‘Ghostbusters: Nightmare on 34th Street’ Reportedly in Development; Are We Getting a Christmas Horror Story?!

Sony Pictures is reportedly developing a new live-action Ghostbusters movie titled Ghostbusters: Nightmare on 34th Street. And I would love for that to mean we’re getting a Christmas-themed horror movie.

According to Daniel Richtman, who shared the scoop on his Patreon, Josh Miller is writing the project. Richtman suggests that he might be the Sonic the Hedgehog screenwriter, but that identification remains unconfirmed.

Nightmare on 34th Street sounds like a collision between A Nightmare on Elm Street and Miracle on 34th Street. Are we getting a Christmas horror story?

Because I would love that.

Ghostbusters II already brought the franchise into the holiday season, building toward Vigo’s attempted return on New Year’s Eve. Revisiting that time of year would be really fun, especially if they leaned into the horror component. I want to see Christmas in New York again, with the Ghostbusters dealing with something genuinely frightening.

I initially wondered whether the reported title came from The Real Ghostbusters. I couldn’t find an episode with that name, but the cartoon certainly offers some possibilities.

If the “nightmare” part is more literal, there’s “Mr. Sandman, Dream Me a Dream,” in which the Sandman decides to end humanity’s violence by putting everyone to sleep for 500 years. People’s dreams start appearing in the real world, leaving the Ghostbusters to figure out how to stop him.

Could they actually reference a Real Ghostbusters episode or character in a live-action film? I would die to see the ‘Busters take on The Boogeyman.

Again, this is me having fun with a reported title. We don’t have a plot yet, and neither a Christmas setting nor a connection to the cartoon has been confirmed.

But these movies have been largely missing the scary that comes with , and I think it’s about time they turn up the heat. Revisit the Boogeyman and Samhain episodes. For me, the best ones are the horror episodes, where there’s actual peril, and you feel like these characters might not make it out.