Ten years ago, the Ghostbusters reboot was released into a firestorm of rage and revulsion. What did the onslaught show us about film, fandom – and does it stand up today?
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riticism of Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters reboot began more than two years before its release. Specifically, it started the moment that the director of Bridesmaids and The Heat announced, in 2014, that he and writer Katie Dippold were to cast four women as paranormal exterminators. The fate of their film was all but sealed.
A year later, the first trailer for the film swiftly became the most disliked film trailer on YouTube – and then most disliked YouTube video ever. Such a concerted campaign of vitriol did not lessen with the film’s release.
It was in many ways the cinematic sensation of the year: a firestorm of rage and revulsion, all over a family supernatural comedy that Sony launched into a landscape already drowning in profitable franchises.
