High Spirits

Over-the-top horror comedy set in a ghostly castle

The owner of a dilapidated castle in Ireland (Peter O'Toole) is about to lose it to foreclosure and so turns it into “the most haunted castle in Europe” in order to attract tourists. When the first group of travelers is bused-in to spend the night it turns out that the ancient citadel is actually haunted. The rest of the cast includes the likes of Steve Guttenberg, Beverly D'Angelo, Jennifer Tilly, Liam Neeson, Daryl Hannah and Peter Gallagher.

"High Spirits" (1988) is an outrageous horror comedy in the mold of "The Fearless Vampire Killers" (1967), "The Vampire Happening" (1971), “Young Frankenstein” (1974), “Elvira, Mistress of the Dark” (1988) and “Elvira's Haunted Hills” (2001). It ranks with the best of these even though it failed at the box office.

Director Neil Jordan said that the movie released is very different from the one he shot, pointing out that he was excluded from the editing process of the final cut.

Beverly D'Angelo and Jennifer Tilly are of course highlights on the feminine front, but more shoulda/coulda been done with them (not talkin’ about nudity or raunch). Still, enough was done with them.

The film runs 1 hour, 38 minutes, and was shot at Dromore Castle, County Limerick, Ireland. I’m sure a lot of it was also filmed in the studio.

GRADE: B

"High Spirits" was a part of the exciting and ever growing renaissance that was taking place within the Irish film industry. And rightly so. It brings some unique and quirky Irish humour brilliantly to life on the silver screen for a much wider audience to wholeheartedly indulge in and thoroughly enjoy. It was amongst an expanding number of productions being produced back then which reached a much higher level of success than in previous times. And why shouldn't it have been so? After all, the Irish had the talent both in front of the camera and behind it to be able to work in any given genre of film and when the results turn out to be of this calibre where the infectious comedic enthusiasm of the cast never wanes and there are some wonderfully wacky set piece sequences loaded with humour which the audience can relish then Irish cinema deserves all the hard earned plaudits and success accorded to it.