Editorials
‘Ghostbusters In Concert’ Spotlights the Stealth Magic Behind the Movie [Event Report]
Nostalgia is a tricky thing, especially these days. What used to be a slice of escapism has since become the blueprint for Hollywood studios, who have seemingly molded intellectual property into a skeleton key to get projects off the ground. Indie filmmakers graduate into blockbuster reboots, veteran filmmakers stretch their limbs with unnecessary sequels, and listicles are made about all the Easter eggs and trivia and yadda, yadda, yadda. There are exceptions, sure, but this is the business today, and our rose-tinted lenses are feeling the wear and tear.
Maybe. Hopefully. Probably not.
Ghostbusters, to stay on theme here (there is a point to all of this), is no exception to this riff raff. Last year, Jason Reitman finally delivered the second sequel die-hard fans have been waiting for since the days of Chris Farley rumors. It was fine. Rather than attempting to capture the comedy of the first two entries, Reitman wisely sketched out a love letter to the franchise itself, speaking less to the critics and fans of ’80s comedies and more to those who grew up wanting to bust heads — in the spiritual sense, of course.
It worked. For the most part. Paul Rudd was charming as always. The ode to the late Harold Ramis was affecting. The kids were a riot. What didn’t work, though, was the film’s relentless attempts to make everyone go all Rick Dalton and point at the various callbacks, accoutrements, and story beats of the original. But, again, this is how franchising goes. Hell, it’s happening this very week with Halloween Ends as the marketing has made it very clear that you’ll be reminded of all the things you loved in John Carpenter’s original.
All of this only erodes the magic of the source material, and this is something that has come to mind this spooky season while revisiting many of the original movies that have since been mined and gutted by studios today. Well, except one. This past Saturday night at Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre proved to be an outlier in these rewatches. (Told you, we’d get there.) The venue played host to Peter Bernstein, son to the great and late composer Elmer Bernstein, who led the Chicago Philharmonic through a live score of Ghostbusters.
To be fair, the night was fueled by the same nostalgia that prompted Sony to greenlight Ghostbusters: Afterlife and its forthcoming sequel. Attendees were invited to wear their costumes, and many did, taking photos next to inflatable Stay Pufts and Slimers, not to mention our local folks in grey who arrived with all their dazzling props. The bar even served a cocktail themed to Hi-C’s Ecto Cooler, giving a little something to the adults. It was incredibly cute, and even the most stone-cold cynic would have smiled from the palpable energy.
But, here’s where the evening turned: Bernstein. After a short introduction by his son, which was accompanied by video introductions by Dan Aykroyd and the late Ivan Reitman, the lights dimmed, the film rolled, and that familiar twinkle and chorus exploded over the New York Public Library. Right below it was the Chicago Philharmonic, though, who hit every note under Bernstein’s guide. Needless to say, the talent on display was electrifying to watch, particularly the harpist, who was tasked with one of the first quiet moments of the night.
As the film progressed — there was a short intermission shortly after things go south for Dana Barrett and Louis Tully — it became quite clear that this wasn’t entirely a celebration of a widely celebrated film. It was a showcase for the kind of magic we often take for granted. The score. Hyperbole be damned, but Bernstein’s score is one of the more underrated gems in Hollywood scoring history. It’s an eclectic compendium that juggles all the weird tones within Reitman’s supernatural comedy, and this film is a lot weirder than its reputation suggests.
Because of this, it wasn’t an easy or even enviable task for Bernstein, who said as much to CinemaScore in 1985 (via Ghostbusters News): “It was probably one of the most difficult jobs I ever had to do just to, and I don’t mean this as a pun, but to find the right note. The score was not easy. It was extremely difficult. Ivan Reitman and I must have talked on the phone every single day while I was working on it, just trying to help ourselves find the right approach.”
Bernstein’s approach and all the complexities wired to his decisions were on full display at the Auditorium, and the excitement of seeing it unfold was admittedly tough to contain. Much to the chagrin of my girlfriend (and certainly the audience), I found myself pointing not at the screen, but sections of the orchestra as they conjured all the sounds that are a given on any other rewatch. A few snapshots come to mind (even days later): the heavenly swells behind “Dana’s Theme”, the haunting minimalism within “Halls”, the jaunty march of “Stairwell”, and the eerie pivot from the Carpenter synths of “News” to the funky sendoff of “Judgment Day”.
Staggering stuff.
Even more staggering was how magnetic it made the rewatch. One friendly fan behind me said it best: “It’s like I’m watching it for the first time again.” Who wouldn’t want that? Isn’t that the high we all chase whenever we pop in the tape? Isn’t that what studios are capitalizing on with these reboots? All true. The joy in this night, in this particular performance, is that it feels earned and genuine. And, more importantly, you’re not dropping your jaw at callbacks or remember-whens, but the raw ingenuity that captured your imagination in the first place.
That’s always been the magic word.
Photography by Anne Ryan. Click here to see if this show is coming to your town.
I first heard about The Mandela Catalogue through a couple of nephews who were obsessed with the ARG’s sinister mythology. It was only after watching Wendigoon’s in-depth analysis of the series that I realized just how deep this rabbit hole goes.
In fact, I’d already been exposed to the nightmarish visuals of Alex Kister’s YouTube creation for years at that point without even realizing that it was the origin of several viral “cursed images” and spooky memes that had leaked into the wider internet – with this viral element actually being a part of the Catalogue’s overarching narrative.
Flash-forward to 2026 and the unprecedented success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms has led to Hollywood betting on horrific internet properties with existing fanbases, which means that Kister’s unique hybrid of both religious and analog horror is finally headed to the big screen with a script written by Kister himself alongside Tyler Clifton.
While this news shouldn’t be too surprising if you’ve been keeping up with the ongoing success of The Mandela Catalogue (both myself and Wendigoon having previously predicted that the series would inevitably make the jump to theaters one day), plenty of horror fans are likely confused as to why so many folks are excited for what appears to be a Hollywood adaptation of a series of creepy .jpeg images under a VHS filter.
With that in mind, today I’d like to invite fellow readers to accompany me as I explore the origins of Alex Kister’s viral hit and attempt to explain exactly why we should all be excited about the Mandela Catalogue adaptation!
From High School Writing Project to Internet Horror Phenomenon
The first seeds of The Mandela Catalogue were sown when Kister was still in high school and developed a writing project subverting religious tropes in a world where biblical history had been altered by demonic forces. A little while later, Kister came across an analog horror contest on Reddit and decided to adapt his ideas into a standalone video where he would edit a religious kids’ cartoon –The Beginner’s Bible: The Nativity, to be specific- into something far creepier. This is how the iconic Overthrone video was born, with this viral short film taking on a life of its own as fans demanded more eerie content from Kister.
Though the video was originally meant to be a one-and-done sort of affair, with Kister actually regretting some of its primitive visuals and considering the editing amateurish and “YouTube-Poop-like” when compared to his current standards, fan reaction and free time during the COVID-19 pandemic encouraged the (then) seventeen-year-old filmmaker to continue producing content set in this same world. The Mandela Catalogue name was inspired by the Mandela Effect conspiracy theory, as the series would slowly begin to explore the subtle horror of alternate histories.
Inspired by existential dread brought on by extended periods of quarantine as well as a personal crisis of faith, Kister continued to expand his alternate timeline where the rise of Christianity had been prevented by what was presumably the Devil disguised as the Archangel Gabriel. This alternate course of fictional events led to the existence of certain paranormal anomalies that had come to be accepted as “normal” by the 1990s, which is why most of the series’ supernatural horror is presented in such a matter-of-fact manner.
Most of this background information and religious lore is delivered by increasingly cryptic broadcasts and in-universe PSAs, as well as the occasional found footage video, that often have to be decoded by clever viewers. Of course, it’s the consistently disturbing imagery that made the series so popular – much of which was originally created by Kister on a smartphone!
The Alternates: Horror’s Most Unsettling Modern Monsters
The show’s early episodes mostly take place within the fictional Mandela County in Wisconsin and depict life in a world where demonic entities are capable of using media to enter our reality. This process usually involves scaring victims into killing themselves and then repurposing their bodies as horrific doppelgangers referred to as “Alternates”. This terrifying phenomenon has become so common that local police already have specialized procedures in place to deal with the issue, though this usually consists of simply ignoring calls for help so as to avoid spreading so-called “Metaphysical Awareness Disorder” any further.
Over time, Kister would expand this mythology and incorporate different kinds of Alternates into the mix, though the story never stopped deconstructing religious concepts. The series’ second volume exponentially increased both video quality and the overall narrative scope as we began to follow the lives of characters who had already grown up in this dystopian hellscape where the government is forced to prohibit religion, television, and even mirrors in the hopes of mitigating the damage done by the ongoing invasion of otherworldly entities.
The really interesting part comes into play when you realize exactly how the Alternates make use of scary media in order to spread their demonic influence, with the analog horror of it all being a diegetic part of the story and something of a memetic trap orchestrated by the false Gabriel.
I particularly appreciate how some characters begin to suspect that there’s something wrong with their version of reality and that things weren’t meant to play out this way, especially when Mark utters the haunting line “who have I been praying to all this time?” That’s why I think The Mandela Catalogue is an effective piece of religious horror even if you don’t subscribe to the Christian worldview, as the mere idea of a world where evil has already won is a universally terrifying concept in and of itself. Not only that, but the series’ uncanny analog imagery alone is already worth the price of admission, as you’ve likely already noticed by looking at the pictures accompanying this article.
Why The Feature Adaptation Could Be Horror’s Next Big Success
It’s actually been a whole year since Kister first announced that he had been working on a feature-length screenplay for a Mandela Catalogue movie since 2022, with his proposed story following an ensemble of high-school graduates who uncover a supernatural conspiracy after the mysterious disappearance of a fellow student. This premise sounds similar to narrative elements present in the series’ second volume, but I’m pretty sure that Kister is going to go the Kane Parsons route and make the movie more of a spin-off than a re-imagining of its source material.
While notable Hollywood producers like Aaron B. Koontz, Scott Stuber, and Steven Spielberg himself are backing the upcoming project, I feel like there’s no one better to adapt this deeply personal exploration of faith and the dark side of communication than the person who first came up with it. That’s why I can’t wait to see Kister’s work on the big screen, as I have a feeling that this young filmmaker is the next one on the list about to make cinematic history – especially since this is clearly a passion project that has been in the works for years at this point!
That being said, there’s always a chance that the film could end up unleashing a fresh wave of Alternate incursions, but I guess that’s just a risk we’ll have to take.
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