1980′s Ghosts | Ghost Movies

December 7, 2008

House II: The Second Story

Filed under: 1980's Ghosts — Tags: House II — Casper @ 10:54 am

House II: The Second Story is the 1987 sequel to the 1986 film, House. While it is a sequel, this film ignores the storyline and characters from the first film, in favor of a new supernatural comedy.

Storyline

Young urban professionals Jesse (Arye Gross) and his girlfriend Kate (Lar Park Lincoln), move into an old mansion that has been in Jesse’s family for generations. They are soon joined by Jesse’s goofy friend Charlie (Jonathan Stark), who brought along his diva girlfriend Jana (Amy Yasbeck), in the hopes of being discovered by Kate (who works for a record company). Jesse has returned to this old family mansion after his parents were murdered when he was just a little baby, and he quickly locates a mysterious skull.

Jesse and Charlie decide to dig up Jesse’s great-great-grandfather (Royal Dano), who is a friendly cowboy zombie that likes to party and talk about how he found the skull with his partner, Slim. Its promise of eternal life and time travel prompted the two cowboys to become eternal villains, with Slim responsible for the death of Jesse’s parents. Jesse, Gramps and Charlie must try to keep Slim from getting a hold of the skull, while dealing with the fact that the skull has transformed the mansion so that each of its rooms act as hidden doorways across space and time. The time travelling trio pick up a baby pterodactyl, a caterpillar-dog, and an Ancient Mexican woman about to be sacrificed along with battling various time travelling thugs that want the skull, including Slim.

Eventually, Jesse must face off with Slim in the Wild West, and while he is victorious, Gramps has been mortally wounded and passes away with a final warning about the power of the skull. The film ends with the suggestion that the heroes have decided to use the skull to time travel.

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House

Filed under: 1980's Ghosts — Tags: House — Casper @ 10:50 am

House is a 1986 horror/comedy film. It stars William Katt, George Wendt, Richard Moll and Kay Lenz, and is directed by Steve Miner. It was produced and distributed by New World Pictures. House was followed in 1987 by House II: The Second Story, in 1989 by The Horror Show (known as House 3 in the UK and Australia) and in 1992 by House IV.

Synopsis

Roger Cobb (William Katt) is a Vietnam veteran and horror novelist. After his son Jimmy disappears while visiting his aunt, Roger’s search for Jimmy ruins his marriage and writing career. After Roger’s aunt suddenly dies, Cobb moves into her house to work on a novel based on his experiences in the war. As strange occurrences start happening around him, Roger becomes aware that the house is evil, not to mention ghost-infested, and it resents his presence in it. The ghosts force him to endure a journey into his past, where he ultimately finds Jimmy at the end.

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High Spirits

Filed under: 1980's Ghosts — Tags: High Spirits — Casper @ 10:48 am

High Spirits is an 1988 comedy film directed by Neil Jordan.

Set in a remote Irish castle, High Spirits is a topsy-turvy comedy with thematic leanings towards Ireland’s rich folklore regarding ghosts and spirits.

Plot

Peter O’Toole is Peter Plunkett, the owner of a dilapidated Irish castle which acts as a bed and breakfast supplying the only employment for the local villagers. Owing money to an American businessman, Plunkett has the idea to turn the castle into “The most haunted castle in Europe” for the tourist trade. He and his wacky staff of Irish characters set about creating ghost costumes and effects for their first group of American lodgers.

At first annoyed by the inept hauntings, the American guests (including Steve Guttenberg, Beverly D’Angelo, Connie Booth, Peter Gallagher and Jennifer Tilly) soon get what they paid for as the genuine ghosts of Castle Plunkett take umbrage with being cheaply exploited and stage a full scale paranormal event.

Two of the castle’s ghosts, Mary Plunkett and Martin Brogan (played by Daryl Hannah and Liam Neeson) become romantically entangled with Guttenberg and D’Angelo’s characters. This romantic twist is the focus of most of the plot.

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Ghostbusters II

Filed under: 1980's Ghosts — Tags: Ghostbusters II — Casper @ 10:28 am

Ghostbusters II is the 1989 sequel to Ghostbusters (1984) produced and directed by Ivan Reitman. The sci-fi comedy film is about the further adventures of a group of parapsychologists and their organization which combats paranormal activities (“ghostbusting”). The sequel had what was, at the time, the biggest three-day opening weekend gross in history ($29,472,894, which is equal to $52,709,710 today), a record that was broken precisely one week later by Batman ($40,505,884). Although the film was popular and was generally well received by fans, it received mixed reviews from critics.

Plot

Five years after the events of the first film, the Ghostbusters are out of business after being sued by the city for property damage. Ray Stantz and Winston Zeddemore have become entertainers at childrens’ parties, Egon Spengler works in a laboratory conducting various experiments,Peter Venkman hosts a “psychic” television show, and Dana Barrett is working at an art museum restoring paintings and raising her infant son Oscar at a new apartment.

One day, Oscar’s carriage starts rolling down the street by itself. Ray, Egon, and Peter investigate. Meanwhile, Dana’s boss, Dr. Janosz Poha, is restoring a painting of a seventeenth-century tyrant named Vigo the Carpathian, when the real Vigo (who’s spirit is located inside the painting) orders Janosz to find a child so that Vigo may live again. When Ray is lowered underground, he discovers a river of pink slime beneath the streets. After Ray gets a sample, the Ghostbusters are arrested after Ray accidentally knocks most of the city’s power out. During court, two ghosts appear out of the slime and attack the court. However, the Ghostbusters manage to capture them using their old equipment and are back in business. During a test on the slime, the Ghostbusters realize that the slime is a substance that feeds on bad lives, and that all the bad lives are collected underneath the street in slime form. Meanwhile, the slime appears out of Dana’s bathtub and tries to grab her and Oscar. However, she manages to escape. The next morning, the Ghostbusters head over to the museum and investigate the painting. During investigation, Ray notices that the painting is alive. The next night, Ray, Winston, and Egon go through the subway and discover the river of slime. However, Winston and the others are sucked into the river but survive. After they appear back onto the streets, they realize that the slime leads directly to the museum.

Meanwhile, Janosz appears and kidnaps Oscar while Dana heads over to the museum. After Dana enters the museum, the slime appears in a shell form around the museum and the Ghostbusters are called to destroy it. However, the shell contains too much negative energy. But the Ghostbusters know one source of positive energy in the state: the Statue of Liberty. The statue appears over the museum and destroys part of the rooftop with its torch. When the Ghostbusters are in the museum, Vigo appears out of the painting and grabs Oscar. However, the people singing outside weaken the shell around the museum and the Ghostbusters send Vigo back into the painting. However, Vigo hypnotizes Ray, but the Ghostbusters free Ray and destroy Vigo.

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Ghostbusters

Filed under: 1980's Ghosts — Tags: Ghostbusters — Casper @ 10:25 am

Ghostbusters (titled on-screen as Ghost Busters) is a 1984 fantasy-horror-science fiction-comedy film about three eccentric New York City parapsychologists-turned-ghost exterminators. The film was released in the United States on June 8, 1984. It was produced and directed by Ivan Reitman and stars Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Rick Moranis, Sigourney Weaver, Annie Potts, and Ernie Hudson. With inflation adjustments, the film’s original release grossed over US$500 million in the U.S., making it one of the highest grossing films of 1984 and the 31st highest grossing film of all time, domestically.^[1]

It was followed by a sequel, Ghostbusters II (1989), and two animated television series, The Real Ghostbusters (later renamed Slimer! And the Real Ghostbusters) and Extreme Ghostbusters. Ramis, who co-wrote the first two films, has confirmed that a script for a potential third film is being developed by Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg, the writing team best known for their work on Curb Your Enthusiasm and the American version of The Office. Judd Apatow (who is co-producing the upcoming Ramis-directed The Year One) is also slated to be involved on some level. In addition, the original films’ four main castmembers may have minor on-screen roles.

In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted Ghostbusters the 44th greatest comedy film of all time. The American Film Institute ranked it 28th in its list of the top 100 comedies of all time (in their “AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Laughs” list). In 2005, IGN voted Ghostbusters the greatest comedy ever. In 2006, Bravo ranked Ghostbusters 76 on their “100 Funniest Movies” list.

Reviews

Ghostbusters was well-received and holds a 93% Fresh Rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote, “This movie is an exception to the general rule that big special effects can wreck a comedy … Rarely has a movie this expensive provided so many quotable lines”. In her review for the New York Times, Janet Maslin wrote, “Its jokes, characters and story line are as wispy as the ghosts themselves, and a good deal less substantial”. Newsweek magazine’s David Ansen wrote, “Everyone seems to be working toward the same goal of relaxed insanity. Ghostbusters is wonderful summer nonsense”. In his review for Time, Richard Schickel praised the three lead actors: “Of the ghost wranglers, the pair played by Writers Aykroyd and Ramis are sweetly earnest about their calling, and gracious about giving the picture to their co-star Bill Murray. He obviously (and wisely) regards Dr. Peter Venkman as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to develop fully his patented comic character”.

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Ghost Story

Filed under: 1980's Ghosts — Tags: Ghost Story — Casper @ 10:21 am

Ghost Story is a feature film based on the book of the same name by Peter Straub. It stars Fred Astaire, John Houseman, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Melvyn Douglas, Alice Krige and Craig Wasson (in a dual role). The film was rated R for scary images, nudity, sexual content and violence. It was directed by John Irvin and released in 1981 by Universal Pictures. It won the 1982 Saturn Award for Best Horror Film. It was the last film to feature Astaire, Fairbanks and Douglas, and the first film to feature Michael O’Neill. It is available on DVD from Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

Plot

The plot is taken from the novel of the same name by Straub.

A group of elderly gentlemen in their New England hometown have formed a group called “The Chowder Society”. Together, they spend their evenings telling ghost stories to one another. However, they begin to experience an actual ghost who wants revenge. The members of the group start dying in mysterious ways, as does the son of one member, who falls to his death after seeing his new bride’s face as she really is. His brother attempts to prevent any more deaths. As the story progresses, the audience learns more about the mysterious woman and her relationship with The Chowder Society members.

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The Fog

Filed under: 1980's Ghosts — Tags: The Fog — Casper @ 9:14 am

The Fog is a 1980 horror movie directed by John Carpenter, who also wrote the screenplay and composed the music of the film. It stars Adrienne Barbeau, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Atkins and Janet Leigh. It was distributed by AVCO Embassy Pictures. The movie is a ghost story involving mysterious events, including gruesome murders, which accompany a strange, glowing fog that spreads over land and sea.

Writer and director, John Carpenter, was not happy with the first cut of the film and subsequently added several new scenes and re-shot others. Approximately one-third of the finished film is comprised of re-shoot footage. The film received mixed reviews when it was released, but was a commercial success. A remake was released in 2005, based on the original’s concept.

Plot

Set in a Northern California fishing town called Antonio Bay (real location Inverness, California, Point Reyes lighthouse, and the Episcopal Church of the Ascension in Sierra Madre, California). The town is about to celebrate its centennial when mysterious events, including the gruesome murders of three local fishermen, accompany a strange, glowing fog that spreads over land and sea. The local priest, Father Malone, discovers the diary of his grandfather (who was also the town’s priest), which contains a dark secret unknown to the town’s current inhabitants.

The diary reveals that, in 1880, six of the founders of Antonio Bay (including Malone’s grandfather) deliberately sunk and plundered the Elizabeth Dane, a clipper ship owned by Blake, a wealthy man with leprosy who wanted to establish a colony near Antonio Bay. The six conspirators lit a fire on the beach near treacherous rocks, and the crew of the clipper, deceived by the false beacon, crashed onto them. Everyone aboard the ship perished. The six conspirators were motivated both by greed and disgust at the notion of having a leper colony nearby. Antonio Bay and its church were then founded with the gold plundered from the ship.

The mysterious fog contains the vengeful ghosts of Blake and the clipper’s crew, who have come back on the hundredth anniversary of the shipwreck and the founding of the town to take the lives of six people (symbolic substitutes for the six conspirators).

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The Changeling

Filed under: 1980's Ghosts — Tags: The Changeling — Casper @ 8:37 am

The Changeling is a 1980 horror film directed by Peter Medak and starring George C. Scott and Trish Van Devere (Scott’s real-life wife). The story is based upon events experienced by writer Russell Hunter while he was living in the Henry Treat Rogers Mansion of Denver, Colorado.

Plot

Scott stars as Dr. John Russell, a composer living in New York City, who moves cross-country to Washington State following the tragic deaths of his wife and daughter in a traffic accident while on a winter vacation in upstate New York. In suburban Seattle, Russell rents a large, old, and eerie-looking Victorian-era mansion and begins piecing his life back together. However, Dr. Russell soon discovers that he has unexpected company in his new home when the ghost of a long murdered child haunts the house, shattering windows, abruptly opening and shutting doors, and manifesting itself during a seance. Russell investigates and finds that the mystery is linked to a powerful local family, the heir of whom is a wealthy US senator.

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Beetlejuice

Filed under: 1980's Ghosts — Tags: Beetlejuice — Casper @ 8:30 am

Beetlejuice is a 1988 comedy horror film directed by Tim Burton. The film stars Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, Jeffrey Jones and Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice. The plot revolves around a recently deceased couple who seek the help of obnoxious “bio-exorcist” Beetlejuice in order to remove the new owners of their quaint New England house, a family of metropolitan yuppies from New York City.

After the success of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, Burton was sent scripts and became disheartened by their lack of imagination and originality. Burton agreed to direct Michael McDowell’s script for Beetlejuice, but Larry Wilson and Warren Skaaren performed rewrites. Beetlejuice was a financial and critical success, garnering an animated television series and an unproduced sequel titled Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian.

Newlywed couple Barbara (Geena Davis) and Adam (Alec Baldwin) Maitland decide to spend their holiday decorating their idyllic New England country home. Upon returning from the trip to town, however, Barbara swerves to avoid a dog wandering the roadway. The couple’s vehicle crashes through a covered bridge and plunges into the river below, thus killing Barbara and Adam. The couple soon returns home in spirit form and, based on the fact they have no visible reflection in the mirror, quickly come to the conclusion that they are dead. A book entitled Handbook for the Recently Deceased confirms the couple’s suspicion that they are, in fact, dead. Adam then attempts to leave the house to re-trace his steps, but finds himself in a strange otherworldly dimension known as Saturn, which happens to be covered in sand and populated by enormous sandworms.

After going back into their home to seek refuge, Barbara and Adam’s peace is soon shattered when their house is sold and the new residents arrive from New York. The Deetzes, consisting of Charles (Jeffrey Jones), aspiring sculptor and Charles’ second wife Delia (Catherine O’Hara), stepmother to Charles’ Goth daughter Lydia (Winona Ryder) from his first marriage.

They are under the guidance of interior designer Otho (Glenn Shadix), and begin transforming the house into a horrific piece of modern art. The Maitlands seek help from their afterlife case worker, Juno (Sylvia Sidney), who informs them that they must remain in the house for 125 years. If they want the Deetzes out, it is up to them to scare them away. The Maitlands’ attempt to haunt their home proves ineffective.

Although the Maitlands remain invisible to Charles and Delia, their daughter Lydia can see Adam and Barbara and becomes their friend. Against the advice of Juno, the Maitlands contact the miscreant Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton), a freelance “bio-exorcist”, to scare away the Deetzes, but Beetlejuice is more interested in marrying Lydia in order to re-enter the land of the living. It takes the combined efforts of the Maitlands and Lydia to defeat Beetlejuice and banish him to the afterlife. The Deetzes and the Maitlands decide to live together in harmony.

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