He walks into a mirror and vanishes. The house fades. The townspeople wake up unable to remember the livestream — but feeling strangely moved. The final shot: a child watching an old VHS of Ghosts on a CRT TV, smiling. In the reflection of the TV screen, the Maestro dances once more — free. The original Mayor (now a kindly old ghost) sits on the porch with the Maestro, sipping tea.

The Maestro, wounded but defiant, summons the Ghosts from the original film — the skeleton band, the masked ghouls, the giant monster. But Vox laughs and projects algorithmic shadows over them, turning them into glitching, consumer-friendly cartoons. The climax is a 10-minute dance battle in native 4K, shot with wide-angle Steadicam and practical effects (no CGI ghosts — all prosthetics and forced perspective, as Michael insisted). The Maestro performs “Ghosts 4K” — a new spoken-word/song hybrid about being loved to death.

(smiling) “That’s why we’re still here.”

He transforms into a shimmering white-gold specter, then into a child version of himself (de-aging practical makeup), and finally into a mirror — so Vox sees only himself, desperate and empty. The Maestro doesn’t destroy Vox. He simply removes his mask and says: