Fans Are Shocked That the Last ‘Ghostbusters’ Sequel Had to CGI a Library

In addition to comedy, second-hand smoke and paranormal blow jobs, one of the most memorable elements from the original 1984 Ghostbusters was New York City itself — from the iconic firehouse, to Tavern on the Green, to Dana Barrett’s cursed apartment building on Central Park West. Even with its history of interdimensional marshmallow mascot attacks, apartments in that building still sell for over $8 million.

The movie also begins with a visit to a famous Manhattan landmark: the New York City Public Library, which is apparently haunted. We later see that the ghost in question is a demonic librarian in a scene that likely inspired a generation of kids to avoid libraries at all costs for the rest of their lives.

While the sequel and 2016 remake were similarly set in New York, Jason Reitman’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife shifted the action to rural Oklahoma because the occultist Ivo Shandor's haunted mine just so happened to be in a more budget-friendly location.

But then the follow-up to Afterlife, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, finally returned to New York City. The characters also popped by the historic library, and Ray even encountered the librarian ghost again, reminding us all that the Ghostbusters totally flaked on their very first assignment.

A recent social media post by the Hollywood Horror Museum pointed out that the Ray didn’t actually return to the real-life library, just a digital approximation. A behind-the-scenes clip from Sony Pictures Imageworks’ YouTube page illustrates that the Frozen Empire cast was nowhere near the New York City Public Library, they were on a fake sidewalk in front of a giant blue screen, and a CGI library was later pasted in.

This approach also required adding digital cars and filming extras in front of blue screens to add into the scene, which sure seems like a lot of work. We’re not talking about the Avatar planet, this is a real building where they already shot a Ghostbusters movie more than four decades ago.

The post prompted a number of people to weigh in on the soullessness of modern blockbuster filmmaking. 

The narrator of the clip claims that it was “infeasible” to film at the real location. Obviously, shutting down sections of New York City is expensive and difficult, which would explain why, although some scenes were filmed in New York, much of Frozen Empire was shot in the U.K. But it’s not like Frozen Empire wasn’t a big production. I mean, they were able to make it work to shoot the scene where Mr. Big bails on Carrie Bradsaw in the Sex and the City movie. 

Unless that was CGI too? It’s hard to know what to believe anymore. 

The library reveal is especially glaring considering that the production’s lack of CGI was used as a selling point in the marketing, with the filmmakers and actors hyping how much of the movie was “real,” including the ghost puppets and handmade props.

But, to be fair, they didn’t say anything about using practical libraries.