Neil Jordan is a great filmmaker, who has made films like MONA LISA, THE CRYING GAME and INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE. This comedy/horror mix shows none of the skill Jordan has displayed in any of his other films. However, in Jordan’s defense, he was left out of the editing process by the studio and claims that the film he wanted to make is not what was released.
Peter Plunkett (Peter O’Toole, THE LION IN WINTER) has turned his ancestral castle into a hotel and is about to loose it to the bank, which plans to move it to Malibu. His mother (Liz Smith, A GOOD THIEF) has told him for years that the castle has ghosts, so he devises a plan to turn the castle into a theme hotel where the staff dresses up in sheets and tries to scare the guests. The guests include: the ineffectual Jack (Jeff Guttenberg, COCOON) and his demanding wife Sharon (Beverly D’Angelo, NATIONAL LAMPOON’S VACATION), sex pot tease Miranda (Jennifer Tilly, BOUND), soon-to-be priest Brother Tony (Peter Gallagher, SEX, LIES AND VIDEOTAPE) and parapsychologist Malcolm (Martin Ferrero, THE TAILOR OF PANAMA) and his doubting family.
Plunkett and staff’s attempts to scare turn out disastrous and all hope looks lost. Then the real ghosts show up. Jack meets the murdered Mary (Daryl Hannah, SPLASH) and interrupts the cycle of her murder by her jealous husband Martin Brogan (Liam Neeson, SCHINDLER’S LIST), which has repeated itself for 200 years.
The film is filled with slapstick that is older than the ghosts, and even worse, has the timing of a church comedy sketch. O’Toole throws himself into the role and is enjoyable. The rest of the cast isn’t bad, but the material isn’t that good. The film drags along and arrives at an ending that is actually funny, but it’s not really worth the journey to get there.
I’d be interested in seeing Jordan’s director’s cut of the film to see what he was thinking. As it stands, the film doesn’t work. It bores more than it ever scares or humors, which is a fate worse than a knife to the stomach repeated for 200 years.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
