The Ghostbusters franchise covers five live-action films, from Ivan Reitman’s 1984 original to Gil Kenan’s Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024). It also includes three animated series and four decades of video games, running from David Crane’s 1984 computer game to Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed Ecto Edition (2023). This guide gives you every entry in order, our own scare ratings, and how to watch and play them in the US.
Why Ghostbusters belongs on a horror site
Ghostbusters gets filed under comedy, and the Bill Murray deadpan has a lot to do with that. Look past the one-liners and the 1984 film is a proper supernatural story. It has a Sumerian god, a 1920s cult, possession, and an apartment building engineered as a spiritual antenna. The jokes work because the threat is played straight.
The horror runs in the family. Dan Aykroyd grew up around spiritualism. His father, Peter H. Aykroyd, later wrote A History of Ghosts, which traces the family’s séance history back to Dan’s great-grandfather. You can feel that sincerity in the script’s dense, invented occult lore.
The scares that still land:
- The library ghost. The film opens in the New York Public Library with floating cards and a quiet old lady at the stacks. Then her face snaps into a screaming skull. A whole generation of kids remembers that cut.
- The terror dogs. Zuul and Vinz Clortho are stop-motion hellhounds with glowing red eyes. Dana Barrett’s armchair sprouting arms and dragging her toward a burning doorway is real nightmare fuel.
- Gozer and the Sumerian lore. Gozer the Gozerian, “the Destructor” and “the Traveler,” arrives through architect Ivo Shandor’s rooftop temple at 55 Central Park West. Then it lets the team choose the form of their own destruction. A monster built from your own thoughts is the same trick that makes Pennywise the clown so effective.
- Vigo the Carpathian. In Ghostbusters II, a 16th-century tyrant trapped in a painting slowly takes over the museum and everyone inside. Max von Sydow’s dubbed voice makes the portrait genuinely unnerving.
Then there are the practical effects. Richard Edlund’s Boss Film Studios built the 1984 ghosts from puppets, stop-motion, cel animation and optical compositing. The film earned an Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects, alongside one for Ray Parker Jr.’s theme song. Slimer’s rubbery menace has aged far better than a lot of early CGI.
Every film in release order and story order
All five films come from Columbia Pictures, which is part of Sony Pictures. Since 2015 they have been overseen by Ghost Corps, the label Ivan Reitman and Dan Aykroyd set up to manage the property.
| Title | Year | Director | Subgenre | Scare level | Where to watch (US) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ghostbusters | 1984 | Ivan Reitman | Horror comedy | 2/5 | Rent or buy digitally; 4K disc |
| Ghostbusters II | 1989 | Ivan Reitman | Horror comedy | 2/5 | Rent or buy digitally; 4K disc |
| Ghostbusters: Answer the Call | 2016 | Paul Feig | Action comedy | 1/5 | Rent or buy digitally; 4K disc |
| Ghostbusters: Afterlife | 2021 | Jason Reitman | Family supernatural adventure | 2/5 | Rent or buy digitally; 4K disc |
| Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire | 2024 | Gil Kenan | Supernatural adventure | 2/5 | Rent or buy digitally; 4K disc |
There are two timelines here, so story order matters if you’re tracking lore.
| Story order | Entry | Continuity |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ghostbusters (1984) | Original |
| 2 | Ghostbusters II (1989) | Original |
| 3 | Ghostbusters: The Video Game (2009, set in 1991) | Original, often called “the third film” by Aykroyd |
| 4 | Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) | Original, set 30+ years later |
| 5 | Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024) | Original |
| Separate | Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (2016) | Standalone reboot |
Ghostbusters (1984)
Three disgraced Columbia University parapsychologists, Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) and Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis), start a ghost-removal business in a converted Manhattan firehouse. Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) joins as business booms. Meanwhile a cellist named Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver) finds something living in her refrigerator.
It works as a first horror film for a ten-year-old. It also holds up for an adult who wants a creepy atmosphere without gore. Aykroyd and Ramis wrote it, and it’s the one you need to see.
Ghostbusters II (1989)
Five years on, the team is broke and banned from busting. Then a river of psychoreactive “mood slime” turns up under New York, linked to Vigo’s portrait in a museum. Ivan Reitman returned to direct and ILM handled the effects.
It’s softer and more sentimental than the first film. Still, Vigo, the slime-filled bathtub and the Scoleri Brothers courtroom scene give horror fans plenty to enjoy. Watch it if you love the original cast and accept that it’s the gentler sibling.
Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (2016)
Paul Feig’s reboot keeps the setup and swaps in a new team: Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones. Chris Hemsworth plays their dim receptionist. It was released simply as Ghostbusters, and the Answer the Call subtitle was added for home release to tell it apart.
It’s the least scary entry and the most openly comic. McKinnon’s Holtzmann steals the film. It doesn’t connect to the original timeline, so you can skip it for lore purposes and enjoy it on its own terms.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)
Jason Reitman, Ivan’s son, co-wrote it with Gil Kenan. The film moves the franchise to rural Summerville, Oklahoma, where a single mother (Carrie Coon) and her kids Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) and Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) inherit a crumbling farmhouse. Paul Rudd plays a summer school teacher with seismograph trouble.
The pandemic pushed its release from 2020 to November 2021. It’s a sincere tribute to Harold Ramis, who died in 2014. The underground sequences and the return of the terror dogs give it more genuine tension than the 2016 film.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)
Gil Kenan directs this time, with Reitman co-writing. The Spengler family moves into the old Manhattan firehouse. An ancient entity that kills with cold threatens to plunge New York into a second ice age. Kumail Nanjiani and Patton Oswalt join, and Murray, Aykroyd, Hudson and Annie Potts all return.
The opening scenes and the frost-covered set pieces are the creepiest imagery in the new era. The plot gets crowded, but if you liked Afterlife’s legacy-cast approach, this delivers more of it.
What’s next for the films
Sony has not announced a release date for a sixth live-action film. Netflix and Sony Pictures Animation are developing an animated Ghostbusters feature. No release date has been confirmed, so treat anything else you see as rumor until Sony or Netflix announces it. Our horror news this week roundup tracks confirmed updates as they land.
The animated shows
| Series | Years | Network | What to know |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Real Ghostbusters | 1986-1991 | ABC (later syndication) | Main cartoon; retitled Slimer! and the Real Ghostbusters from 1988 |
| Slimer! | 1988 onward | ABC | Slimer-focused segments aired within the main show |
| Extreme Ghostbusters | 1997 | Syndication | Egon mentors a new team of college students |
The Real Ghostbusters
That “Real” in the title exists because Filmation already owned the Ghostbusters name. Filmation had made a 1975 live-action show called The Ghost Busters, and it launched its own unrelated Ghostbusters cartoon in 1986. Columbia’s show added “The Real” to separate them.
It’s a much better horror cartoon than it needed to be. J. Michael Straczynski wrote a run of episodes, including “The Collect Call of Cathulhu,” a straight-faced Lovecraft homage. The boogeyman and Samhain episodes still give kids the shivers.
Slimer!
From 1988 the network leaned into Slimer’s popularity. The show was retitled and short comedy segments starring the green ghost were added. These are pure kids’ fare with no scares at all.
Extreme Ghostbusters
The 1997 revival is darker and edgier. An older Egon trains four students: Kylie, Eduardo, Garrett and Roland. Its monster designs lean harder into horror than anything else the franchise made in the 1990s. It’s worth hunting down if you liked the gloomier Real Ghostbusters episodes.
Every Ghostbusters video game, era by era
Plenty of licensed horror games have been forgettable. Ghostbusters has a few genuine classics, a famous disaster, and one of the better asymmetrical multiplayer games of recent years.
| Game | Year | Developer | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ghostbusters | 1984 | David Crane (Activision) | Commodore 64, then Atari 8-bit, ZX Spectrum, Apple II, Amstrad CPC, MSX, Atari 2600, Sega Master System, NES |
| The Real Ghostbusters | 1987 | Data East | Arcade, with home computer ports |
| Ghostbusters II | 1989-1990 | Activision / HAL Laboratory | Home computers, NES, Game Boy |
| Ghostbusters | 1990 | Sega | Sega Genesis / Mega Drive |
| Extreme Ghostbusters | 2001 | Light and Shadow Production | Game Boy Color |
| Ghostbusters: The Video Game | 2009 | Terminal Reality / Red Fly Studio / Zen Studios | PS3, Xbox 360, PC / Wii, PS2, PSP / Nintendo DS |
| Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime | 2011 | Behaviour Interactive | Xbox 360, PS3, PC |
| Ghostbusters | 2016 | FireForge Games | PS4, Xbox One, PC |
| Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered | 2019 | Saber Interactive | PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC |
| Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed | 2022 | IllFonic | PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC |
| Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord | 2023 | nDreams | Meta Quest 2/3/Pro, PS VR2 |
| Spirits Unleashed Ecto Edition | 2023 | IllFonic | Adds Nintendo Switch and Steam |
The 8-bit and 16-bit era
David Crane’s 1984 game for Activision is a clever little business sim. You buy a car and gear, drive around a city map, trap ghosts, and try to reach the Temple of Zuul with more money than you started with. The Commodore 64 version even shouts “Ghostbusters!” in digitized speech, which was a big deal at the time.
The NES port is a different story. It’s grindy and broken, and it ends on the infamous “CONGLATURATION !!!” screen. That ending turned it into one of gaming’s best-known jokes.
Sega’s 1990 Genesis game is the one to seek out from this era. It’s a side-scrolling action platformer with surprisingly good sprites and bosses. Oddly, Winston isn’t playable.
Ghostbusters: The Video Game (2009) and the 2019 Remastered
This is the closest thing to a third film with the original cast. Aykroyd and Ramis wrote it, and Murray, Aykroyd, Ramis, Hudson, Annie Potts and William Atherton all voiced their characters. You play an unnamed rookie in 1991. Ivo Shandor’s lore gets expanded, Stay Puft gets a rematch, and the New York Public Library becomes a full haunted level.
Activision dropped the game after its 2008 merger with Vivendi, and Atari published it in June 2009. Terminal Reality made the realistic PS3, Xbox 360 and PC version. Red Fly Studio made a cartoonier take for Wii, PS2 and PSP. Saber Interactive’s 2019 Remastered updates the Terminal Reality version for modern consoles and PC. It’s the first game you should play if you love the 1984 film.
Later spin-offs
Sanctum of Slime (2011) is a twin-stick shooter with a new team of rookies and no original cast. The 2016 tie-in from FireForge Games was a co-op shooter built around the reboot’s release. Reviews were poor, and you can safely skip it.
VR and Spirits Unleashed
VR gave the proton pack the physicality it always wanted. nDreams’ Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord (2023) is a four-player co-op VR game set in San Francisco. You’ll be wrangling the stream with your actual arms.
IllFonic’s Spirits Unleashed (October 2022) is asymmetrical multiplayer: four Ghostbusters against one player-controlled ghost. Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson voice Ray and Winston in the firehouse hub. The Ecto Edition arrived in October 2023, bundling the extra content and bringing the game to Nintendo Switch and Steam.
Both are fun party games rather than frightening ones. If you want proper dread with friends, our cooperative survival horror games list is the better place to look.
Where to watch and where to play now
All five films are available to rent or buy digitally in the US on the major storefronts: Apple TV, Prime Video, Fandango at Home and YouTube. Each also has a 4K Ultra HD disc release from Sony.
Subscription streaming is the part that keeps moving. Under Sony’s US output deals, its newer theatrical releases go to Netflix first, then rotate to Disney+ and Hulu. Older titles drift between services month to month. Subscription windows change often, so confirm on a tracker such as JustWatch or Reelgood before movie night.
| How to get it | Films covered | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Digital rent or buy | All five | Apple TV, Prime Video, Fandango at Home, YouTube |
| 4K Ultra HD disc | All five | Best picture and extras for the 1984 effects |
| Subscription streaming | Rotates | Newer Sony films land on Netflix first; check a tracker |
For games, three are easy to buy today. The older ones mostly survive as physical copies.
| Game | Where to buy |
|---|---|
| Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered | PlayStation Store, Microsoft Store, Nintendo eShop, PC storefronts |
| Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed Ecto Edition | PlayStation Store, Microsoft Store, Nintendo eShop, Epic Games Store, Steam |
| Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord | Meta Quest Store, PlayStation Store (PS VR2) |
| Everything earlier | Secondhand physical copies on original hardware |
If you want something genuinely frightening after a proton-pack night, our guides to horror survival games and PC horror games go much darker.
If you liked this
Gremlins (1984): Another Amblin-era creature feature that mixes scares, slapstick and practical puppets.
The Frighteners (1996): Peter Jackson’s ghost-detective horror comedy, with a nastier edge than Ghostbusters.
Luigi’s Mansion 3 (2019): The friendliest ghost-vacuuming game ever made, with excellent co-op.
FAQ
What order should I watch the Ghostbusters movies in?
Watch them in release order: 1984, 1989, Afterlife (2021), then Frozen Empire (2024). Slot in the 2009 video game after Ghostbusters II if you want the full original-timeline story. Watch Answer the Call (2016) any time, since it’s a separate continuity.
Is Ghostbusters too scary for kids?
For most kids around eight and up, no. There’s no gore. The library ghost, the terror dogs and Dana’s possession can startle younger children, so the 1984 film rates a 2/5 from us. The cartoons are gentler still.
Is Ghostbusters: Afterlife a sequel or a reboot?
It’s a direct sequel to the 1984 and 1989 films, set more than 30 years later. It ignores the 2016 film entirely.
Which Ghostbusters game should I play first?
Start with Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered. It has the original cast, a script by Aykroyd and Ramis, and the best haunted locations in the series. Pick Spirits Unleashed Ecto Edition if you have a group of friends online.
Is Harold Ramis in Afterlife?
Ramis died in 2014. Egon Spengler’s legacy drives the story, and the film is dedicated to him.