Let’s All Go to the Lobby to Get Ourselves Some Meat! – GHOSTBUSTERS (1984)

I tried–I really did–but the highest-grossing film of 1984 was my first brush with the saying “don’t believe the hype”.

Few movies in the 80s created such a summer blockbuster shitstorm as GHOSTBUSTERS. The ‘no ghosts’ logo shirt could be found everywhere. The Ray Parker Jr. theme song–which apparently ripped off the Huey Lewis & the News hit “I Want A New Drug”–was on MTV every hour. The trailer was programmed into the ground, and the stars of the film were ubiquitous, appearing on everything from “Entertainment Tonight” to late night talk shows. 

The excitement was too much for me, and the idea of a big-budget horror-comedy left me practically pissing my pants by the time it finally hit theaters. Mercifully, my sister decided to take me to see it as ‘an early birthday present’. I still remember sitting there in the dark before the lights dimmed. The atmosphere was almost like a party, and the anticipation of kids and adults alike was crackling up and down each row. 

In retrospect, it was easy to understand how GHOSTBUSTERS became my first experience of a film not living up to the hype. Sure, the cast was excellent, the lines were funny, Slimer was neat-o, and the effects were cutting-edge, but in the face of such media hype, a film twice as good would still have been short of the mark.

GHOSTBUSTERS was just one of the numerous films of that era that had an unstoppable marketing freight train hitched to it. CROCODILE DUNDEE (1986), WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT (1988), and BATMAN (1989) suffered similar overexposure. So much so, that it was tough to think these films got made for any reason other than so you could buy a corresponding Happy Meal at McDonald’s. It made me realize that if you put enough money behind something, you can sledgehammer damn near anything into popular culture and make it a hit.

I eventually outgrew my ‘no ghosts’ shirt, filed away the theme song single, and slowly started whittling down all of my memorabilia for the film. More than 40 years later, this is one of the only things that remains: the Free Booklet of the Movie’s Funniest, Most Popular Lines! 

With this tiny trinket of 80s blockbuster memorabilia, you can relive such moments as “I’ve been slimed–I feel so funky” and “This chick is toast!”. 

If anyone remembers where they gave these out, I’d appreciate the memory jog. I can’t recall any of my friends having one, and I haven’t ever again run into another after all these years. 

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