Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire director promises a “scary movie”

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire will bring the comedy in a new, chilly setting, but don’t worry — it’ll still deliver the scares, says director Gil Kenan.

Thanks to the decision to bring back the original cast and to place an army of ghosts in the villains’ chair, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is set to pull ghoul fans back into the fold this March.

While the Ghostbusters movies are known for being comedies through-and-though, younger fans will remember the pure fear the classic movies put into their hearts. (Some of us still have nightmares about Vigo the Carpathian, okay?)

And although Ghostbusters: Afterlife put the spotlight on a younger cast who are due to return in Frozen Empire, that doesn’t mean they’re letting up on the frights. In fact, it sounds like they’re counting on them.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire will be scary, says director

In an interview with SFX Magazine, director Gil Kenan assured fans that Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire will be just as scary as it will be funny.

Sony Pictures

“This is a scary Ghostbusters movie, I set out to go for the thrills,” he said. “As a big-screen experience, I think it’s going to play like a scary, funny movie. The secret is that the scarier a scene is, the funnier the next joke is going to play. That’s the way that the pendulum swings with tone. Twisting that lever to make sure that the scares land is a way of making sure that the jokes are funnier.”

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire will focus on a whole new mythology and villain, with the mysterious ‘Death Chill’ taking over New York. From the sounds of things, the new big bad ghost has serious potential to scare the life out of audiences.

“We have finally freed ourselves to now introduce a whole new menace, and with that, we’ve created a new mythology and we’ve expanded how deep and how frightening and how dangerous a villain can be in one of these stories,” Kenan added.

The upcoming sequel will also see the two generations of Ghostbusters working together to save the city. Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Ernie Hudson will all be back as their original characters, and it’ll even return to their first base of operations: the firehouse. Let’s hope they bring back the iconic theme song, too.