Summary: Sooooooo good. If you love Ghostbusters then you’ll love this. Watch it.

A little longer and some mild spoilers: Oh my word, I love this movie. I was so ready to be disappointed … and I was so wrong. My biggest frustration with Ghostbusters II and the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot was that it felt like they kept telling the same story as the original movie. Yes, it worked so well the first time around, but both of those films felt like poor retellings – don’t get me wrong, I enjoy them, but they just didn’t live up to the original.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife? It lives up to it. So much. It picks up the story 32 years later in a small farm town – the franchise needed to leave New York. Part of what makes the movie so compelling is the incredible performance by child actor Mckenna Grace, playing 12 year old Phoebe Spengler. Yup, Spengler. The story is driven by a new cast in a new location with new problems … yet as the movie builds to the climax, the viewer gradually puts together the pieces that all of it is connected back to the original Ghostbusters movie and the story there. This movie is both prequel and sequel, the way Terminator 2 completed Terminator, Ghostbusters: Afterlife completes a circle of story with 1984’s Ghostbusters.

And the original cast helps save the day. Not some cheesy cameo, but as full on heroes. It is such a good farewell to those characters. And, my word, I literally gasped and teared up at one moment.

The movie is good. Well written. A compelling story. Powerfully performed. One of the better sequels out there. It is a must see. And yes, you need to stay until the end of the credits.