Paul Feig’s upcoming reboot of Ghostbusters is one of the more controversial titles of recent memory. The original films are so engrained in our culture as classics that the very thought of trying to do it all over again is causing a lot of hostility and anger, much of it very undue.
Speaking with LA Times, star Kristin Wiig addressed this issue, stating, “…the fact there was so much controversy because we were women was surprising to me. Some people said some really not nice things about the fact that there were women. It didn’t make me mad, it just really bummed me out. We’re really honoring those movies.”
Honestly, Wiig has a point. A lot of the anger at this remake has been because the ghost busting quartet are now women, which is apparently some sort of sacrilegious offense, although I can’t fathom why. Strong, capable, and intelligent women in horror isn’t anything new. We’ve been seeing those kinds of characters for decades now and it’s only becoming more and more the norm.
There’s actually nothing concrete right now for there to be any hatred of the upcoming Ghostbusters. We don’t have a trailer, we don’t have a poster, we don’t have any clips… If we had something by which to judge the film, then I’d understand the anger. But we have zip, zilch, zero! It’s such a waste of energy to hate a film that we know quite literally nothing about.
All I’m saying is don’t knock it until you have a reason. Who knows? Maybe it’ll come out and be something really fantastic that pays tribute to the original in all the right ways while still being unique unto itself. And if it sucks? Well, then you can still watch the originals, which won’t be affected in any way.