Luke Owen reports from Future Cinema’s presentation of Ghostbusters…
As Is stood in the queue outside The Troxy in London, chatting away and trying to stay warm on a cold December evening, I was taken away from my in-depth conversation by a siren. It was a siren that I have known since childhood. It was a siren that I probably know better than that of an actual police car. My eyes lit up as I knew what the siren belonged to. I turned around and there in front of me was the Ecto-1, driving down a London street (and blocking the traffic in the process). This was Future Cinema’s presentation of Ghostbusters – what they were calling a “live cinema experience”.
This was a screening of Ghostbusters like no other. The Future Cinema team had decked out The Troxy to resemble The Sedgewick Hotel (the setting of the Ghostbusters first successful bust) complete with staff who played up to the fact that we were supposed to be in New York. As I was in the queue I was told not to go in by Walter Peck, I had a conversation about my taxes with Louis Tully and as I walked in I was greeted by the mayor of New York looking for my vote during election week. To call it a surreal experience would perhaps be hyperbole, but it was certainly immersive which was really the point.
Giddy as a schoolchild, I walked into the main hall where the screening was to take place. The idea behind the screening was that we were all attending the 1984 New York Fashion Awards (complete with 80s disco), so all the tables were decked out like a gala dinner and they had a roving reporter asking questions about “who we were wearing”. At the back of the hall was the Ghostbusters office, complete with working computer, old-school phone and its own Janine Melnitz. That’s right, you could sit down and have a consultation with Janine, the faithful receptionist to the Ghostbusters. As you walked round you discovered Dana’s fridge which housed Zuul (and smelt rank) as well as the chair she was sat in when the Terror Dogs attacked her. Amused by this, I sat down to have my photo taken only for the arms of a Terror Dog come out and grab me!
Sitting at the desk of the Ghostbusters, seeing Janine, getting attacked by Terror Dogs – this was an incredible experience that the 8-year old me was loving.
Who am I kidding? The 28-year old me was loving it too.
Future Cinemas really pulled out all the stops to make sure you never fell out of the immersive experience. TVs around the bar area were playing American commercials from the time period, they were selling New York deli-style food and they had themed cocktails (the Stay Puft was very nice!). You could even buy tubs of sweets that came in the same Chinese take away boxes purchased by the Ghostbusters with the last of their petty cash. The level of detail involved and the commitment from all actors was so impressive but the key aspect was that their choices were smart. They never once went that step too far into corny or silly. They got it just right.
Which brings us to the actors chosen to play these now iconic roles. Stepping into the shoes of classic characters like Peter Venkman and Dana Barrett cannot be easy, but not only was the casting spot on – they also showed great skill in never breaking character. During the pre-amble before the screening itself, the actress playing Dana came round to have a chat with us, asking us if we’d seen Peter and explaining the issues she was having in her apartment. At no point did it feel phony and she was a pure natural at being this character. While the ghosts were invading the gala, Egon came round to our table to hunt for ghosts and accused one of the patrons of being possessed, informing us to keep an eye on him. And while Egon was perhaps the best example of casting (he looked and sounded just like Harold Ramis), the true star of pitch-perfect casting was Louis Tully. From his bumbling antics outside and during the gala to his transformation to Vince Clortho, this Louis embodied everything that made Rick Moranis’ performance so memorable.
While I won’t go into much detail about the show itself (long story short, the gala was invaded by ghosts and the Ghostbusters showed up to help), they did re-create some of the more iconic scenes from the movie to get us all in the mood. But once the lights went down and the film started, the show was far from over.
There is a scene at the start of the movie in which our inexperienced (and not yet official) Ghostbusters investigate the New York Public Library only to find a not-so-friendly ghost reading a book. Spooked by the floating phantasm, our heroes run out of the library in pure comedic fashion – and this is where Future Cinemas shines as an immersive Live Cinema Experience. As the Ghostbusters ran out on screen, the Future Cinema counterparts ran out from behind the stage in the same costumes as our on-screen heroes in a near-perfect recreation of what was happening in the movie. The cherry picked their moments to do moments like this, but they were always spot-on.
Throughout the movie, the actors would mimic what was happening on-screen including a superb (and extremely well-timed) light show of the trapping of Slimer at the Sedgewick Hotel. However, the Pièce de résistance was during the climactic battle with Gozer and the destructor was summoned (due to Ray thinking of the most harmless thing). As if from no where, a giant inflatable Stay Puft Marshmallow Man rose up from the floor and towered over our heroes on stage and even the screen itself. It was an incredible sight and the perfect note to end on what had already been the best screening of the movie I’d ever attended.
There aren’t many companies that could pull of a screening of this size, scope and imagination. Impressive, mind-blowing and an insane amount of fun, the Future Cinema group are ones you should seek out if they’re showing a movie you like. Ghostbusters is my favourite movie of all-time, but this was hands down my all-time favourite screening of the movie. Just when you think you’d seen it all, Future pull out something else to constantly keep you on your toes.
Their next screening is Who Framed Roger Rabbit with The Troxy doubling for the Ink and Paint Club. I love the movie, but I’m more interested in seeing just what these guys are going to do to make it the immersive experience. Sign me up and have my Twinkie Future Cinemas – you… you’ve earned it.
Here are some other pictures from the event:
