This 1988 comedy about an Irish hotelier who decides to market his castle based on rumors that it's haunted is sadly underrated on IMDB. OK, it's a farce, which few Americans appreciate; and yes, there are some gags that don't work; and yes, Daryl Hannah turns in one of her lesser performances. But there are another dozen actors/actresses in the cast who are wonderful comedians, led by Peter O'Toole--who's as funny as he's ever been--and including Beverly D'Angelo, Steve Guttenberg, Jennifer Tilly, Peter Gallagher, Connie Booth, and Liam Neeson. I've watched it three times over the years, and every time I've thought it was funny. Worth a look.

Peter O'Toole runs a failing hotel in an Irish castle, so he and his colorful Fawlty Towers-like employees scheme to spur visitor interest by faking that it's haunted. American tourists Steve Guttenberg and Beverly D'Angelo show up to see the reported ghosts and silliness ensures as the badly staged paranormal events unfold. However, real ghosts show up in the form of Liam Neeson and Daryl Hannah, for another plot line involving them having to find resolution to events in their past lives and falling in love with Guttenberg and D'Angelo. Director Neil Jordan distanced himself from the released version of the film, claiming that he was excluded from the editing process and that the final cut did not represent his vision. What is left is a likable cast of characters and performers, along with a rich gothic atmosphere, which Jordan would later take to the next level in his lavishly produced adaptation of Anne Rice's "Interview with the Vampire," but unfortunately the story and comedy is not all that great. Still, the cast, production design, and rich photography are enough to make the film worth checking out, but don't go into it expecting anything close to Jordan's best films. Jennifer Tilly and Peter Gallagher also appear.

Peter Plunkett (Peter O'Toole) is about to lose his family castle in Ireland if he doesn't raise some money quickly. While talking to his mother about the problem, she mentions all of the "ghosts" of the castle. That sparks an idea--to market Castle Plunkett to tourists as a hotel that's the most haunted destination in the world, or the western hemisphere, or some such. When the first group of tourists arrives, Plunkett's crew puts forward a slapdash effort to feign hauntings, but it turns out that the castle may be really haunted after all.

Yowza, what a mess this film is! I had a quick sinking feeling during the credits when writer/director Neil Jordan's name came up. Although I've only seen four of his films so far, I can only remember liking one of them, We're No Angels--and this is coming from a reviewer who likes the great majority of films that he sees. Still I was prepared to give it a generous chance. After all, I love horror comedies from Ghostbusters to Young Frankenstein, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, and Cannibal--The Musical.

There are a host of problems with High Spirits:

* The film isn't very funny. Granted, comedies need not make you laugh out loud to succeed. At it's best, High Spirits can be cute, and I did smile a bit. But a lot of the film was an almost embarrassing attempt at humor.

* Jordan apparently directed the actors to amp it up as if this were a stage performance. Everyone severely overacts, turning into "super-hams" and frequently yelling their lines. It's even worse when a whole gaggle of actors does this at the same time, which happens frequently here. I know I've complained elsewhere about mumbling and whispering in recent films, but I'll take that any day over this kind of overacting. This flaw is especially strange given that many members of the cast have been great in other films.

* Even though it should be fairly straightforward, the plot frequently confused me. Why the family would still be making payments on the castle was never clear to me. I didn't get where the tourists came from all of a sudden. It didn't seem to be the case that this small group of tourists would help the hotel/castle raise the money it needed within a few weeks. Also, a large number of events seemed random. I didn't know why they were happening, and I didn't really care. Which brings me to the next problem: * There didn't seem to be any ground rules laid down for the film's world, and any that were laid down seemed to be frequently contradicted. At times, the film plays like there wasn't even a script, but Jordan had access to a nifty old castle in Ireland, so on the fly, they just made up what they thought would be wacky set-pieces.

Remarkably, there were also a number of things that the film did right:

* The first section of the film, featuring the castle's bunch of rag tags trying to pull off a haunted house for the bunch of rag tag tourists, had a lot of potential. Even if it wouldn't have been hilarious, it could have been a charming comedy in the classical literary sense of "comedy", if High Spirits would have stuck with this material, toned down the overacting, and made an attempt at a logical script.

* Some of the ghost material and haunted house effects were enjoyable. Again, they weren't funny, but there was also potential here to make an effective haunted house film, even if lighter in mood. The crypt zombie-ghosts were great, but only showed up for a minute or two.

* The castle and grounds were fantastic. They could have easily provided a setting for a film as good as Roger Corman's Vincent Price films. There were a couple nice bits of cinematography showing off the castle and grounds, as well.

* The love stories at the end almost started working for me. Again, this might have been a more effective direction on which to focus the majority of the film. The minor characters dropped out at this point (and really, the cast was too big, because most of them were wasted), the overacting was toned-down, and the non-sequitur plot elements dropped out.

My final verdict? The positive elements brought the film up to a 5 out of 10. I wanted to like it a lot more than I did. I can't recommend it, but it is perhaps worth watching on cable or renting at least once for die-hard fans of horror comedies.