Gee I just watched this on DVD the other day.And I'm not sure if "god" would allow a ghost to linger around college but c'mon guy it's a silly little T&A sex comedy.Yes I know it's not a great film but it's a typical 80's party flick. Sometimes the serious artistic merit of a film has to be overlooked.If School Spirit was meant to be taken seriously as a look at reincarnation that's one thing but really it's not.But obviously the producers were tapping into the teenage boy market that made movies like Hardbodies,Porky's,Losin' It and other 80's staples successful.School Spirit will give you a chuckle and an eyeful of gratuitous female nudity,nothing more nothing less.And some days that's all you want to watch.
23 Reviews
A cheapo, one-gimmick teen sex comedy that'll put you in a coma
mwilson197616 April 2019
When horny Young college student Tom Nolan gets hit by a truck he ends up brain dead in hospital with a hard on, but is able to return to life for a 24-hour period so he can try and get laid in this non sensical and stupid comedy. It's just an excuse for him to spy on naked college girls in a shower room and the entire movie is full of lame jokes. It was one of the first films from Roger Corman's new distribution company, Concorde Pictures Inc, which he formed after selling New World Pictures and features copious amounts of female nudity but no hot sex scenes or any remotely funny performances. It had some potential to riff on the horror genre, but the fact that the lead character is dead and a ghost has almost no bearing on the plot.
Pretty dreary
Groverdox10 May 2016
"School Spirit" is weird in the way it introduces an old fashioned Hollywood fantasy formula, and then does nothing with it, save for a few scenes where actors throw water on themselves and fall over and we are supposed to believe that the "spirit" did it.
The main character is a ghost who can make himself visible by running his hand through his hair. The movie establishes this, but most of the action has something to do with a smarmy jerk played by Larry Linville trying to do something that we don't want him to do because he's a smarmy jerk. I don't think the movie really establishes what the Linville character wants, or why we should hope it doesn't work out.
The movie has quite a bit of nudity from random models who I guess were flown in to take their tops off for the camera for a few dollars. None of the main female characters show any skin.
I have to point out that the first word in the title is misleading. Schools must not come cheap for filmmakers; most of these low budget teen sex comedies can't afford one. This movie has only one scene set in a school, a classroom scene. Most of the action takes place in the characters' houses.
What we end up with is a movie that does nothing with its starting premise and follows a subplot that comes too late and makes no sense. The only reason to watch is the nudity, and I guess it delivers on that front, though it disappoints in that none of the actual characters get naked, it's all just topless extras.
Addendum: I have seen many visible boom mics in movies, but this is one of the few where you can see the pole the boom is attached to, as well.
The main character is a ghost who can make himself visible by running his hand through his hair. The movie establishes this, but most of the action has something to do with a smarmy jerk played by Larry Linville trying to do something that we don't want him to do because he's a smarmy jerk. I don't think the movie really establishes what the Linville character wants, or why we should hope it doesn't work out.
The movie has quite a bit of nudity from random models who I guess were flown in to take their tops off for the camera for a few dollars. None of the main female characters show any skin.
I have to point out that the first word in the title is misleading. Schools must not come cheap for filmmakers; most of these low budget teen sex comedies can't afford one. This movie has only one scene set in a school, a classroom scene. Most of the action takes place in the characters' houses.
What we end up with is a movie that does nothing with its starting premise and follows a subplot that comes too late and makes no sense. The only reason to watch is the nudity, and I guess it delivers on that front, though it disappoints in that none of the actual characters get naked, it's all just topless extras.
Addendum: I have seen many visible boom mics in movies, but this is one of the few where you can see the pole the boom is attached to, as well.
He died with a rubber in his hand
Coventry11 March 2010
"School Spirit" is an anonymous and by now largely forgotten mid-80's comedy that obviously just got made in order to cash in on the contemporary popular trend of sleazy and vulgar high school/college comedies. Bob Clark's "Porky's" kick-started the trend and copious replicas were released within the next couple of years, like "Zapped!", "Screwballs", "Revenge of the Nerds", "Loose Screws" and "Fraternity Vacation". These movies invariably revolve on dim-witted and usually nerdy kids with exclusively sex on their minds and became big box office hits because they occasionally feature naked boobs and perfectly shaped butt-cheeks. They're fun and completely harmless for as long as they last, but even more forgettable and dumb.
"School Spirit" tried to add a supernatural element to the generally straightforward concept of high-school comedy, which is presumably why it failed and ended up in B-movie oblivion. Billy Batson, the lead scoundrel of the bizarrely named Lavatoire College, is about to score (in the principal's office of all places) with the ambitious geek-girl Judith, but forgot to bring a protective rubber. In his haste of purchasing one, Billy causes a car accident and dies on the operating table. His guide towards the bright white light, however, is his perverted old uncle Pinky and he isn't in too much of a hurry. Billy grants himself one more day to fornicate with Judith, but instead there's plentiful of other stuff going on. Billy and his wild-partying buddies are preparing for "Hog-Day" and he encounters true love in the shape of French sponsor of the school.
The main purpose of a film like "School Spirit" becomes apparent not long after the supposedly deceased Billy discovers that he now has the ability to make himself invisible. What's the first thing a young and hormone-driven stud does with a powerful gift like that? That's right, he sneaks into the girls dormitory's bathroom and extendedly observes how they shower and rub soap all over their breasts. The clichés just keep on coming in this film (nerd kids discover the art of partying, two sworn best friends falling in love, the "evil" principal going bonkers, etc) and the dialogs are really dumb, but it's all so innocent and served with great enthusiasm that you simply cannot hate the film. The character of Pinky Batson is an old pervert, though, and if the film had been made in this day and age, his character undoubtedly would have been played by a much younger actor. There's a pretty immoral and deviant sequence in which the sleazy senior exposes a girl's breasts and butt while she's sleeping. I really don't see that happening in movies nowadays and righteously so. Other than that, you know exactly what to expect from this type of cheap and unpretentious 80's comedies: horrendous rock music soundtrack, badly acting but good-looking young people, a terribly forced happy ending and T&A, of course!
"School Spirit" tried to add a supernatural element to the generally straightforward concept of high-school comedy, which is presumably why it failed and ended up in B-movie oblivion. Billy Batson, the lead scoundrel of the bizarrely named Lavatoire College, is about to score (in the principal's office of all places) with the ambitious geek-girl Judith, but forgot to bring a protective rubber. In his haste of purchasing one, Billy causes a car accident and dies on the operating table. His guide towards the bright white light, however, is his perverted old uncle Pinky and he isn't in too much of a hurry. Billy grants himself one more day to fornicate with Judith, but instead there's plentiful of other stuff going on. Billy and his wild-partying buddies are preparing for "Hog-Day" and he encounters true love in the shape of French sponsor of the school.
The main purpose of a film like "School Spirit" becomes apparent not long after the supposedly deceased Billy discovers that he now has the ability to make himself invisible. What's the first thing a young and hormone-driven stud does with a powerful gift like that? That's right, he sneaks into the girls dormitory's bathroom and extendedly observes how they shower and rub soap all over their breasts. The clichés just keep on coming in this film (nerd kids discover the art of partying, two sworn best friends falling in love, the "evil" principal going bonkers, etc) and the dialogs are really dumb, but it's all so innocent and served with great enthusiasm that you simply cannot hate the film. The character of Pinky Batson is an old pervert, though, and if the film had been made in this day and age, his character undoubtedly would have been played by a much younger actor. There's a pretty immoral and deviant sequence in which the sleazy senior exposes a girl's breasts and butt while she's sleeping. I really don't see that happening in movies nowadays and righteously so. Other than that, you know exactly what to expect from this type of cheap and unpretentious 80's comedies: horrendous rock music soundtrack, badly acting but good-looking young people, a terribly forced happy ending and T&A, of course!
A Bit of a Disappointment
Uriah4329 April 2022
This film essentially begins with a college student named "Billy Batson" (Tom Nolan) desperately trying to seduce a beautiful coed student by the name of "Judith Hightower" (Elizabeth Foxx). However, just when he almost achieves his goal, he discovers that he has no protection. So, since Judith refuses to go any further without it, he hurries to procure some. Unfortunately, along the way he has a fatal car accident which, as one might expect, ruins his plans. But then, as luck would have it, just at the moment his soul leaves his body, he is met by his uncle "Pinky Batson" (John Finnegan) who was sent from heaven to guide him into the proverbial light. It's then revealed that, much like his nephew, Uncle Pinky gets easily distracted by members of the opposite sex which results in him running after an attractive woman instead of taking care of the business at hand. However, just prior to that, he shows Billy how to become visible again. So, armed with this knowledge, Billy then goes back to college to use this new ability to further enhance his sexual appetite. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this film had most of the necessary ingredients for a good teensploitation comedy. What it didn't have, unfortunately, was any humor. To that effect, despite all of the attractive ladies--and there were plenty of them in this film- none of them were able to rescue this dismal picture from its rather boring state. That being said, although I don't consider this to be a bad movie necessarily, I must say that I was a bit disappointed with it overall and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.
Low-grade teen comedy
lor_25 February 2023
My review was written in October 1985 after a Times Square screening.
"School Spirit" is a weak, low-budget comedy that arrives way too late in the overdone teen fantasy cycle. Announced as an Almi PIctures release last year, film debuted instead from Roger Corman's new distribution company in April 1985 in Atlanta.
Tom Nolan (imagine Michael J. Fox as a 6-foot-tall football player) toplines the overage-looking cast as Billy Batson (no relation to Captain Marvel), a college student who is killed in a car crash while rushing heedlessly home from a drugstore with an all-important condom to be down with campus beauty Judy (Elizabeth Foxx). His late uncle Pinky appears in the hospital as a transparent ghost to take Billy to heaven, but our hero, discovering that a hand motion (reminiscent of Curly's shtick for the Three Stooges) can materialize him as flesh-and-blood, escapes to stay on Earth one more day. Object: get laid.
With chintzy special effects, the pic's ghost gimmick is extraneous, mainly used for an obligatory scene of eavesdropping (invisibly) in the girls' shower room to ogle various siliconed cuties. Grainy photography, muffled sound recording and dinky production values all indicate that the picture was ground out carelessly as just another title for market.
Cast is sunk by the material, but executes the praffalls acceptably. Only surprise is the presence of a Corman mainstay of 15 years ago (in all those Filipino women's prison pictures) Roberta Collins as the perennially drunken wife of the college president.
"School Spirit" is a weak, low-budget comedy that arrives way too late in the overdone teen fantasy cycle. Announced as an Almi PIctures release last year, film debuted instead from Roger Corman's new distribution company in April 1985 in Atlanta.
Tom Nolan (imagine Michael J. Fox as a 6-foot-tall football player) toplines the overage-looking cast as Billy Batson (no relation to Captain Marvel), a college student who is killed in a car crash while rushing heedlessly home from a drugstore with an all-important condom to be down with campus beauty Judy (Elizabeth Foxx). His late uncle Pinky appears in the hospital as a transparent ghost to take Billy to heaven, but our hero, discovering that a hand motion (reminiscent of Curly's shtick for the Three Stooges) can materialize him as flesh-and-blood, escapes to stay on Earth one more day. Object: get laid.
With chintzy special effects, the pic's ghost gimmick is extraneous, mainly used for an obligatory scene of eavesdropping (invisibly) in the girls' shower room to ogle various siliconed cuties. Grainy photography, muffled sound recording and dinky production values all indicate that the picture was ground out carelessly as just another title for market.
Cast is sunk by the material, but executes the praffalls acceptably. Only surprise is the presence of a Corman mainstay of 15 years ago (in all those Filipino women's prison pictures) Roberta Collins as the perennially drunken wife of the college president.
Skin and Cheap Laughs (Mostly Skin)
dprkforum28 April 2016
I rented this movie because I was 15 and liked the cover. The rest of the story should be obvious.
I have not seen this movie since I rented it all those years ago, but I do remember it had what I was wanting. Skin and more skin. Then more skin on top of that. I was not disappointed. A few laughs were to be had, but at that age, I did not care.
Yes, if you want an epic story for the ages, you will hate this movie. If you want knee-slapping comedy, you will hate this movie. If you like good acting, you will hate this movie. If you like good cinematography, again, you will hate this movie.
Otherwise, pick it up! it is sure to make you just Google something better and more "to the point" so to speak.
I have not seen this movie since I rented it all those years ago, but I do remember it had what I was wanting. Skin and more skin. Then more skin on top of that. I was not disappointed. A few laughs were to be had, but at that age, I did not care.
Yes, if you want an epic story for the ages, you will hate this movie. If you want knee-slapping comedy, you will hate this movie. If you like good acting, you will hate this movie. If you like good cinematography, again, you will hate this movie.
Otherwise, pick it up! it is sure to make you just Google something better and more "to the point" so to speak.
Excruciatingly dull
Leofwine_draca13 October 2018
Warning: Spoilers
SCHOOL SPIRIT is your usual high school comedy of the 1980s, albeit one with supernatural tinges. The whole sell of the blurb and the cover is that a typical sex-obsessed student is killed in a car wreck, only to return as a ghost who can become invisible at will. Inevitably he heads straight for the girls' changing room to check out what's on offer. This literally spells out the first twenty minutes of the movie, with all of the nudity a teenage boy could wish for, but from this point the story goes in a very different, largely dull, direction. Our hero is suddenly visible and involved in a political battle with the usual uptight authorities when he and his buddies just want to have fun. A below-par script saps all the life and fun out of this one and it's excruciatingly dull, even with the excessive nudity at times.
Smells like Pein Spirit
anthony-carroll1024 March 2019
Warning: Spoilers
When I was searching Amazon Prime's list of horrors, this title came up, so I gave it a watch. It was catagorised both a horror, and a comedy. The horror, I don't see, but where the comedy is, is really beyond me.
The main motivation for the story is for our protagonist, a 30 something year old college student, to have sex with someone who wasn't interested in him, after having been killed. He's going to heaven, but put it on hold just for someone he celarly doesn't care about, merely just for one last time to sleep with someone. You'd think they'd build a relation between the two, and get the girl in the end, but she drops out to get replaced with another woman.
Did I mention he's a ghost, who can go invisible at a moment's notice?
I'm giving the information about this movie all over the place because it reflects what the movie does. Characters get introduced in one scene, aren't seen for another half hour, meanwhile, our main character buggers around oggling at norks. Yet he doesn't use this power when he gets caught speeding/stealing a car, and is sent to prison. Even Invisible Dad got this one right!
Every trope of a frat movie is on display, yet this film is unique in them all having no pay off, from having changed the importance of any character whose involved. Honestly, I can't think who this would appeal to, as even folk desperate to see cleavage will get such a joy only briefly, and anyone expecting jokes can also be disappointed, as it is as dull as the job that any other 37 year-olds job would be doing if they weren't starring in School Spirit. It is mainly all set up, leading to...nothing.
Larry Linville is in it though as a sleazy Brooklyn uncle, so it gets another star for that.
The main motivation for the story is for our protagonist, a 30 something year old college student, to have sex with someone who wasn't interested in him, after having been killed. He's going to heaven, but put it on hold just for someone he celarly doesn't care about, merely just for one last time to sleep with someone. You'd think they'd build a relation between the two, and get the girl in the end, but she drops out to get replaced with another woman.
Did I mention he's a ghost, who can go invisible at a moment's notice?
I'm giving the information about this movie all over the place because it reflects what the movie does. Characters get introduced in one scene, aren't seen for another half hour, meanwhile, our main character buggers around oggling at norks. Yet he doesn't use this power when he gets caught speeding/stealing a car, and is sent to prison. Even Invisible Dad got this one right!
Every trope of a frat movie is on display, yet this film is unique in them all having no pay off, from having changed the importance of any character whose involved. Honestly, I can't think who this would appeal to, as even folk desperate to see cleavage will get such a joy only briefly, and anyone expecting jokes can also be disappointed, as it is as dull as the job that any other 37 year-olds job would be doing if they weren't starring in School Spirit. It is mainly all set up, leading to...nothing.
Larry Linville is in it though as a sleazy Brooklyn uncle, so it gets another star for that.
Wow ... The Lengths We'll Go To
gravedigger_jones14 April 2006
I truly enjoyed this movie, no pretension and tons of cheesy, horn-ball insanity. The aspect of this movie that really made it for me, that put it over the top, is that our protagonist is so horned-up and crazy to get some action that not only is his corpse clutching the condom that he died getting, but he actually comes back from the dead (!) and steals the condom from his cadaver's grasp. THAT is dedication to getting yr freak on.
Check it out if you like the requisite teen / college sex-comedy fodder from the eighties ( private school, porky's, up the creek, summer school, etc. )
Check it out if you like the requisite teen / college sex-comedy fodder from the eighties ( private school, porky's, up the creek, summer school, etc. )
The poster says it all...
funtasticfour4 April 2019
I found this on Amazon, under horror, which is ironic because its horrible. It was not scary in the slightest, nor would I have labeled it under comedy. In fact, I'm not sure what category I would label this under. Teen fantasy perhaps? I liked the idea of it, reminding me of the movie Zapped, though even that wasn't as good as I would have liked. I probably saw this when I was young, and probably liked it, but it just needed some actual laughs or something.
Although i usually don't read the back cover I cou...
barducci10 March 2000
Although i usually don't read the back cover I couldn't help myself on this one, and i was happy to find out, although i loved every word of the backcover-text, that part was over in five minutes and the movie just kept getting more wonderful.
I just keep smiling throughout the movie and everything i want to happen, happens. And that's by no means a put-down, but finally someone, who knows what a young-horny-men audience biggest fantasy is, to be able to sneak around the girls lockerroom or private shower, and when the time is right,become visible and get it on with them, and among those lovely 80's-easy-chicks nothing can go wrong.
By far one of the best high-school 80's movie i've seen in a long time.
I just keep smiling throughout the movie and everything i want to happen, happens. And that's by no means a put-down, but finally someone, who knows what a young-horny-men audience biggest fantasy is, to be able to sneak around the girls lockerroom or private shower, and when the time is right,become visible and get it on with them, and among those lovely 80's-easy-chicks nothing can go wrong.
By far one of the best high-school 80's movie i've seen in a long time.
The spirit is willing...
BA_Harrison29 December 2018
Horny college student Billy Batson (Tom Nolan) is killed in a car crash before he can bed leggy blonde beauty Judy Hightower (Elizabeth Foxx). Billy's spirit is greeted by his deceased Uncle Pinky, who has been tasked with escorting his nephew to heaven, but with unfinished business, Billy refuses to leave. Able to switch between ghostly and corporeal form at whim, the sex-mad student uses what time he has left on Earth to try and score with Judy, but instead finds love with the college's tasty French benefactor, Madeleine (Danièle Arnaud).
A puerile '80s sex comedy with a supernatural twist, this is about as low-brow as it gets, the movie's trashy screwball antics unlikely to generate many laughs. Where the film does score big is with its eye-candy, almost every woman an absolute stunner. Foxx lives up to her surname, Arnaud is gorgeous, Batson's neighbour Rita (Toni Hudson) is lovely, and Ursula (Marta Kober), jail bait daughter of college president Grimshaw (Larry Linville), has a cracking body. Sadly, none of the aforementioned provide any nudity, but there are plenty of other hotties willing to strip off for the camera, the film delivering a breast tally so high that I gave up counting. A shower scene, a slime slide, and a pool party help to rack up the titty total.
Also serving to help make the movie a mindlessly enjoyable experience are the '80s tunes, including several tracks by wacky new wave group The Gleaming Spires, who make an appearance at the students' wild 'hog party' and some not-so-special effects (invisibility and 'floating' objects on wires).
A puerile '80s sex comedy with a supernatural twist, this is about as low-brow as it gets, the movie's trashy screwball antics unlikely to generate many laughs. Where the film does score big is with its eye-candy, almost every woman an absolute stunner. Foxx lives up to her surname, Arnaud is gorgeous, Batson's neighbour Rita (Toni Hudson) is lovely, and Ursula (Marta Kober), jail bait daughter of college president Grimshaw (Larry Linville), has a cracking body. Sadly, none of the aforementioned provide any nudity, but there are plenty of other hotties willing to strip off for the camera, the film delivering a breast tally so high that I gave up counting. A shower scene, a slime slide, and a pool party help to rack up the titty total.
Also serving to help make the movie a mindlessly enjoyable experience are the '80s tunes, including several tracks by wacky new wave group The Gleaming Spires, who make an appearance at the students' wild 'hog party' and some not-so-special effects (invisibility and 'floating' objects on wires).
Ah, the 80s
BandSAboutMovies23 September 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Roger Corman sold New World Pictures and started making movies again. The new owners refused to distribute Wheels of Fire and this movie and that's how we got Concorde Pictures.
Geoffrey Baere wrote a script for College Ghost, all about a college cocksmith who comes back as a ghost because it was 1985. It didn't get bought, but Allan Holleb (Candy Strip Nurses, Wizards of the Lost Kingdom) worked on the script with inspiration from the Italian movie Il Sorpasso. Yes, a classy bit of filmmaking to get a teen sex comedy going.
Billy Batson is not Captain Marvel or Shazam. He's the college student played by Tom Nolan who dies while coming back from buying a condom so that he can finally sleep with his dream girl Judith Hightower (Elizabeth Foxx). Beyond being a 31-year-old teenager, Batson is now a ghost. His Uncle Pinky (John Finnegan) tries to take him to Heaven but he escapes.
Meanwhile, Lavatoire College President Grimshaw (Larry Linville, who should be getting pretty good residuals for all the USA Up All Night appearances he'd made) is celebrating major school contributor Madeleine Lavatoire at the same time that the fraternities are celebrating Hog Day, a day during which naked people go down oily Slip 'N Slides. He's concerned that his daughter Ursula (Marta Kober) will get involved in these shenanigans and he's definitely correct.
Also: He's married to Helen and is batting way out of his league because she's played by Roberta Collins.
Also also: Lavatoire sends up being a young girl, played by Danièle Arnaud, who was in Down On Us and played one of the Eliminator girls in the ZZ Top videos for "Gimme All Your Lovin'," "Sharp Dressed Man" and "Legs." In case you wondered, the other two girls were Playboy Playmate of the Month for March 1981 Kymberly Herrin (who was the ghost who, well, blew Dan Aykroyd in Ghostbusters) and the Playboy Playmate of the Month for November 1980, Jeana Keough, who was also in The Beach Girls, Lovely but Deadly, 10 to Midnight and is now on The Real Housewives of Orange County.
Anyways, Billy has to help Ursula somehow but most of the movie is the typical drinking and debauchery. Cast members participating include Leslee Bremmer (Hardbodies, Reform School Girls), Pamela Ward (Hellhole), Toni Hudson (Just One of the Guys), Miss Pennsylvania Teen USA 1983 Diane Hoyes, Playboy Playmate of the Month for November 1982 Marlene Janssen, Theresa Mesquita (whose only other movie appearance is Hot Chili), Linda Carol (Back to the Beach, Reform School Girls and the Filmrage Henry and June ripoff La stanza delle parole) and the nearly always nude Becky LeBeau who is in the hot tub with Rodney in Back to School.
Oh yeah, I forgot that Jim Wynorski is in this as Man in Car with Cigarette Pack Under Sleeve.
This movie is actually pretty scummy because both Billy and Pinky use their ghost powers to look at women naked, get in bed with them and nearly assault them. Sure, it's all fun loving, but it is not anything to do with the idea of consent. Times have changed since 1985 and I realize that this is a USA Up All Night movie, but when you watch these movies, sometimes you're shocked by these things.
Also also also: The Gleaming Spires, the band in this movie, is the band that sings "Are You Ready for the Sex Girls?" Originally known as Bates Motel, members Leslie Bohem and David Kendrick also played in the 1981-1985 version of Sparks. In fact, the Mael brothers wrote the liner notes for their first album, Songs of the Spires.
The year School Spirit was released, Tom Nolan got a job teaching at Crossroads School, a private school in Santa Monica. He's remained there for decades, eventually gaining the position of dean of students and then the dean of faculty.
This movie has a lot of continuing education amongst its cast, as Arnaud went on to be a French professor at MiraCosta College and Frishman has taught drama at high schools in Los Angeles, Reno and Sacramento.
Geoffrey Baere wrote a script for College Ghost, all about a college cocksmith who comes back as a ghost because it was 1985. It didn't get bought, but Allan Holleb (Candy Strip Nurses, Wizards of the Lost Kingdom) worked on the script with inspiration from the Italian movie Il Sorpasso. Yes, a classy bit of filmmaking to get a teen sex comedy going.
Billy Batson is not Captain Marvel or Shazam. He's the college student played by Tom Nolan who dies while coming back from buying a condom so that he can finally sleep with his dream girl Judith Hightower (Elizabeth Foxx). Beyond being a 31-year-old teenager, Batson is now a ghost. His Uncle Pinky (John Finnegan) tries to take him to Heaven but he escapes.
Meanwhile, Lavatoire College President Grimshaw (Larry Linville, who should be getting pretty good residuals for all the USA Up All Night appearances he'd made) is celebrating major school contributor Madeleine Lavatoire at the same time that the fraternities are celebrating Hog Day, a day during which naked people go down oily Slip 'N Slides. He's concerned that his daughter Ursula (Marta Kober) will get involved in these shenanigans and he's definitely correct.
Also: He's married to Helen and is batting way out of his league because she's played by Roberta Collins.
Also also: Lavatoire sends up being a young girl, played by Danièle Arnaud, who was in Down On Us and played one of the Eliminator girls in the ZZ Top videos for "Gimme All Your Lovin'," "Sharp Dressed Man" and "Legs." In case you wondered, the other two girls were Playboy Playmate of the Month for March 1981 Kymberly Herrin (who was the ghost who, well, blew Dan Aykroyd in Ghostbusters) and the Playboy Playmate of the Month for November 1980, Jeana Keough, who was also in The Beach Girls, Lovely but Deadly, 10 to Midnight and is now on The Real Housewives of Orange County.
Anyways, Billy has to help Ursula somehow but most of the movie is the typical drinking and debauchery. Cast members participating include Leslee Bremmer (Hardbodies, Reform School Girls), Pamela Ward (Hellhole), Toni Hudson (Just One of the Guys), Miss Pennsylvania Teen USA 1983 Diane Hoyes, Playboy Playmate of the Month for November 1982 Marlene Janssen, Theresa Mesquita (whose only other movie appearance is Hot Chili), Linda Carol (Back to the Beach, Reform School Girls and the Filmrage Henry and June ripoff La stanza delle parole) and the nearly always nude Becky LeBeau who is in the hot tub with Rodney in Back to School.
Oh yeah, I forgot that Jim Wynorski is in this as Man in Car with Cigarette Pack Under Sleeve.
This movie is actually pretty scummy because both Billy and Pinky use their ghost powers to look at women naked, get in bed with them and nearly assault them. Sure, it's all fun loving, but it is not anything to do with the idea of consent. Times have changed since 1985 and I realize that this is a USA Up All Night movie, but when you watch these movies, sometimes you're shocked by these things.
Also also also: The Gleaming Spires, the band in this movie, is the band that sings "Are You Ready for the Sex Girls?" Originally known as Bates Motel, members Leslie Bohem and David Kendrick also played in the 1981-1985 version of Sparks. In fact, the Mael brothers wrote the liner notes for their first album, Songs of the Spires.
The year School Spirit was released, Tom Nolan got a job teaching at Crossroads School, a private school in Santa Monica. He's remained there for decades, eventually gaining the position of dean of students and then the dean of faculty.
This movie has a lot of continuing education amongst its cast, as Arnaud went on to be a French professor at MiraCosta College and Frishman has taught drama at high schools in Los Angeles, Reno and Sacramento.
Beyond stupid, but plenty of T-and-A and some good music at the end
lazarillo25 March 2011
I'm of the opinion that you shouldn't watch 80's "Porky's"-style comedies if you have a low tolerance for head-slapping stupidity. But this movies does REALLY push the envelope. A horny college student (Tom Nolan) dies in an auto accident while rushing to buy condoms to seal the deal with a sexy co-ed (this could be a commendable "safe sex" message, but since this event results in the rest of this movie, I'm not so sure). Through some technicality, the guy is allowed to remain on Earth as a "ghost", but a strange kind of ghost that everybody can see except when he taps the top of his head and becomes invisible, but apparently still corporeal. Thus, this ends up being a re-tread of "The Man who Wasn't There" (a much more famous movie in the 80's but one not yet on DVD). So does he use his new powers to sneak into the showers at the sorority? But, of course. After that though the movie turns into a "Caddyshack" snobs vs. slobs thing as the dead guy and his friends are celebrating their annual "Hog Day" party while uptight the school president (Larry "MASH" Linville,who could play this role in his sleep and pretty much does) tries to get a financial endowment from a wealthy French woman.
But let's get to the two most important things--the "T", and of course, the "A". There's generous helpings of both from anonymous actresses in the shower and "Hog Day" slip-n-slide scenes. The lead actresses all stay mostly dressed, however, including Elizabeth Foxx as the grade-grubbing co-ed our hero is initially trying to score with and Marta Kober as Linville's daughter. (Kober, who nicely fills out an 80's bikini here, is perhaps most famous for "Friday the 13th Part II" where she becomes the first of only two female characters in the entire series to actually be killed by Jason DURING sex). I can't complain too much about this aspect of the film, and I genuinely liked the punk-style band that was playing during the "Hog Day" party (usually these type of movies are lousy with horrid music).
I originally saw this on "USA Up All Night" nearly twenty years ago and I must have been especially drunk that night because they would have cut out all the T and A, and so the band at the end at the end would have been about the ONLY thing this had going for it.
But let's get to the two most important things--the "T", and of course, the "A". There's generous helpings of both from anonymous actresses in the shower and "Hog Day" slip-n-slide scenes. The lead actresses all stay mostly dressed, however, including Elizabeth Foxx as the grade-grubbing co-ed our hero is initially trying to score with and Marta Kober as Linville's daughter. (Kober, who nicely fills out an 80's bikini here, is perhaps most famous for "Friday the 13th Part II" where she becomes the first of only two female characters in the entire series to actually be killed by Jason DURING sex). I can't complain too much about this aspect of the film, and I genuinely liked the punk-style band that was playing during the "Hog Day" party (usually these type of movies are lousy with horrid music).
I originally saw this on "USA Up All Night" nearly twenty years ago and I must have been especially drunk that night because they would have cut out all the T and A, and so the band at the end at the end would have been about the ONLY thing this had going for it.
The fact I watched this means I may not have no spirit.
akoaytao123419 March 2024
This is a Z-Grade Comedy about a sex obsessed college student who after a condom run, got into an accident AND became a shape shifting ghost that can do what every eighties sex comedy would want to, be pervy with the girls. As expected, this results to him finding out what truly he loves.
Its what it is.
A sexist and sleazy sex comedy that really has nothing but a stupid premise.
Tom Nolan cannot do anything in his role AND just plainly speaking just does what any hunk lead of the film of this kind could, ogle his eyes and act like the horniest thing in existence. He can't really do much especially since it is a horrendous material that did not even bother.
No one in the cast can really rise up on this particularly weak film AND its even less inspired writing than the average.
You watch this for what sex and that's it.
Not Recommended.
Its what it is.
A sexist and sleazy sex comedy that really has nothing but a stupid premise.
Tom Nolan cannot do anything in his role AND just plainly speaking just does what any hunk lead of the film of this kind could, ogle his eyes and act like the horniest thing in existence. He can't really do much especially since it is a horrendous material that did not even bother.
No one in the cast can really rise up on this particularly weak film AND its even less inspired writing than the average.
You watch this for what sex and that's it.
Not Recommended.
The best "ghost of a high schooler student" film I've seen.
udar5516 June 2022
Proof I haven't seen every great film from the 1980s (a half empty/half full comment if I ever made one). This has to get credit for casting former child star Tom Nolan as a college hellraiser while he was in his late 30s. He is Billy Batson (shazam!) and gets killed in a car accident after dashing to get a condom. His ghost has 24 hours left on earth so, naturally, he heads to the girls shower. There are actually a couple of good laughs in here and the requisite nudity. Larry Linville is the stuck up college president and gives a rather spirited (boooo!) performance, even taking quite a few hard looking pratfalls. Features several songs by The Gleaming Spires, a New Wave band that had future big time screenwriter Leslie Bohem in it. Also featured my favorite exchange heard this year so I had to add it to the IMDb.
Nurse 1: I never saw anyone brain dead with a hard on.
Nurse 2: I guess you never met my boyfriend.
Nurse 1: I never saw anyone brain dead with a hard on.
Nurse 2: I guess you never met my boyfriend.
Silly laugh free 80's teen comedy
Floated23 January 2024
Times have changed quite a few within the movie industry. This film is quite the typical teen 80's raunchy comedy with older actors portraying teen or early 20 year old characters.
As a film it does move at a decent pace and sets up the story quite nicely but it's overall execution is rather predictable and dull. The story is a fantasy tale but there isn't exactly an explanation or reasoning as to how the lead actor was able to turn invisible when he felt so (simply by hovering his hand over his head). And of course since he's able to turn invisible he uses this to his advantage by sneaking into the women's locker room.
The comedy is laugh free and nothing clever. The acting is solid but the characters are shallow and unlikeable. And in the end there is the typical happy ending, in which our lead doesn't learn his lesson. Making it seem like there was no point.
As a film it does move at a decent pace and sets up the story quite nicely but it's overall execution is rather predictable and dull. The story is a fantasy tale but there isn't exactly an explanation or reasoning as to how the lead actor was able to turn invisible when he felt so (simply by hovering his hand over his head). And of course since he's able to turn invisible he uses this to his advantage by sneaking into the women's locker room.
The comedy is laugh free and nothing clever. The acting is solid but the characters are shallow and unlikeable. And in the end there is the typical happy ending, in which our lead doesn't learn his lesson. Making it seem like there was no point.
What's the matter? Can't I get your ghost?
Hey_Sweden1 October 2023
31 year old Tom Nolan ("Fast Times at Ridgemont High") plays Billy Batson, a shameless troublemaker and serial womanizer (and occasional college student) who's a legend in his own time. Then, one night, he's so focused on getting laid that he drives himself straight into a traffic accident, and actually dies. But his uncle Pinky (John Finnegan, "The Natural"), a similarly sleazy and shameless character, shows him a trick by which Billy can still take on physical form, or otherwise turn invisible or corporeal.
This so-so addition to the youth-oriented "sex comedy" genre of the 80s pretty much wears its juvenile and silly heart on its sleeve, with lots of dopey humor. Of course, it's got its fair share of attractive ladies and female nudity, so viewers should be satisfied in that regard. (For one thing, it's only natural that Billy should exploit his invisibility while peeping at girls while hiding in their sorority washroom.) Occasionally this viewer had a good, honest laugh or two, especially when Billy humiliates a smarmy preppie played by Nick Segal ("Chopping Mall").
Nolan is able to give his character some likability, while luscious French babe Daniele Arnaud (a veteran of ZZ Top music videos) is enchanting as the woman financing an endowment fund. Finnegan is amusing as the old rascal. Larry Linville of 'M*A*S*H' fame is just fine as the stuffy, huffy party-pooper antagonist of the piece. Other familiar faces include an under-utilized Roberta Collins ("Death Race 2000") as Linvilles' drunken wife, David Byrd ("Lost Highway"), Liz Sheridan ('Seinfeld'), Toni Hudson ("Just One of the Guys"), Marta Kober ("Friday the 13th Part 2") as Linvilles' rebellious daughter, Biff Yeager ("Repo Man"), and Becky LeBeau ("Back to School").
As a bonus, the rock songs performed by a band called The Gleaming Spires are pretty good. I can still hear that closing credits song in my head as I type this.
I know that some people are NOT a fan of this kind of lowbrow humor, but I think there's something to be said for the unpretentious nature that movies like this generally possess.
Six out of 10.
This so-so addition to the youth-oriented "sex comedy" genre of the 80s pretty much wears its juvenile and silly heart on its sleeve, with lots of dopey humor. Of course, it's got its fair share of attractive ladies and female nudity, so viewers should be satisfied in that regard. (For one thing, it's only natural that Billy should exploit his invisibility while peeping at girls while hiding in their sorority washroom.) Occasionally this viewer had a good, honest laugh or two, especially when Billy humiliates a smarmy preppie played by Nick Segal ("Chopping Mall").
Nolan is able to give his character some likability, while luscious French babe Daniele Arnaud (a veteran of ZZ Top music videos) is enchanting as the woman financing an endowment fund. Finnegan is amusing as the old rascal. Larry Linville of 'M*A*S*H' fame is just fine as the stuffy, huffy party-pooper antagonist of the piece. Other familiar faces include an under-utilized Roberta Collins ("Death Race 2000") as Linvilles' drunken wife, David Byrd ("Lost Highway"), Liz Sheridan ('Seinfeld'), Toni Hudson ("Just One of the Guys"), Marta Kober ("Friday the 13th Part 2") as Linvilles' rebellious daughter, Biff Yeager ("Repo Man"), and Becky LeBeau ("Back to School").
As a bonus, the rock songs performed by a band called The Gleaming Spires are pretty good. I can still hear that closing credits song in my head as I type this.
I know that some people are NOT a fan of this kind of lowbrow humor, but I think there's something to be said for the unpretentious nature that movies like this generally possess.
Six out of 10.
Enjoyably inane 80's T&A collegiate comedy blast
Woodyanders14 December 2015
Warning: Spoilers
Horny college student and notorious troublemaker Billy Batson (a solid and likable performance by Tom Nolan) gets killed in an automobile accident just as he's on the verging of scoring with his snobby girlfriend Judith Hightower (foxy Elizabeth Foxx). However, Billy returns to Earth as a ghost so he can still get laid.
Director Allen Holleb, working from a blithely silly script by Geoffrey Baere, keeps the entertaining, if asinine, story moving along at a zippy pace, maintains a good-natured bawdy'n'raucous tone throughout, and delivers a satisfying serving of tasty gratuitous female nudity that includes a very nice shower sequence. Moreover, it's acted with zest by an enthusiastic cast: John Finnegan as Billy's lecherous Uncle Pinky, Larry Linville as uptight killjoy President Grimshaw, Daniele Arnaud as sultry French honey Madeleine, Roberta Collins as the drunken Helen, Marta Kober as Grimshaw's spunky rebellious daughter Ursula, Nick Segal as smarmy preppy jerk Gregg, and Toni Hudson as the sweet Rita. The groovy 80's New Wave band Gleaming Spires appear as themselves. Best of all, such hot babes as Becky LeBeau, Pamela Ward, and Marlene Janssen all bare their yummy wares. A real goofy hoot.
Director Allen Holleb, working from a blithely silly script by Geoffrey Baere, keeps the entertaining, if asinine, story moving along at a zippy pace, maintains a good-natured bawdy'n'raucous tone throughout, and delivers a satisfying serving of tasty gratuitous female nudity that includes a very nice shower sequence. Moreover, it's acted with zest by an enthusiastic cast: John Finnegan as Billy's lecherous Uncle Pinky, Larry Linville as uptight killjoy President Grimshaw, Daniele Arnaud as sultry French honey Madeleine, Roberta Collins as the drunken Helen, Marta Kober as Grimshaw's spunky rebellious daughter Ursula, Nick Segal as smarmy preppy jerk Gregg, and Toni Hudson as the sweet Rita. The groovy 80's New Wave band Gleaming Spires appear as themselves. Best of all, such hot babes as Becky LeBeau, Pamela Ward, and Marlene Janssen all bare their yummy wares. A real goofy hoot.
Pervert ghost
stefanozucchelli12 November 2021
A foul-mouthed comedy about a university student who, even dead, doesn't give up on parties. Funny at times but not very convincing. The young man should be guided by his uncle's fastama to heaven but the latter is more of a party than him.
AAAUUUGHHH..
-528 January 1999
School Spirit, noooo!!!! The concept alone makes me wanna vomit, much less naming
a movie after such a heresy. Alas, the title is a charming play on words, as a young man who is killed in a car wreck en route to his first lay returns from the dead to.. to what?? Get some, I guess? Okay, he's a ghost. Sure, that's fine, we've seen it before and we'll see it again, it's an accepted film staple. But, a ghost that can make himself visible at will???!! NO!!! That's wrong! That's completely wrong, that defies the very principle of being a ghost! When you are a ghost, people can't see you! They can't touch you (unless you bond with them on some very emotional level like in that crap movie Ghost), they can't smell you, you are a GHOST! And you stay that way! You can't just snap your fingers
(or, in this case, wiggle your fingers on your head like Curly used to do on The Three Stooges) and become a living, sentient being again. That defies even basic religious precepts! Add to that the ridiculous notion that God would allow you a second chance on Earth just to "tap it".. jeez, this was rotten. Found it in the "mature" section, though suitable for 12 year olds. Minimal t&a but mass quantities of 80's frizzskank and terrible cliches. Also features poor old David Ogden Stiers as the dean.. From those goofy Armitraj brothers, who brought us Nine Deaths of The Ninja and innumerable other no-budget flicks.
a movie after such a heresy. Alas, the title is a charming play on words, as a young man who is killed in a car wreck en route to his first lay returns from the dead to.. to what?? Get some, I guess? Okay, he's a ghost. Sure, that's fine, we've seen it before and we'll see it again, it's an accepted film staple. But, a ghost that can make himself visible at will???!! NO!!! That's wrong! That's completely wrong, that defies the very principle of being a ghost! When you are a ghost, people can't see you! They can't touch you (unless you bond with them on some very emotional level like in that crap movie Ghost), they can't smell you, you are a GHOST! And you stay that way! You can't just snap your fingers
(or, in this case, wiggle your fingers on your head like Curly used to do on The Three Stooges) and become a living, sentient being again. That defies even basic religious precepts! Add to that the ridiculous notion that God would allow you a second chance on Earth just to "tap it".. jeez, this was rotten. Found it in the "mature" section, though suitable for 12 year olds. Minimal t&a but mass quantities of 80's frizzskank and terrible cliches. Also features poor old David Ogden Stiers as the dean.. From those goofy Armitraj brothers, who brought us Nine Deaths of The Ninja and innumerable other no-budget flicks.
Pure 80's quality
fogstershadow20 April 2020
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