Spirits (1990)

Overrated

Good start, but then it gets ruined

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

This straight-to-video flick from Fred Olen Ray has not a single original bone in it's body. It starts out by stealing the premise of "The Legend of Hell House", dips into "The Exorcist" and then settles into a rip-off of "The Evil Dead". Robert Quarry headlines as a scientist leading an expedition to investigate a haunted house, bringing along psychic Brinke Stevens and a couple of other folks. This isn't exactly poorly done, but the film's budget just doesn't help it. The haunted house is just your average suburban home, and most of the film is just shot in broad daylight. While all this is going on, we meet priest Erik Estrada (yes, really) who is haunted by visions of, among other things, stark naked nun Michelle Bauer and scolding, not naked nun Carol Lynley. Eventually we learn how these two threads fit together, and the house is overrun by possessed people trying to kill other people. This should be awful, but somehow it's not. Maybe it's that the cast is not terrible, maybe it's that Ray borrows so many elements from good movies that some of them just work. It's by no means a good film, but it's no complete waste of time.

University psychology professor Dr. Richard Wicks (Robert Quarry) plans a weekend research experiment at the allegedly haunted Heron house, where a series of grisly murders took place 10 years earlier. Also along for the ride are fellow psychologist Beth (Kathrin Lautner), historian Harry (Oliver Darrow) and psychic Amy (Brinke Stevens). The house was built by Satanist Henri Picard and, of course, people start seeing things and get possessed. Also lurking around is Father Anthony Vicci (Erik Estrada), who has a connection to the events 10 years ago and is being haunted by it. I revisited this low budget shocker recently and still enjoyed it. Ray rarely did straight horror flicks when he started getting his groove on and this proves he should have done more of them. Yes, it is cheap and plunders from LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE, THE HAUNTING and THE EXORCIST, but Ray knows how to properly work in great exploitation material. Seriously, where else are you going to see Erik Estrada recoil in fear at the sexual advances of a nude nun (an uncredited Michelle Bauer) wearing only her habit? Surprisingly, Ray lets Brinke keep her clothes on and just lets her act. The location is that same big white house you've seen a dozen times in stuff like SORORITY HOUSE MASSACRE II. There is also some pretty good make-up effects from Optic Nerve. Carol Lynley has a couple of scenes as Sister Jillian. Father Merrin gets a "thanks" in the end credits.

Four researchers (ghost hunter Robert Quarry, psychic Brinke Stevens, skeptical Kathrin Lautner and Oliver Darrow) decide to investigate a supposedly haunted house with a history of murders that may have been committed by former mass murderer/rapist Andre Picard. A demon/ghost eventually possess them one by one, causing such things as Brinke driving a nail through her hand and Darrow having a sex dream with a redheaded succubus (played by Kaitlin Hopkins, the daughter of Shirley Knight). Carol Lynley is wasted as a nun and Erik Estrada is awful as a doubting priest who comes to the rescue a la THE EXORCIST.The completely contrived plot is made damn near unbearable by the lack of gore, interesting characters, credible dialogue or anything else to make it worth watching. The demon/possession make-up is alright, but wasted, as is the great John Vulich/Everett Burrell designed demon creature at the end. Michelle Bauer however does liven things up a bit as a naked demon who strips out of her nun costume and tries to seduce Estrada by reminding him, "You knew your way around a p@$$y pretty good for a priest!" Look for a very obvious boom shadow on Brinke's face during the kitchen scene.Score: 2 out of 10

Please do not waste your time watching this horribly scripted and acted movie. Let me tell you why...A few friends and I were looking for a spooky movie at the video store, unfortunatly it was around Halloween and all the good movies were gone. So we settled for this, the box didn't look half bad, little did we know.Okay, first Erik Estrada as a Priest? Then came the really corny music. The acting was terrible along with the visual effects, we were laughing so hard. Then we were totally appalled by the sex scences. A nun and a priest? Even if it was only a dream it was sooooo wrong. It only got worse. The "evil" makeup was so bad it could not be taken seriously. Finally we just gave up. Don't waste your time or money on this cheap exorcist knock-off.