Like in the original Ghostbusters movie, the young heroes of Sony’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife will encounter a variety of different apparitions who have begun breaching the border between the worlds of the living and the dead in order to wreak havoc. Along with devious marshmallows and lecherous snot goblins, the new generation of Ghostbusters in director Jason Reitman’s sequel will have to face slightly modernised versions of Terror Dogs, the demonic beings known to serve Gozer the Gozerian.
While many of Ghostbusters specters tend to err on the sillier side of the things, the Terror Dogs have always been legitimately terrifying because of the decidedly un-ghostlike way that they race around, destroying everything in their paths as they try to hunt down their prey. Though the Terror Dogs have always been visually alarming, it’s their tendency to possess humans and make them do their bidding (or the bidding of their masters) that makes them so disturbing — and a new international trailer appears to be teasing how the movie will explore this idea for a new generation.
Throughout the trailer, there are multiple shots of local teacher Mr. Grooberson (Paul Rudd) encountering Terror Dogs who appear in both spectral and corporeal forms. Because of the way the trailer’s cut, it’s hard to tell whether Mr. Grooberson ends up being possessed by one of the mutts, but the way the corporeal dog lunges at him while he’s running for his life in a big box store certainly makes it seem like the thing wants to do more than play fetch.
Bringing the Terror Dogs back in such a big way seems to be one of Ghostbusters: Afterlife’s attempts at luring diehard fans of the original movie to theatres. We won’t know whether or not that jolt of nostalgia’s enough to catapult the movie box office success until Ghostbusters: Afterlife hits theatres in Australia on January 1. You can read Gizmodo’s review here.