I saw Ghostbusters in the theater when I was ten-years-old in the summer of 1984. I loved the movie while watching it, but had some scary dreams afterward about the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. Yes, of all the ghosts and demons and other monsters in that picture, it was the cuddly-looking product mascot with a big smile on its face that gave my younger self nightmares. I think that experience may explain why I’ve held off showing the comedy to my own kids until now.
This week, I use the Film at 11 podcast to correct that oversight for at least one of my boys. I tend to doubt that my son Joseph actually found anything in Ghostbusters disturbing. Then again, Joseph makes it very difficult for me to judge his reactions to movies at all. As he sat there not laughing at even a single joke in the film, I felt certain he didn’t like anything about it. Yet he claims otherwise, and says he thought it was great. This boy can be an enigma to me.
In any case, I’ve now filled him in on another major cultural touchstone that he’d missed until now. I suppose that counts as a parenting win. Lest you worry, his brother Thomas also watched the movie later with his mother.
| Title: | Ghostbusters |
| Year of Release: | 1984 |
| Director: | Ivan Reitman |
| Watched On: | 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray |
| Also Available On: | Blu-ray AMC Philo TV Various VOD rental and purchase platforms |
The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
Even with photography by the acclaimed László Kovács (Easy Rider, Paper Moon), Ghostbusters has long had a problematic history on home video. Part of that is Kovács’ own fault for favoring images with natural lighting and a lot of grain (both things that tend not to work terribly well in a visual effects-heavy production like this). However, I think some of the video transfer choices Sony has made in the 4K era do the movie no favors, either.
Ghostbusters was first released onto Blu-ray back in 2009 with a disc that was heavily criticized at the time for having a coarse and gritty appearance. The studio later remastered the movie in 2013 and released a new edition branded as “Mastered in 4K” that was better received.
A 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray upgrade followed in 2016, based on that 2013 master. The copy I own is a reissue from 2019 that came in a double-feature SteelBook package with the sequel, Ghostbusters II. The regular Blu-ray copy of the original Ghostbusters in that 2019 SteelBook (and I assume also the 2016 standalone version) was primarily a port of the 2013 Mastered in 4K transfer, except that the audio was re-authored from Dolby TrueHD 5.1 to DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 instead. (Both are lossless compression formats.) As far as I’m aware, the reissued Blu-ray packed into the 4K case is the only copy of Ghostbusters to also include the film’s original Dolby Stereo sound mix as a listening option, encoded in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 format. Even the 4K disc omits that.
Got all that?
- 2009 – First Blu-ray (Dolby True HD 5.1)
- 2013 – “Mastered in 4K” Blu-ray (Dolby True HD 5.1)
- 2016 – 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray (Dolby Atmos) + 1080p Blu-ray (DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 or 2.0)
- 2019 – 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray reissue (Dolby Atmos) + 1080p Blu-ray (DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 or 2.0)
I own #s 1, 2, and 4 on the preceding list. Because I don’t have the ability to take 4K HDR screenshots yet, the following comparisons are all of the 2009 Blu-ray against the 2019 Blu-ray. Click the links in the captions to expand images to full size. (I also took some screengrabs of the 2013 disc, but they look indistinguishable from the 2019 Blu-ray.)
Looking at them again right now, the remastered Blu-ray is mostly a subtle improvement over the 2009 Blu-ray. In fact, in the majority of scenes, the main difference between them is that the remaster trades out an excess red shift in the grayscale for an excess green shift, which just makes flesh tones look paler and washed-out. I doubt that either of them is actually a correct representation of the movie’s original 1984 color timing. If forced to choose, I’d personally rather that faces look a little pinkish rather than sickly green, but either of them is workable enough when judged individually.
In other respects, the remaster has almost no appreciable improvement in picture detail or clarity. If anything, it may look a little softer, though that’s probably due to less artificial sharpening and better digital compression.
On the other hand, in certain scenes, the older 2009 Blu-ray has a very harsh contrast boost that crushes highlight detail and exaggerates grain. This is the part that viewers (and reviewers) in 2009 found so objectionable. In those instances, the remaster tones down the contrast and looks decidedly better.
That brings us to the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, which, sadly, may actually undo some of the better attributes of the 2013, 2016, and 2019 remastered Blu-rays. The 4K edition has a very aggressive HDR grade that once again boosts contrast and exaggerates grain. At my normal calibrated HDR settings, this disc has an extremely gritty and bleached appearance that I found very unpleasant. I had to turn down my projector’s tone-mapping controls to temper that, but doing so effectively negated any pretense of HDR.
Even at the best compromise settings I could manage with my equipment, the 2.39:1 image is still very soft, very grainy, and overly bright. That excess brightness only serves to expose seams in the visual effects. The proton pack beams, especially, look very cartoonily animated in 4K HDR. They integrate with the live-action footage better in the Blu-ray transfer.
In more favorable respects, the new Dolby Atmos remixed soundtrack has nice musical presence, as well as some hefty bass and low-end rumble. The sound of the proton packs activating and the devil dog roaring really cut through the soundstage with impressive clarity. Even in Atmos, surround usage is largely restrained, which is appropriate for a movie from 1984, but when it kicks in (such as when all the ghosts are released from containment and get unleashed upon the city), the track has some very fun directional effects around, through, and all the way to the top of the room.
That said, the Blu-ray’s 5.1 mix is no slouch either. Even the 2.0 track has its merits. Frankly, all the audio options for this movie sound pretty good.
Taking all of that into consideration, the remastered Blu-ray bundled with the 4K disc is my preferred method of watching the movie. At least on my screen, it has a more natural contrast balance that’s easier on the eyes than the 4K Ultra HD copy itself.
The double-feature SteelBook is a five-disc set in all: two feature 4K discs, two feature Blu-rays, and one disc dedicated to supplements. To my tremendous annoyance, the case has a frustrating configuration that requires stacking multiple discs on top of each other (three on one side, two on the other) on the same hubs. That’s bound to eventually lead to discs getting scratched or damaged.
The 4K disc offers an audio commentary by director Ivan Reitman, writer/star Harold Ramis, and producer Joe Medjuck, plus some Cast & Crew notes, but good luck navigating to any of them through Sony’s atrocious menu system.
The accompanying feature Blu-ray adds a second “Fan Commentary,” as well as a “Slimer Mode” picture-in-picture interface and a “Tricks & Trivia” pop-up track.
The disc dedicated to Special Features is divided into sections devoted to Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters II, and The Real Ghostbusters animated series. Specific to the original film are some deleted scenes, the full version of the characters’ TV ad from the movie, outtakes, a bunch of featurettes (some vintage, some newer), a half-hour retrospective special, multi-angle comparisons, storyboards, a celebrity-laden Ray Parker Jr. music video, a photo gallery, and some trailers.
Related
- Ghostbusters
- Ivan Reitman (director)
- Dan Aykroyd
- Sigourney Weaver
- Ernie Hudson
Note: All screenshots on this page were taken from standard Blu-ray editions of the film and are used for illustration purposes only.
The Video File Blog 
I have the 2021 box set, which includes everything you have, and I remember being very impressed by the wealth of interesting features. There’s even an hour of dailies, just raw footage of Murray riffing and improvising in Dana’s flat. Great stuff.
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Watching Ghostbusters as a kid, I never even realized it was a comedy i just thought it was a cool movie about guys who fight ghosts. The humor is so dry it doesn’t really land until someone is in their teens at least. Watching as an adult, it’s absolutely hilarious to me now though.
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You may be on to something there. The difference in my case is that I saw this in the theater, with an audience of adults laughing their butts off the whole time. So I always got that it was supposed to be a comedy. Also, Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd were well known as comedians at the time, even to kids not yet old enough to stay up and watch SNL.
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My dad took me, my brother, and sister to see this when it was in theaters. I should’ve been around seven years old. I’ve always thought of this as a comedy with some horror elements and even as a kid I found it funny. I also was terrified of the terror dogs and the haunted occurrences at Dana’s apartment, they truly scared me. I even remember loving the music video but every time the terror dogs would pop up, I would cringe. Stay Puft freaked me out because he looked like a baby crying when they were shooting their proton packs at him. I’m really happy with how the UHDs look but I also really like the two movie digibook which I believe has the remasters. I always wanted the big trap box set but sadly missed out on it. I believe there were some errors that came along with them. I think it’s safe to say another version will be released down the line.
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It’s a shame about the transfer; I’ve been holding off on buying the 4K disc because most reviews were pretty lukewarm regarding it. At least it sounds like the Atmos remix is pretty good…
I only have this on DVD, so I’m hoping the next release gets all this figured out. I can’t remember if the latest 4K release comes with a Dolby Vision pass or not…is Dolby Vision something you can sample on another display, Josh? I wonder if the extra metadata would help corral or reconcile the extremities of the presentation. Maybe a higher bitrate might alleviate things?
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