Vinz Clortho the Keymaster

Background

In Ghostbusters (1984) the possessed Louis is picked up by police and brought to Egon Spengler, announcing himself as 'Vinz Clortho, the Keymaster'. The Ghostbusters decide the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper must be kept apart, but when Walter Peck shuts down the containment unit the resulting chaos lets Louis slip away to 550 Central Park West and join Dana, now Zuul. On the rooftop temple the two open the gate between dimensions and transform into their Terror Dog forms, bringing Gozer through.

After the Ghostbusters cross their streams and close the gateway, both demons are driven back to their own dimension and Louis and Dana are pulled from the rubble. The Terror Dogs return in Ghostbusters: Afterlife as sentinels of Gozer's temples. Egon Spengler, who moved to Summerville, Oklahoma, to stop Gozer's return, managed to capture one of them, but his granddaughter Phoebe, Gary Grooberson and Podcast accidentally release Vinz Clortho from the hidden trap and it flees back to Shandor's mine.

It later possesses Gary, sabotages the proton cannons Egon installed to block Gozer, and performs the rite with Zuul, who is possessing Callie Spengler, so that Gozer can take physical form. Vinz is finally captured with Gozer in Egon's buried field of ghost traps and Gary is freed.

Did You Know?

• Louis Tully is the Keymaster's 1984 host; aura scans of the possessed Louis appear in Egon's lab in Afterlife as a nod to Rick Moranis.
• The Terror Dogs are described as bipedal demons in their true form that appear as quadruped hounds in the physical world.