Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

High Spirits Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown December 21, 2023

1988 supernatural comedy High Spirits has no business being as disappointing and unfunny as it is. With a killer ensemble -- the late, great Peter O'Toole shares the screen with a veritable who's who of stars and up-and-comers, including Daryl Hannah, Liam Neeson, Beverly D'Angelo, Steve Guttenburg, Peter Gallagher and Jennifer Tilly -- and a script written by director Neil Jordan himself (who four years later would woo audiences, critics and the Academy with The Crying Game in 1992), High Spirits should have been a surefire hit. But fate, it seems, had a different future in mind for the soon-to-be bargain bin dud. Not only did it bomb at the box office and earn a critical drubbing, it was widely viewed as being one the worst possible things a comedy can be: boring. It didn't help that Beetlejuice, with which it shares more than a few similarities, released the same year. Even some thirty-five years later, I can't say it was ahead of its time. It wasn't. It remains as flawed, tiresome and dispiriting today as ever.

Irish hotelier Peter Plunkett (Peter O'Toole) attempts to fill the chronic vacancies at his castle by launching an advertising campaign that wrongly portrays the property as haunted. Unfortunately, he fails to scare a single American tourist with his hokey and dreadfully unconvincing effects. But when two actual ghosts, Mary (Daryl Hannah) and Martin (Liam Neeson), show up to add some authenticity, they end up falling for two guests, Sharon (Beverly D'Angelo) and Jack (Steve Guttenberg), as all manner of otherworldly hilarity ensues. Written and directed by Neil Jordan, the film also stars Jennifer Tilly, Peter Gallagher, Ray McAnally, Martin Ferrero, Connie Booth, Donal McCann, Liz Smith, Mary Coughlan, Ruby Buchanan, Isolde Cazelet, Aimée Delamain, Tom Hickey and Little John Nee.

There are people who really enjoy High Spirits. Scan the film's corresponding forum thread on our site and meet several of its fans. And more power to them. But reviewer Jeffrey Kauffman and I appear to be in lockstep in regards to our feelings on exactly what doesn't work. The following are his thoughts on the film, as written in his 2015 review of Shout Factory's now out-of-print Double Feature release of High Spirits and Vampire's Kiss: Jordan would eventually win the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Crying Game, a film whose title some wags might have attributed to Jordan’s understandable reaction to having tried to work in Hollywood after the success of Mona Lisa. High Spirits was the first film in this brief struggle to conform to the vagaries of the American film business, and the movie often plays like a cinematic version of trying to stuff a square peg into a round hole. A lot of Jordan’s natural ebullience wafts through the film, at least in dribs and drabs, but the screenplay is rather haphazard, something that keeps the more farcical elements from ever erupting into total hilarity.

Many of the elements of a traditional bedroom farce are firmly in place in High Spirits. There’s O'Toole's desperate innkeeper, surrounded by a gaggle of eccentric Irish help, and ultimately another gaggle of disparate American tourists. The squabbling marrieds, the mousy voiced single girl (who might have inappropriate carnal interest in a man about to become a priest), and a parapsychologist and his family. When it turns out that Sharon is actually the daughter of the man trying to usurp control of the castle from Plunkett, there’s even more of a setup for schtick, since Plunkett has prepared a number of faux “hauntings” to keep his guests entertained. It's here that Jordan shows a certain inexperience in how all of these characters are introduced (especially the Irish help), and then further bifurcates the film’s momentum with the introduction of its fantasy element, as the two principal ghosts, a married couple whose marriage night ended in the murder of the bride, show up and ultimately get involved with Jack and Sharon. There are a couple of other “supporting ghosts” in attendance as well, making this a somewhat overstuffed affair that never has room to work up a consistently frenetic tone.

High Spirits was roundly lambasted when it was originally released, and quickly disappeared from local cineplexes. Seen now with a bit of perspective, it’s a fitfully charming piece that offers O’Toole in pure, unadulterated ham mode and a number of charming supporting players (including a wonderful Liz Smith as Mrs. Plunkett) adding a bit of local color to the proceedings. The film is ultimately too chaotic for its own good, and never quite captures enough whimsy to sustain its clunkier moments, but it offers a few scattered laughs and some lovely scenery.

High Spirits Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

High Spirits looks pretty good in high definition. Oh, it could use a new remastering to bring it in line with the best catalog transfers we've seen this year, but its 1080p/AVC-encoded video presentation managed to impress me nonetheless. It's most likely the same transfer Shout Factory utilized on its now out-of-print 2015 Blu-ray (a double feature release that paired Spirits with Vampire's Kiss), but I found my score, admittedly a subjective metric, drifting higher than that of my colleague, so I can't be certain. However, since it seems Sandpiper simply recycles transfers with its releases, this is more than likely the case. No matter, on to the analysis. There are shots plagued by sporadic grain spiking and even some dirt, particularly those involving optical FX, but I didn't find these blemishes to be all that distracting, as they were gone as quickly as they appeared. Colors remain fetching and lovely, skin tones are lifelike and nicely saturated, black levels are deep without crushing shadow detail, and contrast is striking, allowing the image to retain its slightly grainy, filmic qualities. Detail is remarkable too, thanks to consistently cleanly defined edges and refined textures. The film isn't sharp enough to draw blood -- it was 1988 after all -- but it holds its own. Add to that a lack of banding, macroblocking and other hauntings and you have a catalog transfer that delivers. High Spirits probably isn't going to receive a top-dollar restoration any time soon, or ever for that matter, so it's safe to say this is as good as it will foreseeably get.

High Spirits Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Whereas my impression of High Spirits's video quality was more favorable than Jeff's, my take on the DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix included with Sandpiper's release of the film is a bit less favorable. Prioritization issues are the villain du jour, with voices, sound effects and music sometimes competing for dominance. It wouldn't be so frustrating if these moments weren't so obvious. Thankfully, they're the exception rather than the rule. For the most part the track handles everything its given with more than adequate aplomb. No one will mistake the sound design for a modern production (it all but wears its '80s sonics on its sleeve) but clarity and fidelity are both quite good, and George Fenton's playful score is given room to deliver its wares. Dialogue is intelligible and ageless on the whole, meaning only the bits that show the wear and tear of the years and the shortcomings of thirty-five-year old sound design bring this one down to where it lands.

High Spirits Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Sandpiper's Blu-ray release of High Spirits doesn't include any special features. To my knowledge, none have ever been produced. Rumors of a separate cut of the film have circulated for years, but no alternate version has been released domestically. From IMDB, though I have no way of verifying its accuracy: "There exists a print of the film that was Neil Jordan's original vision of the movie. It contains a much more serious tone than the theatrical release, and is much more of a fun mystery. There is a lot more footage of Liam Neeson's character, and the ghosts are allowed to have much more of a plot than in the theatrical release. Rumor has it that when the studio saw this initial cut, they had no idea how to market it, so they had it re-edited against Jordan's wishes after the director had allegedly been locked out of the editing room." The post adds, "There was a shortened version of this cut available on video in Japan," although I have yet to firmly confirm such claims.

High Spirits Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I had such high hopes for High Spirits. Unfortunately, no amount of ensemble magic or clever wit lifts the comedy above its poorly penned bits. It's not all bad. But it stumbles far more often than it soars. Sandpiper's Blu-ray release is better, with a solid video presentation and decent DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix. The 1988 comedy isn't accompanied by any extras -- boo -- but that seems to be par for the course when it comes to the film (not to mention just about every Sandpiper Pictures Blu-ray release). Is there much hope for High Spirits? Not if you're patiently awaiting a proper 4K restoration or a Criterion, Twilight Time, or Shout Factory-style release, teeming with gorgeous video and newly produced retrospective special features. But if you're just looking for a respectable presentation of High Spirits itself, you might find its humor and performances grow on you enough to make you a part of the film's small legion of vocal defenders.