This Is Still the Scariest Scene in the Ghostbusters Franchise

When the first Ghostbusters film debuted during the summer of 1984, it revolutionized the horror-comedy genre, and had us all proclaiming that we weren’t “afraid of no ghost.” While that may be true, there are still plenty of scares to found in Ghostbusters in between the laughs. Who can forget the movie’s iconic opening at the New York Public Library with the formidable Library Ghost? Or Slimer terrorizing the Sedgewick Hotel? We’ve never looked at marshmallows the same after Gozer took the form the giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and trudged down Central Park West. However, there’s one scene that definitely skewed more horror than horror-comedy in Ghostbusters, and it’s still the scariest scene in the movie, along with all the other films that have followed.

The scene comes at the end second act of Ghostbusters as Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver) heads back to her apartment to get ready for her date with Ghostbusters Peter Venkman (Bill Murray). On her way, she bumps into her neighbor, Louis Tully (Rick Moranis). Louis cajoles Dana into stopping by his party with Peter. Dana hedges and enters her apartment, where she takes a call from her mother.

As Dana has her very ho-hum conversation with her mother, the foreboding starts to build. We, the audience, see that the door to Dana’s bedroom is eerily glowing before she does. The film’s score turns ominous, and just as Dana glimpses claws pushing at the door, the scaly, clawed limbs emerge from the armchair she’s sitting in! They hold her down against the chair, making escape impossible, no matter how much Dana screams. Her armchair magically turns and slides toward the now-open bedroom door, where a massive Terror Dog with fangs and glowing-red eyes await her. The next time we see Dana, she’s been possessed by the otherworldly gatekeeper, Zuul.

Dana’s Possession in Ghostbusters is True, Undiluted Horror

Dana’s possession is so darn scary because director Ivan Reitman chooses not to undercut it with any humor. Dana’s not the only character to get possessed in Ghostbusters, but in contrast, there’s more wackiness and gags when Tully succumbs to the Keymaster in the following scene. In Dana’s case, we’re lulled into a false sense of security with the friendly exchange between neighbors that comes before her possession. Especially since Dana’s engaging in a mundane task—talking on the phone with a loved one—right before she’s attacked, adding to the sense that what follows can happen to us too.

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Reitman expertly builds the suspense and apprehension after Dana hangs up with her mom. The camera pans around so we see Dana’s glowing bedroom door before she does, and the imprint of the Terror Dog’s paws against the door is plays on our sense of dead of what’s on the other side. It’s a clever misdirect, both Dana and the audience are so busy trying to figure out what’s knocking against the door that the jump scare of the limbs ripping out of chair and pinning her to it can fully land. Also, integral to the scene’s scare factor are Bernstein’s eerie score. The composer’s use of strings underscores the uncanny’s steady increase during the scene.

Of course, the scene wouldn’t have worked at all without Weaver’s arresting performance. No stranger to horror after her star turn in Alien five years prior, Weaver plays Dana’s placidity and then discovery of the monster a moment too late perfectly. It’s a swift shift, but we’re right there with Dana screams and thrashes against the ghoulish limbs and unseen forces dragging her to her monstrous fate, albeit temporary. Funnily enough, the Terror Dogs themselves stemmed from Weaver, who in her audition with Reitman, acted out being possessed by a dog. The director was so taken with her fearlessness and performance, he included it in the film.

This dose of undiluted horror, albeit tame enough to exist in a movie children adore, comes at the exact right spot in Ghostbusters. It introduces a heightened sense of danger to the film as the story goes into its finale and establishes the scale of the monster that the Ghostbusters will be up against. Further proof of the scene’s fear factor is how the Terror Dogs have endured in pop culture. Even before their reprisal in Ghostbusters: Afterlife, the monsters were one of the most recognizable memorable creatures to come out of Ghostbusters, since they scared the bejesus out of us, and also created the terms of the balance to be struck between the two genres in future movies in the franchise.

What scene scares you the most in the Ghostbusters films? Let us know in the comments!