What is the work?[]
Ghostbusters is a 1984 supernatural comedy film about parapsychologists opening up an odd ghost removal service. Of course the film really needs no introductions as if you would have to be living under a rock for about three decades to not know what the film was. Eventually, it received a direct sequel in 2021 called Ghostbusters: Afterlife starring a new cast of characters because that is the kind of practice that requels have been doing for years with the likes of Halloween, Scream, and even Star Wars.
But who was the strange thing lurking in their neighborhood?
Who is it?[]
Gozer the Gozerian is a fully evil cosmic being from another dimension who goes by the moniker of "The Destructor" as it goes to other worlds to destroy them in Destructor forms it is given. This eldritch abomination was worshiped as a deity by the Mesopotamians, Sumerians, and Hitties for thousands of years before its worship fell out of favor. It holds the honors of being the undisputed archenemy of the Ghostbusters.
What has it done?[]
Using Zuul and Vinz Clortha to possess two humans to serve as a passageway with which it would enter the Earthly plane, Gozer faces the Ghostbusters in New York asking if they were gods. When they replied that they weren't, Gozer tries to kill them saying for them to think of a form for it to manifest into. As such, Gozer appears to them as a giant version of Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
As it inches its way up the building, the Ghostbusters are forced to cross the beams of their proton packs which blows Gozer's physical form to smithereens. Gozer itself retreats but had been planning on returning to the Earth one day. Egon Spengler anticipated the Destructor's return and bought up farm ground much to the critique of the neighbors. As Egon was trying to set up his trap, Gozer kills him.
Gozer picks up where it left off electing two more humans to act as the Gatekeeper and Keymaster. Gozer's arrival reanimates the corpse of Ivo Shadnor who had built a temple dedicated to the primordial god. But when he suggests that they rule the world together, Gozer congratulates him for his service by ripping him in half.
Gozer asks Phoebe if she was meant to be a sacrifice not knowing that Phoebe was stalling for time. They do manage to capture one of the two demons causing Gozer to lose some of its invincibility. As Gozer prepares to kill the new cast of characters, the legacy characters, the original Ghostbusters, arrive to combat Gozer once more. This time, though, when Gozer asks them if they were men or gods (apparently forgetting that it encountered them before), this time the answer is a sarcastic "yes."
They try to cross the beams again, but Gozer ain't having that s*it. It uncrosses the beams and just when it seemed that the Gozerian had won and the apocalypse is just beginning, the ghost of Egon arrives and helps to activate the large ghost trap on the farm imprisoning Gozer and its servants.
Freudian Excuse? Mitigating factors?[]
Of course, the issue would be whether it was a generic doomsday villain who was really only there to cause the conflict and be a force that the heroes had to defeat. Gozer isn't a complex figure at all, but there is a personality and noticeable sadism behind its actions. After all, Gozer is the Destructor; choosing worlds to destroy in its own volition.
As for its servants Zuul and Vinz Clort, it is seen petting them at times which could indicate care for them, but it can also be inferred that it values them primarily for their potential for devastation. Humans, it made it pretty clear that it looks down on humans, and likely other mortal races, but in this scenario, humans. It reacts to Ivo suggesting they rule together with such disgust that it rips him in half even though if it wasn't for him, Gozer's return would have not have been sooner as it would have preferred.
Heinous standard[]
Sets it. I mean it is a being fully capable of destroying whole worlds, so yeah.
Conclusion[]
Indifferent to be frank, but what say you?