31 Nights of Halloween - Night 17: If you've had a dose of a freaky ghost, baby...

If horror and mystery are cousins, then humor and horror are often boon companions, hanging together on occasion, coming upon one another unexpectedly, resurrecting an old friendship, often welcome but sometimes best avoided. One of the few examples of that relationship being perfectly balanced on a knife's edge was a monster box-office smash, Ghostbusters. The horror effects were taken seriously, the humor spurted forth from the souls of the characters, and the film even sported a nifty theme song that, despite lawsuits and settlements, burrowed into the psyche of the culture. And, of course, a video for said song was as essential as lightning to Frankenstein's monster during the Mtv reign of cultural terror. At the time, the video seemed a bit slapdash to your Humble Host, too reliant on minimalist set decoration and neon. But now, it's a wondrous artifact of the '80s, scaring up memories with its raft of celebrity cameos, a still-grungy Times Square (always a bit spooky in any incarnation), and the Ghostbusters themselves, in character, bustin' ghosts and feelin' good in lock-step with Ray Parker Jr. It's a jolt of pure '80s madness! Next to the Monster Mash, this may be the most enduring Halloween-playlist song.