By Geno McGahee
Bad acting, bad dialogue, but Erik Estrada…it cannot be all bad. Estrada may not have the best acting skills in the world, but I find his delivery hilarious and when you put him into a role where he can be really over the top, he shines. In SPIRITS, he is Father Anthony Vicci, a priest questioning his faith. In 1980, there were some deaths at a house where an evil man resided and Father Vicci holds himself somewhat responsible. He has also strayed from his faith and had relations with a woman and is wrestling with that internally.
Dr. Wicks (Robert Quarry) has assembled a team to go into the very house where the horror took place in 1980 to document and videotape any paranormal activity, but they get more than they bargain for when they encounter a demonic entity. In this team, we have the scream queen Brinke Stevens as “Amy” a psychic, Kathrin Lautner as “Beth,” a skeptic, and Oliver Darrow as “Harry,” a video guy. Although Darrow is nowhere near a good actor, I have to give him props on his evil side in this movie. He is so ridiculous with his mean faces and occasional screams that I was really amused.
Amusement was the only positive thing I got from this movie, but that’s not entirely a bad thing. I have watched many bad films and they didn’t even provide me with any amusement. So SPIRITS at least gave me something positive, even if it wasn’t intentional.
As Wicks and his team push the issue at the horrible house, Father Vicci begins encountering the demonic spirit, warning him to stay away, once pretending to be a hot naked chick. You can’t beat that. I really thought that her tits were real, but then I saw the scars from the implants, but bravo to the surgeon that did that handiwork. I was fooled. If demons could present themselves as hot women that want sex, I would break out a Ouija board and summon one. Sure they may be red, have a pointy tail and fangs in reality…and maybe a big red prick, but if they look like a hot human woman for the time being, bring’em on!
To Vicci’s credit, he doesn’t bang her. He fights the temptation. He does have to make his way to the house and settle things with the demon(s) that reside there. As he builds the nerve, the crew at the home becomes possessed by the evil force with the exception of Hicks. It is so absurd, really, and the actors’ ability to put across this possessed state is surely debatable, but I found it amusing for the most part. It’s so bad it was good sort of thing.
Vicci returns to the home and attempts to save the group from the force and comes face to face with a demon. The demon at the end looks good, and some of the makeup is rather impressive, but they didn’t spend much time on the demon Harry…he just had black stuff smudged on his face. They must have ran out of the special effects stuff.
SPIRITS is not a great movie. It is not a good movie. It is a very very bad movie, but when you get a movie like this, sometimes you get that unintentional humor that can get you through and amuse you enough to make it worth a watch and that is where I place this production. Estrada is hilarious in his overacting and so too is the rest of the cast. This film was definitely inspired HEAVILY by THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE and EVIL DEAD, and was more or less a weak tribute to them with a lot of over the top acting.
I guess this is one of those films that gets a very low rating but yet I still recommend it. Weird huh?
Scared Stiff Rating: 3/10. Watch it for Estrada.
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