be seen actually driving the Ecto-mobile.

          - In the scene when the terror dogs (Zuul and Vince Clorthow) come to life, were actual statue designs on an old church in Philadelphia.

          - As revealed in an interview with Mix Magazine Online the hit song 'Ghostbusters' was created 4:30 in the morning when after almost 2 long days of trying to create a song Ray Parker Jr. saw a commercial for a drain company that reminded him of a scene from the film. That commercial helped him coin the popular line "Who you gonna call?"

          - The character of Winston was initially written to be a guard at the Ghostbusters firehouse. Also, in earlier drafts of the script, Winston was the one who conjured up the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.

          - The phone number for the Ghostbusters as it appears on the television ad that Dana sees in her apartment is 555-2368.

          - When the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man arrives, Ray says that he remembered the Stay-Puft marshmallows from when he use to go camping at Camp Wauconda. Camp Wauconda is an actual boy scout camp outside of Peoria, IL.

          - The electric shock experiments that Venkman conducts on the college students parodied the real life Milgram Experiments, which related to obedience. In the early 1960s, Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram wanted to see if test subjects would administer electric shocks of increasing voltage to fellow test subjects (actually actors pretending to be shocked) based on the commands of an authority figure. Most of them did.

          - Michael Keaton turned down both the roles of Dr. Peter Venkman and Dr. Egon Spengler

          - The movie's line "Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria!" was voted as the #68 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere in 2007.

          - The movie's line "Well, there's something you don't see every day." was voted as the #19 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere in 2007.

          - The music video for the song "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker Jr., directed by Ivan Reitman, featured a number of celebrities who did not appear in the film. This included Chevy Chase, John Candy, Danny DeVito, Peter Falk, Melissa Gilbert, Carly Simon, Teri Garr, Irene Caraand George Wendt. In addition, the Ghostbusters themselves danced down Times Square right behind 'Ray Parker Jr' .

          - The lively chorus shouting the words "Ghostbusters" through the song were made up of the only people Ray Parker Jr. could find quickly enough to help him meet his deadline: his young girlfriend and her friends.