Ghosts, as you might expect, figure heavily into the newest entry into the Ghostbusters franchise, Ghostbusters: Afterlife. But not just the kind of ghosts that need busting.

In the movie’s cold open, we see a ghostbuster steering the Ecto-1 into a field leading to an old house, where he tries and fails to capture a very strong entity that he has lured there. He hides the smaller ghost he was using as bait in the floorboards of his house before succumbing to an attack by another ghost, which kills him.

That Ghostbuster was Egon Spengler, played by the late Harold Ramis in the first two Ghostbusters movies, and by come clever CGI effects in this sequel. Egon left behind a grown daughter, Callie (Carrie Coon), one he never really knew. Callie has two kids, Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) and is broke enough to get evicted on her way to collect the inheritance left to her by her father.

Spengler left the rest of the Ghostbusters gang to live out the rest of his life on a dirt farm in Oklahoma, out in the middle of nowhere but near an abandoned selenium mine. Callie and the kids move to the dilapidated old home, and immediately, something leads them to find all the old artifacts of Egon’s life as a ‘buster.

The movie wastes no time getting the kids to assume their roles as Ghostbusters, which is a good thing, as trouble is brewing in that old mine. Phoebe has a scientific bent, and gets the proton packs and ghost traps ready, and Trevor (in between trying to hit on the most beautiful girl at his new job, Lucky (Celeste O’Connor), works on the mothballed Ecto-1, trying to get it roadworthy again.

Phoebe makes a friend at summer school, Podcast (yes, that’s his name and he’s played by Logan Kim) and her teacher, Mr. Grooberson (Paul Rudd), who is interested in the unusual seismic activity in the area.

The kids get their gear together and manage to catch a minor ghost they find dining on metal in an abandoned warehouse, but in doing so, they cause a lot of damage and get themselves arrested. Phoebe knows about her grandfather’s past as the hero of the “Manhattan Crossrip of ’84’, and uses her one phone call to get in touch with the number she sees on one of their old commercials.

At the other end of the phone is Dr. Ray Stantz (Dan Akroyd, reprising his role from Ghostbusters I and II), and the two fill each other in on enough basic plot points for the movie to get where it needs to go.

The kids in this movie do most of the busting (fitting, as director Jason Reitman has taken the directing reins from his father Ivan, who directed the original movies) and it is up to them to save all the adults in their lives, as well as the entire town (world?) from the return of Gozer.

This movie is a lot of fun, with a plot that is enough of a homage to the first Ghostbusters movie without being a direct ripoff. The kids are enjoyable, even Wolfhard, who seems to be in everything these days, and the presence of the sexiest man alive (Rudd) only makes the movie better.

There are plenty of cameos, with nearly all of the major cast from the first movie making an appearance at some point during the film, including Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts and Sigourney Weaver. Some of the baddies from Ghostbusters appear to have gotten an upgrade – Gozer looks more impressive and more threatening and the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man has miniaturized and multiplied himself. And at the end, don’t be surprised if one bit of CGI magic leaves you a little misty-eyed.

The first Ghostbusters movie may have been funnier – in this one, some of the jokes are bad on purpose, and some of them just don’t land, like naming a kid “Podcast,” but this is a worthy addition to the franchise. It’s only available in theaters now, and be sure to stay in your seats for both post-credits scenes.