I have reviewed a whole bunch of films from filmmaker Nicholas Michael Jacobs (Genevieve, Urban Fears) over the past years, but his latest is something a little different. As the title hints heavily at; CAPA Ghostbusters: Director's Cut is a director's cut of CAPA Ghostbusters, a film that Jacobs made with his friends in high school. The original film was around 9 minutes long, this director's cut, cuts this down to a lean 5 and a half minutes, remastered with updated special effects.
Four students at The Philadelphia High School for the Creative & Performing Arts (CAPA) are members of a Ghostbusters club. After the school's librarian encounters a ghost, the disbelieving principal; Principal Kaufman, gives them permission to go and hunt the 'ghost'. Luckily they are ready for this opportunity, having recently created uniforms and gotten their hands on some make-shift ghost blasting weapons.
I can't say I have ever been much of a fan of fan made films, though that is typically due to them being unnecessarily long. Obviously, that is not the case with this one. It tells a familiar story in a lightning fast paced short, including some iconic moments that are recognisable from the film series this was based on. Most obvious is the library based prologue. You also get the iconic theme music, and later, the recognisable proton beams, as well as slimer being the ghost responsible. I watched some of the original short film, and this one does have much better CG special effects. The comedy is never laugh out loud funny, the friends have a decent enough rapport among themselves, and I did smile during a montage scene of the busters getting ready when one of the zips on their suits jams during a close-up shot. The addition of a 'secretary' for the four person team was good in relation to making the female character a force to be reckoned with, but their inclusion didn't really seem to fit the more stream-lined short as the character appeared in just the one scene.
It might be a little breezy, but telling a complete Ghostbusters adjacent story in such a short time frame is impressive, kudos to the tight editing. Having seen Jacobs filmmaking work improve leaps and bounds after the past five or so years, it was interesting to see where he came from, and also where he is going to go next. The director's cut includes an after credits sequence that teases his next project; True Exorcism.
SCORE:
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