SpiritsYear: 1990 Director: Fred Olen Ray Written by: Jeff Falls & R.U. King Threat: Demon Weapon of Choice: Pitchfork |
Rish Outfield's reviews
An interesting (if often-used) plot: a bunch of investigators investigate a
haunted house. Erik Estrada plays (rather unconvincingly) a priest here, who
is tempted by a super-hot ghost. I couldn't be a priest--I know, you're
thinking it's the whole celibacy thing, but it's really that I sweat a lot,
and black in the summertime...
Oh, where was I? There was a very interesting dirty scene with Estrada--but
what was he doing in this movie? It seemed like his subplot was added later,
or was culled from another film altogether. Other than that, there was
nothing special here. It was cheap, not very scary, and once it was over,
all tyranist and I could do was shrug.
Best Scare: I don't remember.
I'd Recommend It To: People who like horror films with nudity. A lot.
The tyranist's thoughts
This started out with a great premise and deteriorated into just another demon-free-for-all-sex-and-killing picture. My single
biggest gripe is the fact that almost all of the Erik Estrada (who gets top billing by the way) scenes look like they are
from an entirely different film. My theory is that they were filming something and it failed, so they came up with this new
script (which kind of sucks) and made Spirits. Spirits has almost nothing to do with the plot, of course. The ending
is not only somewhat anticlimactic, but it is also contradictory and makes little sense when considered with the rest of the
movie. The make-up effects were pretty good, but the ooze coming out of the undead things eyes is no match for what we saw in
The Evil Dead.
Sequel | ||
Owes everything to/rips off earlier film | ||
Sequel setup | ||
Bad title | ||
Bad premise | ||
Bad acting | ||
Bad dialogue | ||
MTV Editing | ||
OTS | ||
Girl unnecessarily gets naked | ||
Wanton sex | ||
Death associated with sex | ||
Characters forget about threat | ||
Secluded location | ||
Power is cut | ||
Phone lines are cut | ||
Someone investigates a strange noise | ||
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door | ||
Camera is the killer | ||
Victims cower in front of a window/door | ||
Toilet stall scene | ||
Victim locks self in with killer | ||
Killer is in car with victim | ||
Cat jumps out | ||
Fake scare | ||
Laughable scare | ||
Blood hits camera | ||
Beheading | ||
Killer doesn't stay dead | ||
Stupid discovery of corpse | ||
Dream sequence | ||
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls | ||
No one believes only witness | ||
Blood fountain | ||
Poor death effect | ||
Excessive gore | ||
Music detracts from scene | ||
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie | ||
Future celebrity appears | ||
No one dies at all | ||
Death in first five minutes | ||
Virgin survives | ||
Geek/Nerd survives | ||
Little kid lamely survives | ||
Dog/Pet miraculously survives | ||
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes | ||
Unresolved subplots | ||
"It was all a dream" ending | ||
Unbelievably happy ending | ||
What the hell? |
Total Skulls: 15
Other movies in this series:
None