The hugely anticipated Ghostbusters: Afterlife is out in just a few weeks and fans are excited to finally see a sequel to 1989’s Ghostbusters II that reunites Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver, and Annie Potts. But Afterlife isn’t the only new entry in the franchise coming this year. Enter the extremely cool-looking Ghostbusters: The Gates of Gozer.
This officially licensed project is a virtual live experience billed as a missing chapter in the Ghostbusters story. It’s set one year after they saved New York and this display of heroism has resulted in a wave of people eager to try their hand at ghostbusting. In order to train up these applicants, the Ghostbusters have set up a Paranormal Institute to instruct students in the art of hunting, trapping, and containing things that go bump in the night.
People will enroll to explore the haunted realms of New York in teams of six and they will have the chance to meet new and familiar faces during the show while they get trained in key skills including parapsychology, and science and technology. Once in live paranormal scenarios students must use quick wits, live improvisation, and a range of gadgets to hunt the trickiest or most malevolent of spooks as they work their way through the experience.
But be careful who, or what you believe since nefarious characters have concocted plans that could result in the destruction of the Ghostbusters …. and indeed the end of the world. Are you ready to save this dimension as the Ghostbusters did before us?
Audiences will participate in the inaugural ghostbusting class of ’85 via what sounds like an impressive online experience. The exact details remain under wraps, though we’re promised “mesmeric visual effects” and “spine-tingling binaural sound”.
What might be a good omen is that you need a decent computer to run it. The official site says all participants must have a quad-core i7 processor and a graphics card that’s an NVIDIA 1080/AMD Radeon Pro 590 or better, so if nothing else it should look good.
The project comes from London-based company Secret Cinema, which has become renowned for its live-action immersive experiences that recreate iconic movies. Past productions have brought Back to the Future, The Empire Strikes Back, Blade Runner, and Stranger Things to life in style. If the attention to detail of those is anything to go by, this should be a must-see for Ghostbusters fans.
Ghostbusters: The Gates of Gozer will be taking place in December 2021. Tickets will be released on November 1, though be advised that places are limited and this will likely sell out quickly.