Movie Review (This part was written after a few drinks)
The film “Ghostbusters” starts out with two students, a boy and a nameless interchangeable Hollywood blonde, being tested by Dr. Peter Vankman. Vankman is portrayed by the overrated actor Bill Murray. Peter is holding up Zener Cards facing away from the students and having them try to guess what the shapes are. Every time the student guesses wrong they are given a mild electrical shock. Peter Vankman refers to this as negative reinforcement, which is false. It’s actually called “punishment”. From our textbook: “a negative reinforcer is any stimulus that, when REMOVED after a response, strengthens the response”. Don’t be disappointed though, because there are plenty of other things that psychologists can point out that’s wrong about the movie. If I turned it into a drinking game like one of my housemates who’s getting her Master’s degree in Neurobiology suggested, I’d be dead.
Let’s get back to the movie. Scott and the nameless interchangeable Hollywood blonde each try to guess three times what the shapes are. Now interestingly Scott guesses correctly two out of three times, and the girl gets all three of her guesses wrong but no matter what Scott guesses, Peter claims he’s wrong. Scott storms out of the “lab” angrily, and btw the “lab” looks more like a spacious closet filled with junk. But the junk is actually research equipment that the parapsychology department uses. Anyway with Scott out of the way Peter begins flirting with the nameless interchangeable Hollywood blonde and asks her to meet him at his home at around 8pm.
Before I get too far into the movie review I’d like to explain what Zener Cards are. Here’s what I cut/pasted from Wikipedia. Zener cards are cards used to conduct experiments for extra-sensory perception (ESP), most often clairvoyance. Perceptual psychologist Karl Zener (1903-1964) designed the cards in the early 1930s for experiments conducted with his colleague, parapsychologist J. B. Rhine (1895–1980). Ok that’s the end of my cut/paste. Before Peter can finish setting up the study session/inappropriate date with his student he’s interrupted by Dr. Raymond Stantz who’s played by actor co-writer of the movie, Dan Aykroyd.
Ray insists that they need to get the team together because the “P.K.E.” meter readings are off the charts and they’ve confirmed ghost sightings at one of New York’s famous libraries. “P.K.E.” is never explained in the movie but according to my extensive research on the Ghostbusters Wikipedia page, “P.K.E.” stands for Psychokinetic Energy. Also according to Ghostbusters Wikipedia, the device is called an “aurascope” which is a much cooler name for the device. Since all this stuff is made up anyway they should have stuck with the less accurate but cooler “aurascope”. Lord knows they threw scientific accuracy out the window in the first five minutes so it’s not like that was a concern for the writers.
When Ray and Peter arrive at the library they interview several of the witnesses. This is to confirm that none of them are suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, have incredibly strong religious beliefs, have experienced any hallucinations in the past, or are on mind altering drugs. It’s actually a good display of psychological investigation but don’t get used to it. When Ray and Peter head down to the lower and less used areas of the library we’re introduced to Dr. Egon Spangler, the other co-writer and fellow actor Harold Ramis. Dr. Spangler is looking through his “P.K.E.” meter and explaining some technobabble about what's going on. Actually I’m going to refer to it as an aurascope from now on.
While investigating the underbelly of the library they come across what can only be described as “slime” covering some of the cabinets and bookshelves. This slime is not explained but instead of chalking it up to bad writing I’m going to give the movie the benefit of the doubt and assume that the explanation was left on the cutting room floor. Anyway they eventually encounter the ghost, who appears to be a dead librarian. After Ray tries to converse with the ghost she releases a banshee wail and they all flee. The fact that they had no plan of action is lamp shaded by Peter.
The next day the team arrives at Columbia University to find that their “equipment” is being packed and loaded into trucks. The “dean” explains that their grant has been revoked. He cites poor results, lack of scientific methods being used, and how the parapsychology department is beginning to damage the reputation of the university. Complaints about him hitting on female students may have been a contributing factor as well. The idea that a third party would be packing up scientific equipment into trucks defies common sense with all the potential liability issue at play. The parapsychology grant being ended without any forewarning also defies common sense. It’s at this point that I realized this movie was much better when I was a kid with less ability to reason. Maybe I should have turned this experience into a drinking game after all?
The “team” then decides to become private investigators of paranormal activity. In order to finance this venture Ray gets a second mortgage on a house his parents left him. I’m going to assume that a montage of them getting their small business idea rejected from various banks was left out of the movie. They move into an abandoned fire station as their place of business. Now I’d like to point out that even though the fire station is in disrepair, the place is huge. A place that large in New York had to be a steal no matter how messed up it is. All they have to do is hire a team of illegal immigrant maids to clean up the place and it would be absolutely fantastic. Oh and I’d like to finish this paragraph by saying that Ray slides down a pole and boyishly shouts “we’ll take it”.
After that scene ends we’re introduced to Sigourney Weaver’s character, Dana Barrett. Dana is walking home carrying a bag of groceries. While going through the hallway she encounters her nebbish nosey neighbor (alliteration!) Louis Tully, played by actor Richard Moranis. Louis awkwardly flirts with Dana. After she rebuffs him he finds himself embarrassingly locked out of his apartment when his door closes as Dana enters her own residence. (When Dana enters her apartment I’m dumbstruck. Now let me interject once again. Dana is a cellist for “a major symphony orchestra”. Let’s assume it’s the New York Philharmonic and Tully does her taxes and he’s very good. That doesn’t explain how she can afford an apartment that appears to be the size of a medium sized house in New York, in a fabulously posh building). When Dana lays down her groceries in her kitchen apartment the eggs begin to boil and pop out of their shells. She opens the fridge and there are no groceries. Instead there’s a pyramid-shaped temple is floating in what appears to be another dimension. A terror dog pops up and shouts the name “Zuul!” at her. She flees the apartment, terrified out of her wits.
Now we flash forward to the newly cleaned and organized headquarters for The Ghostbusters. I’m sure they did what I recommended and hired the illegal immigrant maids. We also meet Janine Melnitz who’s played by actress Annie Potts. She’s the secretary/administrative assistant for the crew and she laments that there have been no calls. Peter laments the situation and brings up a valid point when he asks her to type something, anything, since that’s what they’re paying her for. After Janine has a brief conversation that confirms Egon’s “geekiness”, Ray drives into the hall with a hearse. It’s dirty and grimy and appears to be on its last legs. And it only costs $4k! That’s in 1984 dollars. That Ray is one hell of a negotiator. We move to the next scene where we encounter the fabulously wealthy cellist Dana spending the night at what appears to be the Waldorf Astoria. While watching t.v. and not practicing on her cello, Dana just happens to see The Ghostbuster’s commercial advertising their services.
We move forward to Peter walking down the hallway of the super posh apartment building that Dana was living at before ghosts decided to show up. While walking down the hall way Dana advises Peter to “be vewwy, vewwy quiet” just like Elmer Fudd. Ok that didn’t happen but it definitely would have made this movie slightly better. Just imagine Sigourney Weaver saying that. In case you hadn’t realized this I’m writing this movie review after kicking back a few. Because Peter is an idiot and doesn’t realize that noise might activate ghostly activities, he keeps blabbing. This allows the nebbish nosey neighbor (I hope you like alliteration!) Louis to hear them as they walk by. He pops out of his apartment to talk to them. It’s actually really impressive because you can hear some really pumping music coming out of his apartment and he’s got a really lively get-together taking place in his apartment.
Nebbish nosey neighbor (ALLITERATION!)Louis awkwardly flirts with Dana and gets rebuffed again. He also locks himself out of his place again. This locking himself out of the apartment really gets on my nerves by the way. Moving on, Peter begins “investigating” Dana’s now abandoned and haunted apartment. Peter clearly has perception problems because he doesn’t ask how the heck a cellist can afford to stay at a hotel that appears to be the Waldorf Astoria while also being able to afford an apartment in New York that’s the size of a three bedroom home.
Anyway because the question is burning in my mind I looked it up. A regular gig at the philharmonic today is $91, 260 which, in New York, isn’t enough to justify her apartment. No way in hell. I believe Dana is waitressing on the side like 99% of New York actors and actresses. Sorry about the aside but it was bugging me so much I had to look it up. I’ll probably cut/paste this part into the personal commentary later if I remember.
Anyway Peter awkwardly flirts with Dana because awkwardly flirting with people is the only kind of flirting there is in this movie. We’ve all heard the old standby: write what you know. And what we know is that that Dana’s apartment shows no sign of being haunted other than having fried egg on the counter. Or at least that’s what we should have known because this movie is predictable. Peter’s aurascope never makes a blip during the entire investigation. Anyway Dana gets tired of being awkwardly flirted with and comments that Peter doesn’t behave like a regular scientist and demands he leave her apartment. Her comments that Peter is not a scientist is true in two different ways and I’m wondering if maybe it’s a subtle implication that Dana can display Extrasensory Perception (ESP).
It’s true in one way because Peter can’t really claim to be a scientist after he got thrown out of Columbia University for not respecting the scientific method. But it’s also true that Peter doesn’t act like what Dana expects from scientists because she expects scientists to be stiff and analytical. Dana is displaying top-down processing when she expects scientists to operate in a certain way. Peter is violating her proto-type and concept of what scientists look and act like. I just displayed recall by remembering those concepts. And I’m going to display some positive reinforcement by rewarding myself with a cookie.
Now I’m realizing that this movie review is going really long and I haven’t even gotten to the bizarre stuff. My review is going to be a lot less detailed from here on out. It is just as well because this is the part of the movie where the writers throw reality out the window and leave few psychological or scientific areas to discuss.
The Ghostbusters get a really rich client at a swanky hotel. Slimer gets captured and word spreads that the Ghostbusters are the real deal. We get a montage of increasing supernatural activity and subsequent increase in business. The old hearse gets its iconic paintjob and is renamed “Ecto-1”. Nebbish nosey neighbor Louis gets possessed by Vinz Clortho “The Keymaster” when he’s attacked in a park by a terror dog. Dana moves back into her apartment and gets possessed by Zuul “The Gatekeeper”. Both demons speak of the coming of Gozer, who will destroy the world. According to the montage, business is so good for the Ghostbusters that they can now afford a Token Black Guy (TBG) to be on their team; Winston Zeddemore played by Ernie Hudson. I would like to point out that the writers didn’t even bother to make Winston Zeddemore a fellow unemployed doctor and parapsychologist. He’s literally in the movie just to be the TBG. It really grinds my gears.
An a-hole lawyer named Walter Peck (William Atherton) works for the Environmental Protection Agency and eventually shuts down the containment unit that the Ghostbusters were using to hold the ghosts. They can’t be destroyed btw. With the Ghostbusters arrested and the containment unit shut down, paranormal activity goes through the roof. It eventually gets so bad that the mayor frees the team to help fix the problem. Unfortunately by then “The Gatekeeper” (Zuul) and “The Keymaster” (Vinz Clortho) meet and free the spirit of Gozer. Nonsense about cults, mad doctors, and humans being evil gets thrown in to the technobabble in order to justify the Ghostbusters going to the roof of Dana’s apartment. The roof has become a gateway to hell.
Gozer is up there and does battle with the Ghostbusters. Gozer beats them down in a face meltingly brutal fashion. Since the team is defeated they’re asked to choose the form of the world destroyer. We get the famous scene of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man destroying New York. It’s all well and good though because the team blasts their proton guns into the gate. Thanks to the power of more technobabble and crossing streams the gate is overloaded destroying Gozer’s connection to this world. Dana of the fabulous apartment and Nebbish Nosey Neighbor Louis are saved from Gozer and free to continue their awkward relationship. The Ghostbusters are hailed as heroes and huge sections of New York are in ruin! Its ok, its New York so I doubt anyone will notice all the rubble.
External References (This part was written sober)
Bizarre visions, psychics, and strange dreams; these are the basis for many parapsychological concepts. As explored in the film Ghostbusters these unexplainable phenomena have captured the interests and fears of people for years. While auditory and visual hallucinations are the most common contributors of known hallucination research there are others as well. Particularly dangers are “command hallucinations”, where an individual is being told to do something. Command hallucinations have a particular link to schizophrenia and I’d like to take some time to discuss it now.
Schizophrenia is generally characterized by a breakdown of thought processes and poor emotional responsiveness. Genetics, neurobiology, and environment are the most important contributing factors to a diagnosis of schizophrenia. However drug use has been known to cause or exacerbate symptoms. People suffering from the illness have been known to be affected by chronic behavioral and emotional problems like depression and anxiety disorders. These hallucinations and bizarre behaviors could have been attributed to demonic possession in ancient times. A more likely candidate to have caused these symptoms though, is ergot poisoning.
Ergot poisoning is caused by the consumption of the Claviceps purpurea fungus. The fungus grows on rye and other cereals. More correctly, the alkaloids produced by the fungus cause the illness. The alkaloids can pass from mother to infant through lactation. Symptoms include seizures, diarrhea, itching, headache, nausea, and vomiting. (Hans Stødkilde-Jørgensen, Niels Otto Jacobsen, Esbern Warncke, Jan 2008)Any area that experiences moist weather, cool temperatures, and delayed harvest can have an ergot poisoning. These types of environmental conditions describe most of northwestern Europe so it should come as no surprise that in the past these areas experienced extensive outbreaks of ergot poisoning. Ethiopia received an outbreak of ergot poisoning in mid-2001. (Urga, Debella, Medihn, Agata, Bayu, Zewdie, 2002) More recent research has been made suggesting that Ergot poisoning greatly contributed to the events that led to the Salem Witch Trials. (Caporael, 1976) In the article Linnda Caporael pointed out that many of the symptoms experienced mentioned in diaries at the time mentioned symptoms very similar to those caused by Ergot poisoning. Supporting evidence for Linnda’s thesis was presented by Mary Matossian. (Matossian, 1982)
Hearing strange sounds, sight unseen, along with bizarre and out of this world visions. No, I’m no longer talking about hallucinations caused by ‘shrooms, I’m talking about religion. I know this may be the most controversial point, but the difference between hearing the voice of God and the difference between a ghost haunting the pews is so few that I wanted to investigate it briefly. A group of people in church suddenly “freak out” and begin having seizure like symptoms. Are they touched by the hand of God? Is it a demon trolling the church members for giggles? More likely it’s mass hysteria taking affect. Mass hysteria is a collective psychological disorder and should not to be confused with the band “Mass Hysteria”. The illness is described as the spontaneous manifestation of the same or similar physical symptoms by more than one person without actual physical cause.
Conclusion (This part was also written sober)
Really, I don’t have much to add for the conclusion. The concepts of schizophrenia, religious beliefs, and some psychological terms were brought into the movie discussion and the connection to parapsychology was actually quite strong in the beginning. Of course being the silly movie that it is, they had to discard a lot of the good psychology and science to justify ghosts. I just wish they had brought in some psychologists to explain some of the bad writing. Ergot poisoning and Mass hysteria and ergot poisoning weren’t discussed in the movie but I can’t fault them for that. The movie was already nearly 2 hours.
But if you’re willing to ignore the stuff that doesn’t make sense and shut off the logical part of your brain, (pot and/or alcohol will help with this by the way) I can definitely understand why the Ghostbusters was such a big hit. The movie encompassed so many early 80's ideals. Famous 80’s actors, a token Black dude who adds nothing to the story, silly acting (I mean this in a good, 80’s way), a cheesy love story, ghosts, and of course how could anyone forget that theme song.