HIGH SPIRITS (1988)
HIGH SPIRITS is not a brilliant movie. It is however a playful, irreverent take on the haunted castle schtick with a healthy dose of bawdy ‘80s sex comedy thrown in for good measure.
Written and directed by Neil Jordan, hot on the heels of the critically revered MONA LISA (1986) and of course the wonderful adaptation of Angela Carter’s THE COMPANY OF WOLVES (the best adult horror take on a childhood fairytale you’ll ever see), the 1988 horror comedy made somewhat less of a splash than its contemporary BEETLEJUICE—but still warrants some love, too.
Peter O’Toole steals the show as the eccentric, alcoholic, depressed Peter Plunkett, the custodian of the dilapidated Castle Plunkett, a shambling ancestral home set in beautiful Irish countryside. With mounting bills and debts to creditors called in, Peter hits upon a novel way to turn around his fortunes: trade off the bloody history of the Castle to market a haunted house experience to rich American tourists. Said tourists include Connie Booth, the treasure that is Jennifer Tilly, and the ill-matched married couple of Beverley D’Angelo and, erm, Steve Guttenberg.
While Peter and his staff’s initial attempts to spook the guests are far from convincing, it soon transpires that the Castle is the home to a number of actual apparitions, most notably those played by a young Liam Neeson and another ‘80s staple, the breathtakingly beautiful Daryl Hannah.
What follows for the next ~90 minutes is a perhaps best-likened to a careening out of control ghost train of a movie; there’s a handful of genuinely quotable lines (mostly delivered by O’Toole), gratuitous amounts of flesh, some admittedly quite dated visuals and the occasional (and oddly more impressive) genuine fright.
HIGH SPIRITS was panned by the critics back in the day and a quick glance at Rotten Tomatoes or IMDb suggests that any more positive reappraisal is yet to come. Moreover, the film was a financial failure, making back just half of its $17m budget at the U.S. Box Office. Whilst it’s probably unfair to compare with BEETLEJUICE, it is worth noting that another horror comedy, about a haunted residence, released the same year and with a smaller budget ($15m) went on to gross around $85 million.
The film has its faults, the plot has a few holes, and at times the story feels disjointed (Jordan himself claims he had only minimal say in its editing and a definitive cut remains unreleased). But what of my first dalliances with Castle Plunkett?
As a horror fan from the age of 8 or 9 I had soon exhausted the stacks of well-known genre staples in the local Video Rental shops (or to make clear I’m actually English –‘paper shops and garages’). I might add as a footnote, that the NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET and FRIDAY THE 13TH series (and video nasties) were off the menu until I reached my teens, my family were liberal but not that liberal. If I hadn’t exhausted the well of mainstream, known horror while the stronger stuff remained off-limits, I may never have discovered HIGH SPIRITS as a kid.
Watching before my teens, I can remember being distinctly uncomfortable fidgeting on the sofa as the female cast of HIGH SPIRITS ended up in their lingerie. It probably says more about me that my abiding memory was that despite her being an absolute bitch of a character (or maybe because of it), Beverley D’Angelo as Steve Guttenberg’s shrewish wife was the lady to whom I was most attracted (maybe it was that black lace lingerie). Child me was scared when he was supposed to be scared but some of the jokes went over my head. It was however a film that stuck with me into adulthood (and not just for D’Angelo’s bum).
Revisiting HIGH SPIRITS as an adult was a kinda surreal experience. The film is a bit of a one-off as I already said and I can’t really think of any horrors that share its tone.
Bizarrely I would say it probably has as much in common with Father Ted—one of my favourite sitcoms set around three priests living on a backwater island off the coast of Ireland—as it does BEETLEJUICE.
This is a movie I owned on laserdisc until recently (remember them kids—shock and horror I still have a tonne), something I picked up when seeking a hit of misty-eyed nostalgia. For those not so predisposed to defunct physical media, fear ye not. HIGH SPIRITS surprisingly is available on Blu-ray but for those seeking a more immediate hit, its currently available in its entirety absolutely free on YouTube. Don’t expect CITIZEN KANE but I would recommend this charming little movie and no, not just for D’Angelo.
Though she remains amazing.
