The arrival of Ghostbusters Afterlife on the big screen in 2021 was fairly successful and if you’re as much a fan as we are then you might be wondering what the UK DVD and Blu-ray release date is. While it wasn’t anywhere near in time for Christmas, is isn’t going to be too far behind it, so here’s everything that we know so far about the home entertainment release.
The film includes a lot of nods to the original film with Gozer and her hounds in the mix, as well as mini Stay Puft Marshmallow Men marauding through the local Walmart supermarket. If that isn’t enough, the story centers around Egon Spengler’s estranged family as they decamp to Summerville, Oklahoma to live on the farm that he dies on.
AdvertisementIt doesn’t take them long to find things that go bump in the night, and it’s up to Egon’s grandchildren Trevor and Phoebe to finish the job that Egon started way back in 1984. However, the links to the past and the recurrence of events from the first film don’t detract from the quality of the film and with Finn Wolfhard, Paul Rudd and Carrie Coon in the cast this is definitely a film that has a lot of re-watch appeal.
UK Blu-ray and DVD release date
Ghostbusters Afterlife came out on the big screen on the 18th November 2021, which gave it a likely UK Blu-ray and DVD release date around March 2022. However, it has now been confirmed for the 31st January 2022 in the UK, which continues the trend we’ve seen in recent months where films arrive for home release much closer to their initial run in cinemas.
AdvertisementThis means that it will once again have competition from Dune (2021), which was out at the box office at the same time as Afterlife and will be getting a DVD and Blu-ray release on the same date. The Eternals won’t be too far behind either of them with a release date schedules for the 7th February 2022, so the three films act as massive confirmation of the changes.
As a result of all of the schedule movement, it looks like DVD and Blu-ray is going to be fixed with earlier releases for the foreseeable future. The trend started with both Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and No Time To Die, which had unusual strategies for transfer to home entertainment, which hinted at an altered process for the the formats.
AdvertisementThat being said, the early release of Shang-Chi seemed to be a tie-in with the launch of iMax for Disney+, so could well have been just an anomaly. No Time To Die, on the other hand, appeared to have just shoehorned things a little to arrive in time for Christmas 2021, but with the New Year updates, it’s clear that we’re going to see the home entertainment much earlier than before for the time being.
In terms of the digital release, it;s now available in the UK from Amazon Prime Video.
We’ll update you with more details as they get confirmed. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter to see more news and updates on Ghostbusters Afterlife, plus the official Twitter page at https://twitter.com/Ghostbusters.
US release
Going on the usual situation in the US, Ghostbuster Afterlife should come out on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K in North America in February 2022, which has now gone on to be confirmed as the 1st Feb. As with the UK, it’s closest rival will be Dune (2021), which is out on the same date, but Afterlife could still do very well in the US for home entertainment sales with its popularity on the big screen.
DVD, Blu-ray and digital details
Age rating: 12A (UK) PG13 (US)
Runtime: 2 hours, 5 minutes
Director: Jason Reitman
Cast: Finn Wolfhard, Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Bokeem Woodbine, McKenna Grace, Harold Ramis, Dan Akroyd, Ernie Hudson, Bill Murray, Sigourney Weaver, Annie Potts and Olivia Wilde.
You can check out our 2021 films section to see other big releases that are on the way this year, or visit the Ghostbusters website to see more on the film at www.ghostbusters.com.
Review
There was a lot of expectation on Ghostbusters Afterlife to raise the spirit of the series from the dead after the release of Gostbusters (2016), which didn’t go down so well with many fans or newcomers. The good news is that it does just that and we can’t wait to get to see the film again when it lands on DVD and Blu-ray next year (already out on digital).
The links to the past work well and the introduction of the new characters makes it a good balance of old nostalgia and future possibilities. We’re clearly going to be seeing a whole lot more from the franchise in the coming years, but even if Afterlife ended up being the last entry in the series, it would still be a mini triumph.
The action is strong and the special effects work as well as they always did, combining modern stay CGI with some of the more traditional techniques that were used in the past. The characters are totally believable and the story makes a lot of sense from a franchise development point of view, making this the definitive reincarnation of the Ghostbusters legacy.
DVD and Blu-ray review: 4.5/5
