Ghosts of all kinds were very much in the minds of Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray when they came to see us back in June 1984. “Beyond American cinema, even Bergman loves the use of ghosts and devils visiting the Earth and that kind of thing”, Dan Aykroyd told us. “And especially in American comedies the ghost story has been used as a premise many times. The Bowery Boys did it; Abbott and Costello did Hold That GhostThe Ghost ChasersScared Stiff, 1953) – they actually coined the term ‘ghostbusters’.”

There it is – Ghostbusters,  director Ivan Reitman’s 1984 super hit and cult classic, now brought back to screens in an all-female version directed by Paul Feig.  A perfect reason to revisit our original ghostbusting moment with Aykroyd and Murray, half of the original movie’s paranormal team.

The two friends fielded the HFPA’s questions together, with Aykroyd doing most of the talking (“don’t mind me, I’m fine, I’m just checking the flowers”, Murray said at one point). And finally Murray opened up about his approach to Ghostbusters: “Uh… well… I generally don’t learn a line… (…) I don’t think I’ve done more than 20% of the lines that were in the original script. This is the best movie I’ve ever seen in my life but this actually had a script. It was a great script but… it was so loose that… it’s like Ivan would say “Oh, I need a line here” and I’d say “Well, let Dan do it” or he’d say “Let Harold (Ramis) do it”. It’s just a lot more fun that way.”

Ghostbusters would receive three Golden Globe nominations: Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy; Best Performance by and Actor, Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy for Bill Murray; and Best Song, for Ray Parker Jr.s’ ‘Ghostbusters’.