As Alice Drummond’s terrified librarian screams out, Ray Parker Jr’s iconic Ghostbusters theme song bursts to life as the equally iconic ‘no ghosts’ logo fills the screen. It’s a sudden divorce from the intensity of the previous scene, ushering in a cartoonish tone. We’re only treated to a few bars of the song for now, but for younger viewers, it acts as a pressure release valve from the horror of the introduction and a promise of fun to come.
As the song runs, we see an establishing shot taken from behind the Alma Mater sculpture of the goddess Athena, which faces the Low Memorial Library on the Morningside Heights campus of Columbia University. This maintains gothic continuity with the earlier shot of the stone lions outside the library – a sense of watchful statues buildings.
We then see another establishing shot, low on the entrance of the university building which signposts ‘Weaver Hall Department of Psychology’. In real life, this building is Havemeyer Hall. Of course, the hall shares its name with one of the stars of the film. Sigourney Weaver.
Trivia: Ray Parker Jr’s Ghostbusters theme song reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on August 11th 1984, remaining there for three-weeks.
Trivia: Michael C. Gross designed the ‘no ghosts’ logo, loosely basing it on ‘no’ European road signs.
Words by Gareth Rhodes.
Ghostbusters: Scene by Scene 