It would not make sense to clean your teeth without toothpaste, and a Ghostbusters film would be incomplete without the presence of ghosts. After all, the ghosts on the show represent the franchise’s true essence. And it was only after the success of Ivan Reitman’s 1984 supernatural comedy film that unique content began to appear in a wide range of mediums, including comic books, animated television programs, computer games, and even theme park attractions.
That, however, is not the goal of today’s video. We are going to discuss the monsters from the Ghostbusters movies, which may appear hilarious to you now, but we are very sure they gave you nightmares as a youngster. So join us on this eerie voyage loaded with a slew of terrifying monsters from every Ghostbusters film, all of whose backstories will be examined!
Gozer
Also known as Gozer the Gozerian, Gozer the Destructor, and Gozer the Traveler, Gozer falls under the category of the most horrifying monsters that the Ghostbusters had to take care of. Its history goes back to 6000 BC when this ancient, obscure deity was worshipped by both the Hittites and Mesopotamians but it apparently rose to prominence in Sumer about thousands of years later. It was precise during that period when numerous cults arose to worship it and in a very short duration, ended up developing their own hierarchy and system of ritual magic.
So, by the 4th millennium BC, the Gozer worshippers already comprised a very large, Sumerian sub-culture and were engrossed in a long, protected battle with the followers of Tiamat. In due course, Gozer and its followers were not only conquered but also exiled from the world. Eventually, Gozer became known as the ‘Traveler’ when it started visiting different worlds and defeating them. Wondering how? Well, Gozer would gain access to a new world through the coupling of two demi-gods, Vinz Clortho, the Keymaster, and Zuul, the Gatekeeper, both of whom were its minions and harbingers of destruction. Once the minions had opened the portal to a new world, Gozer would do what any menacing ancient God-like figure would do – destroy the world.
By the beginning of the 20th Century, a powerful new Cult of Gozer was active in New York City headed by the architect and physician Ivo Shandor along with some of the city’s most powerful power brokers and business leaders. Following the end of World War I, Shandor deduced that humanity was too weak to survive and throughout the 1920s he along with his cult constructed a detailed series of supernatural mechanisms all across Manhattan with the sole purpose of beckoning Gozer back to the world and destroying it of course!
They would carry out a number of strange Gozerian sacraments on top of the 550 Central Park West building that Shandor had specifically built as some sort of a super-conductive antenna for spiritual turbulence or in simple words, the Gateway for Gozer. Apart from this, exceedingly powerful magic called ‘Mandala’ was also created in order to power up Gozer’s newly manifested body by the spirit energy. But in spite of all this, Shandor passed away before he could summon the ancient god but mind you, his efforts did not go in vain. Because in 1984, the ghosts started rampaging around the city and that was a sign of the Mandala actually working and also the fact that Gozer was coming.
As a result of which, the two minions were sent ahead to choose bodies to possess and we all know how that turned out for Dana Barrett and her neighbor, Louis Tully. It was also around this time that a man named Walter Peck had switched off the Containment Unit, which resulted in the release of all the captured ghosts. No wonder, they started roaming around, waiting for Gozer and while the Ghostbusters were able to make it to the building, they were a little late to stop the minions from completing their ritual and calling forth Gozer.
Speaking of its personality, Gozer is genderless although he does appear as a female in the movie. Next, it would not be wrong to address Gozer as an unsympathetic, merciless, godlike being, one who simply has no reservations about slaying those that it considers second-class. It looks down upon mortals is overly melodramatic, and also has this tendency to strike whenever it gets incited. Gozer’s powers and abilities include lightning blasts, pyrokinesis, shape-changing, invisibility, dimensional travel, great agility, stamina, telepathy, intangibility, and weather control. Let’s not disregard the fact that its mere entrance had caused not only rises in paranormal activity but also the disordering of natural forces such as earthquakes and storm clouds.
Do watch out for Gozer, who tops our list and is indubitably one of the most terrifying monsters from the Ghostbusters movie.
Zuul, The Gatekeeper
Meet this demigod and Gozer’s minion, one who will literally make you think twice before you wanna open that refrigerator of yours next time. Back in 1984, when the character of Dana Barrett opened her fridge, what she discovered inside was a whole new dimension and also Gozer’s temple. Of course, Dana was freaked out and she had slammed the fridge shut before running away. But sometime later, in the midst of an intense thunderstorm, Zuul managed to manifest itself in the physical plane on the rooftop of the Shandor Building. No points for guessing that it possessed Dana and that too right before her date with Peter Venkman. Demonic claws pinned Dana down to her chair and then via telekinetic activity, the chair was sent to the kitchen where Zuul waited to take possession of Dana.
After the possession, Zuul acted somewhat like a seductive temptress and looked for Vinz Clortho, who had similarly possessed Dana’s neighbor, Louis Tully. It goes without saying that when Peter arrived for his date, he did observe the thorough change in Dana’s behavior but it was curiosity that made him enter her apartment by fooling Zuul into believing that he was a friend of the Keymaster.
When Peter asked her for her name, she introduced herself as ‘Zuul, the Gatekeeper’. Well, upon further poking, Zuul also disclosed that they must gear themselves up to welcome Gozer, the destructor. When Peter refused her seducing advances and instead asked to speak to Dana, Zuul eventually became frustrated enough to respond in her horrendous, demonic voice telling him that there wasn’t any Dana but only Zuul. The possessed Dana even went to the extent of levitating above her very bed, snarling and roaring at the same time. Peter was ultimately left with no other option but to sedate her with a very heavy dose of Thorazine.
However, later with Walter Peck shutting the containment unit, not only were all the ghosts released but Zuul got woken up too post sensing the supernatural energy. To witness Zuul with that evil grin at the sight of such supernatural devastation was downright creepy and later having her take the native form of a large, horned, satanic terror dog with glowing red eyes, only intensified things further.
Better watch out for this horrifying demigod here, who was also worshipped by the Mesopotamians, Sumerians and Hittites back in 6000 BC along with Gozer.
Stay Puft Marshmallow Man
Imagine a monster that was actually inspired by fictional characters like the Pillsbury Doughboy, the Michelin Man and the Angelus Puft Marshmallow Man! Even the thought of this combination makes one feel funny, right? Well, that’s natural! Now, imagine this very monster to be an intermediate form of Gozer! Doesn’t just the thought of Gozer send shivers down the spine?
As per the events of the first film, the Ghostbusters were given a merciless choice by Gozer to select the form of their destructor. With the group thinking of something that could possibly never harm them, it was Ray who picked the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man remembering how as a child, he used to roast the marshmallows on the fire at Camp Waconda. Well, his accidental choice resulted in Gozer causing terror in the form of a 100 feet tall homicidal marshmallow man, one who is absolutely bent on terminating the Ghostbusters, the whole of New York City and with that the world.
The whole idea of this large, white humanoid figure made out of conjoined marshmallows, donning a white sailor cap with a red ribbon on the very top, a blue hatband, an old-school blue sailor’s collar, and a red neckerchief crushing a church while trying to scale the 550 Central Park West Building is bound to send everyone into a panic mode. Also, let’s not disregard its sole purpose – it wants to destroy the world and it just won’t stop until it actually does so. Wondering how to defeat this monstrosity? Well, the only way to roast this marshmallow is for the Ghostbusters to cross the streams from their proton packs and mind you this ending was only decided once they were midway through filming.
Many of you might be surprised to know that the character of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man was initially regarded as a throwaway character and its alternative was a monster that was based on Ray’s pet lizard from his childhood. Also, in all the drafts but the final one, this horrifying entity was actually conjured up by Winston and not Ray.
Slimer
Say hello to the legendary ghost of the swanky, five-star Sedgewick Hotel. While it’s true that his usual territory was the 12th floor but as far as his jaunts are concerned, he was more of the non-violent type, especially one who loved eating food. That’s precisely the reason why the hotel was initially able to keep a check on the supernatural activities there but thanks to Gozer’s approaching time of arrival, this floating green ball of ectoplasm was triggered into being a little more active than usual. So much so that the staff could no longer keep him as a secret anymore and had sought help from the Ghostbusters eventually.
Let’s get one thing straight about Slimer here, he is anything but a terrifying ghost and it goes without saying that this monster here has earned his special spot in the Ghostbusters franchise having appeared in both the movies along with the cartoon series. All through the first film, the character of Slimer appears to have a dearth of intelligence and is mostly known for his gargantuan appetite. Having said that, this shy ghost here was not at all afraid to slime anyone especially when cornered. It was in Ghostbusters II, that he had on display more intelligence and could even drive a bus. And, as director Ivan Reitman has always described him, Slimer is more like a ‘party guy’, one who is just on the lookout for a good time.
Subway Ghost
While it is not really known when exactly did the Ghostbusters chance upon the Subway Ghost but it was certainly at some point post their first bust when they had captured it and placed it in their containment unit. But thanks to Walter Peck, an inspector for the Environment Protection Agency barging into the headquarters of the Ghostbusters and forcibly shutting down the facility’s protection grid that caused the storage facility to explode and set free all the ghosts that the Ghostbusters had caught.
As luck would have it Walter unknowingly unleashed the undead on New York City and amongst the horde of monsters that were released, Subway Ghost happened to be one of them. He chose to retreat to a subway only to torment the commuters during the daily rush hour, flailing his arms, with a mouth full of tentacles, howling and screeching like a banshee.
You will be astounded to know that initially, the Subway Ghost was designed to be a three-headed monster by Brent Boates. But for a creature to make an appearance for just a mere few seconds, the whole idea seemed a little too expensive and time-consuming. What we have as a final product is a small non-humanoid flying creature, one that’s sculpted by Steve Johnson and petrifying enough to have traumatized the subway commuters!
Vigo
Born in the year 1505, in the small Balkan kingdom of Carpathia, Vigo soon rose to power and prominence while ruling his home country with an iron fist and earning the infamous title, the ‘Scourge of Carpathia’. Next, upon conquering the country of Moldavia, he earned another notorious title, the ‘Sorrow of Moldavia’. If history is to be believed, Vigo was regarded not only as a very powerful sorcerer but also a genius, a despot, and a genocidal lunatic. His out-and-out evil nature made his subjects dislike him and no wonder, he ended up slaughtering them. His list of aliases included titles such as ‘Vigo the Torturer’, ‘Vigo the Despised’, ‘Vigo the Cruel’, ‘Vigo the Unholy’, and let’s not forget the one Peter Venkman gave him too – ‘Vigo the Butch’.
It should not come as a shock at all when we tell you that he ultimately died in the year 1610 but not because he was 105 years old back then but because his people actually led a rebellion against him. Well, he was poisoned, shot, stabbed, hung, stretched, disemboweled, drawn to the extent of even quartered and seconds before he breathed his last, he did say, “Death is but a door. Time is but a window. I will be back!”. His spirit resided in his self-portrait, one that was created way before his death, and true to his word, he did return to modern-day New York City in the year 1989.
Vigo boosted his powers drawing energy from the river of Psychomagnotheric Slime flowing through the desolate subway line running beneath New York City. But despite all this, he could not regain a physical form, and no wonder, his plan to re-enter the world and resume his reign of terror led him to possess Dana Barrett’s baby, Oscar. But thanks to the intervention of the Ghostbusters along with some aid from the Statue of Liberty, a halt was put to his actions in spite of having abilities such as mind control, telepathy, telekinesis, shape-shifting, and the fact that his character could even withstand attack from proton beams. It goes without saying that Vigo was one of the most horrifying monsters in the Ghostbusters universe, one who actually stuck true to his endless mean-sounding aliases.
Scoleri Brothers
Amongst the Scoleri Brothers, Tony happens to be the skinnier one and Nunzio is the heavier one. Both the brothers were convicted murderers who were sentenced to death by electrocution by Judge Stephen Wexler. In the late 1989, it was Judge Wexler’s angry tirade while sentencing Peter, Ray, and Egon that negatively charged the Psychomagnotheric Slime that was presented in the court as evidence amongst the other exhibits. This resulted in the Scoleri Brothers getting manifested from the slime as apparitions strapped into their ghostly electric chairs. Of course, Wexler recognizes them, and guess how the duo responds?
Well, they crash right into the judge’s bench. Next, they pick up their table and throw it at the judge’s bench. Now, that’s surely some way of looking for justice, so much so that Nunzio literally went to the extent of carrying off the prosecutor into the courtroom’s hall. The gaping mouths, crackling electricity, and the solitary fact that the duo could actually fly made them all the scarier. We have to admit that catching hold of these two was not an easy task at all. God knows the consistency and effort that went into finally being able to pull the brothers into the Trap.
Tim Lawrence, who portrays Nunzio was also part of the visual effects team, playing a crucial role in designing the Scoleris. In fact, Lawrence was actually inspired by ‘The Blues Brothers’ and even designed the characters based on them. The Scoleri Brothers were the first ghost designs to be green-lit for the movie and also quite the horrifying ones!
Ghost Train
On New Year’s Eve 1989, while trying to look for the River of Slime underneath the old New York Subway tunnels, Ray, Egon, and Winston are literally railroaded by the old New York Central ‘City of Albany’ Ghost Train. With the train making an unexpected, sudden appearance while the trio was on the old railway tracks, Ray and Egon did manage to quickly duck out of the way but sadly for a shocked Winston frozen in his spot, the train went straight through his body. The after-effects had Winston not even recalling the number on the train.
While it vanished as quickly as it came, Egon thought that he identified the train as being the old Ghost Train, one that was accidentally derailed in 1920, resulting in the death of over a 100 people. It is unquestionably one of the most frightening scenes in the film and was deliberately included to add more tension, humor, and special effects to the 1989 movie. It absolutely did justice to the fact that the creators wanted to add more scares to the second half of the movie.
Electrocuted Ghost
A prison on the Upper East Side was the first penitentiary in New York to execute prisoners using the electric chair but the first person to have been executed by the chair came back as a rather malevolent spirit. In due course, the Seward Street Subway Station was constructed under the site of the prison, currently defunct with issues like lights flickering. It was only after Rowan North, the main antagonist from the 2016 movie, upon discovering that the station was on one of the city’s ‘Ley Lines’, energized it with a Hyper-Ionization Device and ionized the ghost of the executed man. No points for guessing that it manifested into the Electrocuted Ghost.
The ghost was first encountered in the subway tunnels beneath the prison by MTA staffer, Patty Tolan. The ghost appeared as a gaunt, bearded man in a prison uniform, still wearing the restraints from his electric chair, with electrical bolts sizzling all over him and let’s not forget those glowing red eyes. Of course, he terrified Patty, who fled and further contacted the Ghostbusters for assistance.
While the squad returned back to the subway, they found the Electrocuted Ghost floating there on the tracks. We already know his dreadful appearance, now imagine him becoming angry. That’s precisely what happened when Erin Gilbert tried to use a prototype proton pack to capture him. But thanks to a train coming along at the same moment, hitting the ghost and passing through it and trapping him in the final car. Even though, the Ghostbusters had a face-to-face encounter with him yet again during the Fourth Cataclysm, created by Rowan, when he joined Mayhem and the ghost of Gertrude Aldridge, we can all take a deep breath and rejoice in the fact that he was ultimately defeated.
Mayhem
This monster here might be the secondary antagonist of the 2016 movie but do not make the mistake of taking this ghost, one that haunts the Stonebrook Theater in New York City, lightly. Well, unlike most of the other spirits who have made an appearance in the film, he is entirely inhuman in appearance and bears a close resemblance to a giant winged dragon or say demon. He is green in color and has glowing red eyes. Coming back to the Ghostbusters here, the team gets a call about an attack at the theatre in the middle of a heavy metal rock concert, when something attacked the janitor in the basement, injuring him badly in the process.
Well, when they arrive, they are directed straight into the basement. It’s Patty Tolan, the first one to cross paths with Mayhem, who possessed a female mannequin used for costumes and pursued her till she made it back to her squad. It’s creepy to even think about it and now imagine the possessed mannequin kicking the door in. We have Erin Gilbert firing at it with her proton stream and the other Ghostbusters following her lead and eventually destroying the mannequin and disclosing Mayhem in the process, who roars at them and flies down the hall before going through the ceiling and into the rock concert that’s happening upstairs.
While initially, everyone considers Mayhem as some sort of a special effect, until the band’s effects technician screams out that he was not responsible for whatever was hovering above them. And to top it, Mayhem even tosses the lead singer of the band through a wall. It is only after an intense battle between the Ghostbusters and Mayhem that the latter is finally captured. But that’s not where this story ends. Paranormal debunker Martin Heiss stops by their headquarters later and demands proof there’s actually a ghost inside the trap. Abby Yates solely denies because of the unthinkable, which would happen if she opens the trap but the fulsome Erin just to prove Heiss wrong, opens the trap, setting free Mayhem, who not only hurls the terrified Heiss out of a window but also flies away. It’s only during the Fourth Cataclysm created by Rowan North, that the Ghostbusters face Mayhem again, along with Gertrude Aldridge and the ghost of the electrocuted murderer from the subway, and end up overpowering all of them.
Gertrude Aldridge
The eldest daughter to Sir Aldridge lived in the Aldridge mansion with her wealthy father. The day was October 25th in the year, 1984, when Sir Aldridge woke up to find no breakfast. He was miffed at his servants but eventually found each one of them butchered by Gertrude while they slept. To avoid public embarrassment, her shocked and horrified father locked her in the basement; in fact, kept her down there for the rest of her life, feeding her through a slot in the door. Years later, the Aldridge Mansion was sold but her spirit dwelled in the very basement. The house was eventually turned into a haunted tourist attraction.
One night, while the tourist guide Garrett was closing up, he heard some petrifying howls coming from the cellar. He rushed to the front door only for the doorknob to heat up and burn his hand. He tried to use a chair to break a window, but the chair was hurled right back at him, knocking him into the very wall. Frightened, he fled towards the cellar. Realizing the blunder, he had made, he tried to leave, but the old stairwell crumbled under his weight, and some kind of a glowing bluish-green ectoplasm began seeping up through the floor before the ghost of Gertrude Aldridge flew towards Garrett. Forget Garrett, this would make anyone soil themself!
The morning after, Ed Mulgrave, Jr., post-reading a book of Erin Gilbert, Ghosts of Our Past, came to see her at her university, in the hopes that she could help. Erin ended up accompanying Abby and Jillian to the Aldridge Mansion. Garrett, who’d survived the encounter simply refused to go inside, giving them the keys and also warning them. Gertrude soared out of the basement, fully formed, and confronted the trio.
Erin’s efforts to talk to her generated no results. Then suddenly, she transformed into a hideous, corpselike monster, one with a dislocated jaw and puked ectoplasm all over a horrified Erin before flying out through the wall outside. Later, it was during the Fourth Cataclysm, created by Rowan North, that Gertrude along with Mayhem and the Electrocuted Ghost confront the Ghostbusters yet again, only to get defeated. Indeed, a relief!
Also, you will be pretty much staggered to know that Sir Aldridge actually took the blame of his daughter’s crimes on his own shoulders given that he himself had such a questionable history. For instance, he sacrificed a Romanian mother and child just to save a grandfather clock from the sinking Titanic. Guess, now we all know what drove Gertrude insane!
Ghost Invasion Specters
With Rowan North returning back to The Mercado Hotel, he started up his Barrier Compromising Master Machine again, which also reactivated the Ghost Portal Mirror devices. Now, we all know these devices were primarily developed to attract and communicate with the paranormal.
From the Mercado, the device broke open the wall between World of the Living and the World of the Dead. It goes without saying that a large mass of ‘specters’ was set free in the process. The Ley Lines going through Manhattan further opened and unconfined even more spirits to pester the hell out of the living. It was only after the Ghostbusters ended up setting off a reaction that reversed the polarity of the portal and sent back the ghosts to the place where they belonged – the World of the Dead.