Sony Pictures, Cropped by Resist the Mainstream

The new movie Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire has raised eyebrows with one strange subplot: a sapphic teen romance, which was highlighted by the pundit Lauren Chen.

In a recent episode of her YouTube series Mediaholic, Chen explains her view of the movie, drawing special attention to the unusual appeal to diversity and inclusion.

“So here we have a movie that is just gay enough that Westerners will applaud it for being diverse and inclusive, but not so gay that it would potentially be censored in overseas markets, which is really the sweet spot nowadays,” Chen said.

Chen goes on to provide a synopsis of the purportedly lacklustre movie, highlighting the implied romantic interest between the living and the undead.

Chen then highlights a bizarre subplot involving Phoebe, the angsty teenage daughter, who becomes close to a ghost named Melody. Chen characterizes their relationship as consisting of “awkward flirting,” highlighting phrases such as “You're the only one who gets me” and “Would you like to see my place” to suggest that the movie is implying a romantic bond between the two female teens.

Chen's response to the sapphic supernatural love story is not the first instance of the franchise engaging with culture war controversies. Most notable was the 2016 reboot, pejoratively called “Lady Ghostbusters,” which revived the franchise with an all-female cast to the general disdain of fans. The movie became an unlikely beacon of controversy, spurring dozens of articles about the perceived entitlement of fan culture and even indirectly leading to the suspension of Milo Yiannopoulos from the website then known as “Twitter.”