Ignoring the 2016 film, Ghostbusters: Afterlife leans into its nostalgia, ties itself firmly directly to the 1984 original and while it can be seen as a little oversentimental in its final act, it checked all the boxes I needed for a Ghostbusters legacy sequel.

Callie (Carrie Coon) is a single mother whose absent father died a week ago, and she is getting evicted from her apartment today. With her kids, Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (McKenna Grace) in tow, they pack up and relocate to the small town of Summerville in Oklahoma to reside at her father’s farm.

It’s self-evident not just from the film’s opening but from the way Phoebe is presented, that she is the granddaughter of Egon Spengler (the late Harold Ramis). Soon she begins to find clues and equipment around the house that clues her into who she is, who her grandfather was, and what he was trying to do.

With some help from a summer school teacher and Ghostbusters fan, Grooberson (Paul Rudd), and a precocious fellow student, Podcast (Logan Kim) Phoebe learns that Gozer (an uncredited Olivia Wilde) is still waiting on the other side, ready to come through and claim the entire world, all thanks to everything Ivo Shandor (J.K. Simmons) did in the town (not to mention what he did in New York when he built Dana Barrett’s (Sigourney Weaver) apartment building.

Trevor gets sucked into things when he discovers Ecto-1 in the barn and sees it all as a way to win over Lucky (Celeste O’Connor).

The nostalgia is everywhere in the film, from familiar and beloved props to the appearance of little Stay Pufts, to the idea that using a younger cast allows those of us who grew up with it to recall our own ghostbusting games and by incorporating Rudd’s Grooberson, we can see ourselves in him as well. It lets the fan play both sides of the fandom game, from youth and age.

The effects are solid, the music heavily incorporates Elmer Bernstein’s themes from the first film, and there’s a sense of playful fun that reminds us that the original film appealed to all ages, just as this one does.

I found this one absolutely delightful, I think Grace was pitch-perfect as a young Spengler, I loved all the nods to everything I loved about the original two films, and of course, I was absolutely delighted when those familiar faces arrived to help in the final moments of the film.

Yes, the beats may be familiar, but the film knows how to work the legacy angle of the sequel, and sets things up nicely for what may be to come… a sequel is in production even now.

So, who ya gonna call?