Follwing our interview with Dale Lloyd of Viva VHS, Luke Owen looks back at his VHS memories…
Ghostbusters is my favourite film of all time.
A lot of people have trouble giving an answer to that question and will often give a “I can maybe do a top 10” or “there are way too many favourites to just pick one”, but for me it’s simple – Ghostbusters is my favourite film of all time.
Like most kids my age, my first exposure to the Ghostbusters craze of the late 80s and early 90s was from the animated spin off The Real Ghostbusters, which continued the adventures of our ghost trapping heroes.The toys were a staple part of my growing up and I had all the variations, the fire house, the Ecto-1, the proton pack, PKE Meter and more ghosts than I knew what to do with (apart from busting them of course). I also had four episodes of the series on VHS (two episodes per tape) which I knew verbatim. So much so in fact that when I purchased the entire collection of DVD, I could recall every frame of those episodes clearly including the sound cues and animation goofs.
As a result of my obsession with the cartoon, my parents thought it would be a good idea to sit me down and watch the movie the show was based on. What they forgot is that Ghostbusters is an adult movie mascaraing as a kids film with some colourful language, ghost fallatio and scary as all hell Terror Dogs.
I remember very vividly my mother covering my eyes during the initial scene with the New York Public Library ghost but she negated to shield my innocent eyes from the Terror Dogs escaping from their statues. As soon as the darkness was filled by the glowing red eyes, my time with the film was done. I was too scared. Perhaps a few weeks later, one of my older friends was telling me about the scene with Stay Puft. I had no idea what he was talking about.
Aside from being incredible frightening, many questions popped up throughout watching it the first time round: Where’s Winston? Why are they wearing the same coloured suits? Why are they busting slimmer? Why isn’t Egon blonde? When doesn’t Peter sound like Garfield?
As the years went on, my obsession with Ghostbusters only grew and as such, I eventually finished the movie as well as the not-so-good sequel. And all of this was done via one video tape – the Ghostbusters double feature released in 1990.
Digging out this video from our stored away VHS collection (stored away against my will I might add) brought back so many memories. The feel of the box, the weight of the format, the adverts for other videos available, the fact that I didn’t rewind it the last time I watched it.
Not only did it bring back visions of the aforementioned pooping-pants first-watch, but other memories. Like my cousin and I watching both films back to back so we could quote all the Bill Murray lines, trying to explain to my friend how the science behind mood slime in Ghostbusters II or just the plain annoyance that both films were on one tape.
Oh yeah it may seem convenient, but there are no markings on the tape itself, the inlay or on the box it came in to indicate when the second film started. So if you wanted to watch the inferior Ghostbusters II, you had to press fast forward and guess when the next film would start. While this sounds like it could be an easy task, it was made tricky by the fact there was a black and white episode of Batman bridging the two movies. So it would go like this:
Press fast forward. Stop. Press play: Final fight with Gozer
Press fast forward. Stop. Press play: Adam West being awesome as Batman
Press fast forward. Stop. Press play: Burt Ward being camp as Robin
Press fast forward. Stop. Press play: Ray and Winston entertain a kids birthday party in Ghostbusters II.
Damn, I missed the start.
Press rewind. Stop. Press play: Adam West being awesome as Batman
Damn, gone too far.
Can you see the frustration? I know at some point I did jot down when the second film started to forgo this rigmarole, but it was most likely written in my Real Ghostbusters workbook which is now lost in a landfill somewhere.
It could actually be why I have such distaste for the second movie. It’s actually not because it’s nowhere near on par with the original or that the cast doesn’t like it, it’s because I could never find the bloody movie so it was just easier to watch the first one!
Also – what is up with this picture? It’s on the box but it’s never in the film. Why would Sony and Columbia Pictures include an image from the movie that isn’t even in the movie?!
Despite my frustrations as a child, this will always be my favourite version of the movie to watch and the one I share my most treasured childhood memories with. It was almost a third parent to me in my formative years and it never once let me down. I’ve since owned and watched Ghostbusters on DVD, Blu-ray (despite not owning a Blu-ray player), Netflix and LoveFilm Instant – but nothing compares to that glorious (and annoying) double feature VHS. It may not be the most glamorous of formats, but it holds a special place in my nostalgic heart.
And remember – don’t cross the streams and please rewind the tape.
Luke Owen is one of the co-editors of Flickering Myth and the host of the Flickering Myth Podcast. You can follow him on Twitter @CGLuke_o.
Originally published March 25, 2013. Updated November 6, 2019.
