School Spirit

Vacuous frat boy shenanigans with amusing ghosts and lots of T&A

A sex-obsessed college guy (Tom Nolan) suddenly has the ability to be an invisible spirit and so takes advantage of it on a SoCal campus, particularly pursuing a couple of romantic interests (Elizabeth Foxx and Danièle Arnaud).

"School Spirit" (1985) is a goofy campus comedy that obviously influenced “Ghost,” but don’t expect the greatness of that film. It starts off creatively enough, yet the story never really takes advantage of that promise, preferring to bog down in shallow antics, T&A and hedonism. There’s a reason "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" is a renowned 80’s coming-of-age flick while this one ended up in the bin of obscurity. It’s called good writing, which is sure to include entertaining bits relevant to the genre, but shuns cheap exploitation.

On a side note, Marta Kober, who played petite Sandra in “Friday the 13th Part 2,” has a pretty big side role as the daughter of the university president (Larry Linville).

It runs 1 hour, 30 minutes, and was shot at a campus in Brentwood, Los Angeles.

GRADE: D+/C-