Sunday, August 4, 2019

The Ghostbusters of New Hampshire: Spilled Milk

The Ghostbusters of New Hampshire: Spilled Milk; fantasy comedy short, USA, 2010; D: Kevin J. James, S: Kevin J. James, Jonathan St. Pierre, Pat Harmon, Jim Boucher, Derek Dandurand, Jillian Lee Aldrich

A skeleton ghost scares a girl working in a store, but the New Hampshire Ghostbusters show up, fire the lasers from their proton packs - and blow up the gas station. As a disciplinary measure, a man shows up called Sketch who tries to drill the five members of the office into shape. However, Sketch later admits he only pretended to be their superior because of a bet. A new assignment brings the Ghostbusters to another store where they meet the skeleton ghost again. Even though another ghost shows up, the Ghostbusters manage to capture them.

One of the better fan films based on the "Ghostbusters", this amusing comedy managed to fill out the potentials of the concept, considering its 16 minute running time. A lot of kudos should be given to the charming script and performance by director and actor Kevin J. James. In one great joke, Sketch, an inspector, arrives at the office of the New Hampshire Ghostbusters after they blew up a gas station, and orders them to stand in a line. He then points at the chubby Derek and orders him: "Yeah, you, suck in the gut!" Derek just responds: "It's sucked, Sir." James steps in to try to reason with him, saying: "Let's be reasonable here. We all messed up last night! That much we can agree on", but is interrupted by one of the Ghostbusters, Jim, who protests: "I wasn't there!" These and similar lines manage to conjure up the tone and "comic frequency" of the original film. The laser proton packs are well done, though the visual effects of the skeleton ghost are kind of sketchy, consisting just out of a mask and drapes. The enthusiasm and energy of the "Spilled Milk", combined with even one nice sight gag (the "no gluten" logo rip-off), resulted in a film that is worthy of fitting the shoes of its ideal it was inspired by.

Grade:+++

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