The GB method of ghost hunting is pretty standard in paranormal realms (just sort of embelished on for the big screen), but catching and containing more literal and visual.
The concept of a beam and a trap are synonymous with the franchise. There aren’t many other ways to do it in movies, and I think no matter what you do you’ll draw comparisons… so let me ask you all:
Is the beam, as trademark as it is to GB, something that puts a movie into the realm of “copying” or a remake, even fan film?
Or, would you feel that it’s a wink or a nod to the 20 year old original? And welcome it even though it’s not the GHostbusters universe?
I think I’ve only ever seen the beam/trap method used in Ghostbusters exclusively. Even in “Luigi’s Mansion” video game, it was more of a vaccum than a beam that captured the ghost, and then in another Mickey Mouse video game, they also went the route of the vaccum.
It feels like you can’t get too close to it because it’s so GB specific, that doing so would feel much more like a rip-off versus an homage. As a filmmaker, you’d have to go on record to say “we’re fans, and we’re winking/homaging the greatness that is Ghostbusters.”
To a degree, even snagging or capturing ghosts really reminds me of GB, but it’s less immediate than the beam.
I actually just remembered if you were to stretch it slightly, the lamp in Aladdin can be seen as a homage to the Ghost Trap with the way it sucks Jafar in at the end when he becomes a genie.
Hey guys, thanks for the input (scarce but appreciated! haha)
Been working on this script, almost finished with the final draft but looking forward to sharing it with everyone soon, as we’re going to start shooting within the next month or so!
Usually in ghost or monster movies there is usually a temporal disruption created to draw the ghost or monster into.
Ghostbusters introduced a concept that with science you can achieve a related result - kind of like Hellboy, Rasputin uses ■■■■ science to open a portal to cthulhu monsters or someone generates electrically charged pentagrams on the fly to call on a demons or in some instances trap and stop them.
Monster Squad had an incantation that under the right circumstances a portal would open up and pretty much swallow anything and everything. Then in the movie Frighteners there was the light that led you to Heaven and/or Hell for the recently deceased unless for one reason or another that person either refused to follow their path or Michael J Fox could only see dead people Sixth Sense style because he had died and somehow circumvented the process.
There is a story about a man with a sack that with the right words can coax anything into the sack and trap it indefinitely --even Death. In the end he realizes that trapping Death was stupid when no one in the world could die and grew old and just wandered about waiting for Death. When the man released Death, Death was so scared by the man he refused to take him and instead the man had to literally walk to wherever it is you go when you die to be judged. In Heaven they were well aware of who he was and refused him entry - there was some kind of exchange to the point the Demons didn’t want him either and gave him souls they didn’t need to lead them back to heaven and try to negotiate his entry.
The man thought he was slick and waited for the souls to pass through the gate and gave one of them the sack and told him that when he passes the gates to call him into the sack then let him out - the soul agreed, BUT when you pass through the gates your memory is wiped and you begin life after death with a clean slate. The soul never remembered to call him to the sack and the man had to live out his days waiting by the gate, until he forgot why he was there and just wandered off.
That story is called “The Soldier and Death” and I purposely left out several details so you can find it and see it for yourself- It’s worth a watch
