When it comes to finding things to review, we sometimes debate what works for our audience, and I admit, I hesitated a week or two before asking to review this movie for you. And then I had to justify my request, which I obviously did well since here we are.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife is the latest installment in the Ghostbusters franchise that started nearly thirty years ago with the original film in 1984. That movie was written by Dan Akroyd and Harold Ramis and directed by Ivan Reitman. Unfortunately, we lost Harold Ramis in 2014, which dashed any hopes of a full reunion of the original cast for another sequel. And while the 2016 Ghostbusters was loosely linked to the original films, this latest movie is a direct sequel and follows the story straight into today.

I’m going to do my best to not spoil certain aspects of Afterlife but be forewarned that there will still be spoilers in this review.

We start the movie with a mysterious light and a truck racing away. The person is in shadow, and it turns out, is being chased by something supernatural. Look, the main conceit here is that ghosts are real, so you’ll just have to accept that part. I’m not going to criticize the movie for that. It’s on the tin. But this opening scene gives a hint at some of the science that will come up for the rest of the movie. The mysterious figure flips a switch, electrifying several grain silos, and then presses a pedal where… Nothing happens. The man slips inside the house, locks the door, and sits down, where he meets his supernatural demise. There’s some familiar-looking ghost detecting gear involved, which you’ll recognize from the original movies.

Now we switch to a single mom and her two kids. The oldest, Trevor, played by Finn Wolfhard from Stranger Things, is sixteen. The younger, Phoebe, is a late pre-teen or early teenager. She’s played by McKenna Grace, who frankly steals the entire movie. What struck me about her character is that she is wicked smart, very introverted, and definitely neurodiverse. And they wrote the interactions in such a way that was respectful to her character — no easy jokes at her expense — but a lot of understanding between her and her mom. Phoebe doesn’t make friends easily, she tells jokes badly, and she looks vaguely familiar.

The family is getting evicted from their apartment, and the timing is just right that the mysterious, shadowy figure from the first scene turns out to be the woman’s estranged father, and he’s left them the house and farm, so off they go to try and sell anything they can and move right back.

Narrator: There is nothing really to sell, and they don’t move right back.

From here, the movie goes into a supernatural adventure, with a weird mountain, a deserted mine, and a possible apocalypse level event in the making. It’s just like New York in 1984, and it turns out that the mysterious figure is Egon Spangler, played all shadowy since Harold Ramis passed away. We get absolutely zero mention of Trevor and Phoebe’s dad or Egon’s past love interest. Zero. So don’t expect any answers there.

Trevor fixes up Ecto-1, which is in a dilapidated barn. Phoebe starts playing chess with the ghost of Egon. Paul Rudd shows up as the summer school teacher who has no interest in teaching a room full of reprobates, so he’s letting them watch classic horror movies while working on his geology research in the next room. Earthquakes have become commonplace in this small town in Oklahoma, and the science here was pretty decently explained. Yay for a geologist in a movie!

Also, he becomes the love interest of the mom, which is important, and if you know the original film well, you may understand why without me explaining.

I could give a whole lot away about this film for the sake of commenting on the science and technology. Let’s just say it’s good. It didn’t take me out of the film at all. Phoebe is really, really smart, and she works on some of the old ghost-busting tech. Egon is an invisible ghost, guiding as best he can.

One of the big themes in this movie is how people don’t listen to scientists but also how sometimes, scientists don’t communicate well. Remember, Egon was the brains of the original group, and his poor communication skills are what led to him being alone in Oklahoma. Phoebe has difficulty making friends because science is what’s on her mind. She first makes friends with Paul Rudd, the scientist teacher in her world who is actually working on something cool. And she manages to find a friend who thinks her terrible jokes are hilarious. He’s a podcaster called, well, “Podcast”, and his show focuses on conspiracy theories and the supernatural. Of course.

The dialog is smart. People communicate. There are a ton of callbacks to the first movie, including watching the original ad for the Ghostbusters on YouTube. Nice touches that will definitely bring the nostalgia. There are also great cameos, and I won’t spoil those.

Overall, if you can suspend disbelief about ghosts and gods and weird apocalypse events, if you’re a fan of the original Ghostbusters franchise, then I highly recommend this movie. If you’ve never seen the original movies, which was the case with my kid, you’ll still enjoy it, but you might not get all the little references sprinkled everywhere.

Oh, and make sure you stay all the way through the credits. There are two stingers on this one.