Ghost Fever (1986) User Reviews

"We're cops. Danger is our business."

[lost-in-limbo · 4/10 · 21 June 2011]

Alan Smithee strikes again. Yes, after watching "Ghost Fever" you'll see why this popular pseudonym (in placed for Lee Madden) was used. "Ghost Fever" is very corny and boisterous, but a very misguided slapstick low-budget horror comedy with little in the way laughs, but filled with constant annoyance and stupidity in the sketches. Well actually, I was somewhat amused by it. Not that I found it funny, but at least it didn't bore me. I guess that's got to count for something. Two cops, Buford and Benny are sent to a supposedly rundown southern plantation to evict the residents of the Victorian mansion. However to their surprise the occupants happen to be ghosts and they have no intention of leaving. Story-wise it's a slight, farcical and chaotic sideshow. There's not much of a story thread, as it's a one-idea joke with randomly staged set-pieces looking for nothing more than a laugh and to set-up the very next out-there, if clichéd haunted house situation to help move the film forward. But some things which do happen at the back-end, feel breezy and spontaneous with no real thought behind it but to simply to throw it out there. A vampire, zombies and a boxing match finds its way in the make up. Sherman Hemsley and Luis Avalos in the leads are comically silly in a very forced manner, but mildly agreeable. Also turning up is Myron Healey, Jennifer Rhodes and a cameo role for boxer Joe Frazier. The production looks cheap, as the special effects are gawky and filled with colourful lights to go along with the exaggeratedly decorated direction. Some moments do manage to install a bit of atmosphere. Plus you gotta love that catchy theme song.

"We dead people sure know how to live."

We need more bombs like this!

[Nick_Dets · 5 May 2004]

Sometimes a film can be so bad, it's totally enjoyable. God bless the abstraction of a director, Alan Smithee. The real director of the film "Ghost Fever", Lee Madden was too ashamed to take credit for this disasterpiece. It is a celebration in all that is bad in movies, but when it was on rotation in 1999, I couldn't take my pre-teen eyes off of it! There was an appealing creepiness about how truly awful the movie is. I've been waiting for it to air since, but I haven't been able to experience the wonder of a film so bad I ponder how it was ever produced.

Sherman Helmsley keeps his head up through it all. You have to respect a man that gives it all in a film he must have known was a complete mess. His comedic performance is nothing new, but he is a good guide through a tangled web of a story that becomes completely lost in horrible direction. Look for the Mummy scene. It is a genuinely disturbing image that was supposed to be played for laughs.

My question is, why didn't this movie have a cult following? Am I the only person on Earth who loves this messy treat?

My friend's father was a writer for this garbage!

[Not_Afraid_of_snakes_or_spiders · 1/10 · 12 August 2008]

I was telling a friend of mine about the time my grandfather actually picked this horrible piece of crap for us to see one night at the theater. He never picked another one again! It was that bad! Anyway, my friend then told me that her father did some of the writing for this garbage. I thought she was kidding. It turns out, she was serious. She had never actually seen it, and she said that it put a quick halt to her father's writing career. I told her not to waste her time. But, if she did actually break down and watch it, she would see within the fist minute why this ended her father's days as a writer. I mean, even for the 1980's, this crap is bad beyond description. I mean, Joe Frazier as Terrible Tucker? And why in the world would two cops care one bit about a house full of ghosts? And the movie poster? A ghost with his tongue hanging out? What is that about? Nothing about this makes any sense. Well, I told my friend that this crap not only ended her father's writing career, it ended the careers of everybody involved. Or, at least none of them ever fully recovered from being in this garbage of a movie. Let's just say that I will forever ridicule my friend for revealing to me that her father was a writer for this movie! That alone should tell just how bad this is!

If you can find it, see it!

[lautanner · 1/10 · 7 May 2005]

Especially if you love horrible movies. When I first started watching it, all I could say was "I hope there's a dance sequence in it." Imagine my delight when not ONLY did the two main characters dance, but the main ghost began break dancing as well. AND on top of THAT, Sherman Hemsley sings the break dance song (not to mention the theme song). It makes me a little sad that he went broke because of this movie, but I've never liked him as an actor and he really should have known better. Not even the director would take credit for this movie (and you should check out some of the other films he directed!).

One note of warning, though, the writer seemed to really like jokes about the, um, male lower regions. For example, one of the characters discovers a book called "Groins of the Darker Species." I am not kidding. And that, to me, is the most disturbing part of the film. Other than that, find the most obscure video rental store in your town, get the movie, invite all your friends over, and laugh until you cry with Ghost Fever.

Why, God, why?!?!

[tbeekers · 1/10 · 22 February 2003]

This movie is só incredibly unfunny it makes any man want to cry, the cliché are put on thicker than 5-year old peanut butter and in such a way that it actually sucks humour out of your heart, every single joke was badly timed and wouldn't have been funny if it were timed correctly.

Don't see this movie, there's a real chance you'll never be able to enjoy going to comedies again...ever.

Low quality but not horrible

[stefanozucchelli · 5/10 · 17 July 2022]

Comedy with its moments of comedy even if calling it a decent movie is an almost correct judgment. It is not so bad as to be memorable but it strives not to fall into the most desecrating ugliness.

This film will haunt me for the rest of my days

[helpless_dancer · 1/10 · 27 April 2000]

This piece of garbage belongs in the basement of some moldy old mansion where it will never see the light of day again. The only thing scary about this junk was the price of admission. I was only amused when the ending credits started rolling and I was free to vacate the auditorium. What an unmitigated bore; a complete waste of 1 and a half hours. When I die, I pray I can come back as a ghost and give a fever to the moron who penned this gibberish.

I hope the writer of this abortion died from a bad case of 'Ghost Fever'

[snuhmcsnort · 1/10 · 8 October 2023]

I'm a big fan of 'so bad they're good' films and have worked my way through a pig's trough full of Canon misfires and have always found something odd, funny or endearing in each ugly duckling of a cinematic mess.

But this. THIS.

Unfunny? Yes. Boring? Hell yes. Poorly written? Wow, hard to formulate an appropriate sentiment that reflects the level of incompetence that some braindead half-wit mustered to actually have typed out this screenplay. Let alone the fact that other dunderpated dullards backed it with production money???? How? Why? Where? All the questions!

Do NOT let the fact that Sherman Helmsley stars in this shaggy dog sway you for one second into assuming that it contains any humour. This is as far from The Jefferson's as the north is from the south.

I'm never offended by films but this was an insult to my intelligence and the medium of filmmaking. Having a crippling bout of Ghost Fever is no excuse for writing or directing Ghost Fever, even Explosive AIDS would be a hard sell for excusing this IQ reducing paean to ignorance.

-10 out of 10

AVOID.

What?!?

[BandSAboutMovies · 1/10 · 28 April 2022]

Sherman Hemsley from The Jeffersons is Buford Washington. Luis Ávalos from The Electric Company is Benny Alvarez. And they're Greendale County, GA -- yes, a black man and a Latino in the South! -- police officers sent to serve an eviction notice to a plantation when the ghosts of the former slavemaster that owned the house, Andrew Lee (Monogram Pictures star Myron Healey), and one of his slaves named Jethro (also Hemsley), defend the home from beyond. Yes, a black man and his owner working together!

There's also a torture room that neither Lee nor Jethro know about. That's because it was the super racist grandfather vampire who did it all and his granddaughters -- Linda (Deborah Benson) and Lisa (Diana Brookes) -- need help. Cue the scary music, bring in Madame St. Esprit (Jennifer Rhodes) and the ill-fated seance. Meanwhile, zombies pop up and Buford has to win the house from the bank in a boxing match against Joe Fraizer. Smoking Joe isn't the only combat sports veteran in this, as former pro wrestler Pepper Gomez is in the cast.

Then, the ghosts kill Benny and Buford, keeping the house -- and the girls -- all for themselves. If this seems like a narrative shift in a slapstick comedy, then you're correct.

Screenwriter Oscar Brodney hadn't written a movie in 16 years before this, but he did write Harvey, which does not translate into making this movie a success. The Alan Smithee credited for this film is really Lee Madden, who made Hell's Angels '69, The Manhandlers, Angel Unchained, The Night God Screamed and Night Creature. He hadn't made a movie in eight years, but that could be because he was busy making commercials for car lots.

This was filmed in 1985 but not released until 1987 due to extensive re-shooting and re-editing, resulting in Madden demanding that his name be removed from the credits. It was produced by Hemsley and he lost most of the money he'd made in his career on this.

Oddly enough, Hemsley was super into prog rock and allegedly worked with Yes's Jon Anderson on a funk-rock opera by the name of Festival Of Dreams about the "spiritual qualities of the number 7." Daevid Allen from Soft Machine and GONG claimed that Hemsley had an LSD lab in his basement and had a room named the "Flying Teapot room," named for the GONG song, with "...darkened windows and "Flying Teapot" is playing on a tape loop over and over again. There were also three really dumb-looking, very voluptuous Southern gals stoned and wobbling around naked. They were obviously there for the guys to play around with.

They used to call PCP Sherman Hemsley because it made people rude, just like his character. I believe that maybe he was making it!

Smells Like Cheese Spirit!

[miooolre · 8/10 · 8 March 2006]

I agree with many other here that this movie is SOOOOOO BAD it is good. You will laugh unintentionally at the horrible trainwreck this movie is. Its shot badly, acted badly and the "script" is atrocious. They tried to jump on the Ghostbusters bandwagon but there are sequences in here that will make your jaw drop to the floor and then your jaw will try and leave the room. The break dancing scene is truly memorable and yes, lots of "groin" jokes. Wow!! There is also a long boxing subplot that comes out of nowhere. It is deathly unfunny. And horribly done. All the effects are lame. But....A great bad 1980s disaster. Just the kind of thing those recent great Slate podcasts highlight!

Gotta Love those Childhood memories!

[Spooky_1013_99 · 7/10 · 9 September 2005]

I remember my mother renting me this movie when I was just a tyke.I haven't seen it since I was around kindergarten aged I guess, but the movie made a lasting impression. I remember a big antebellum mansion, and the slave torture device that made Sherman Helmsly walk funny,I loved it. I have to have had my mother rent me this movie a dozen times or more. This is one of those rare low budget movies that make scrounging threw the discount bin worth it. Now that I know the title I am going to have to go searching for the DVD. I loved ghost stories and this was right up my alley. I had been looking for the title of this movie for ages. IMDb is just great!

Avalos Stuns All Audiences

[shark-43 · 9 March 2006]

GHOST FEVER is possibly one of the greatest bad movies ever made. MADE might be too strong of a word - regurgitated and somewhat spliced together in an editing bay is maybe more apropos. Hemsley had a lot of faith in this Ghostbusters-like rip-off and it tanked big time and messy lawsuits followed btwn Hemsley and the producers. The director, Lee Madden was so aghast at the finished product he took his name off and they slapped on the infamous Alan Smithee credit. The script is credited to three hacks and the script is truly awful. Terrible. Sucky. Not one good joke. Plenty of groin and crotch humor and a truly offensive scene where they find machines in the basement of a Southern mansion that were used on slaves. One of the machines (which of course Hemsley gets trapped in) has two large hammers coming down close to the person's groin while a device is twirled into their backside (supposedly to give them rhythm!!!) Yikes. Oddly though Hemsley seems to turn over lots of the movie to his co-star Luis Avalos and Avalos gives one of the worst "comedic" performances ever captured on film. His double takes fail, his funny faces, his "fear" of the ghosts, his physical comedy - all of it fails. Yet, because the movie is jawdroppingly incompetent, it is cruelly enjoyable. You keep getting shocked by another terrible set piece. Like when a mummy appears wearing shades a bow-tie and a top hat and proceeds to BREAK DANCE. Then Hemsley and Avalos do a dance number and then when you are begging the movie to end there is a looooong boxing scene where Avalos boxes Smokin Joe Frazier (this scene goes on and on and has not one funny moment). A true cinematic nightmare. Seek it out if you DARE!!!

Sign of the Times

[Hitchcock Poser · 10/10 · 4 February 2000]

Mind you, it has been years since I've seen this movie, almost a decade and a half. But when I did see it, it was fantastic. My brother and I would always rent it if there was nothing better to get. And to us this was a scary movie, we were able to use our imagination (which is why we liked it). We would be scared and be laughing our heads off at the same time. Mind you he was three and I was six. And after I saw Nightmare on Elm St. with a friend of mine a year later, Ghost Fever for some reason just wasn't scary anymore. But it left great memories of childhood. I'm sure we all have the movies from that past that we see now and say "What was I thinking?" and Ghost Fever is one of mine.

A Failed Attempt At Abbott And Costello

[AllNewSux · 7/10 · 10 September 2022]

I just watched this one for the first time and fail to understand the hatred for it. While you could definitely argue about the technical aspects of the film such as editing and ADR work and could note some of the jokes that come across as pretty outdated, it was still an entertaining film. Some people have also complained about a boxing match that appears out of nowhere and it makes me think that either this was a second idea Hemsley had for another film or they just needed a reason to win some quick cash to resolve the eviction subplot of the movie. Either way, who cares because Avalos is hilarious in it. When I heard than Hemsley financed the film it made me think perhaps he and Avalos were going to try to do a new set of Abbott and Costello like pictures but with a slightly more updated adult theme where they play different characters each time but remain in familiar roles. They both look like they are having fun and giving it their all and I wish we could have seen more from the pair. Having vampires, zombies, cemeteries and haunted houses makes a perfect backdrop for that later Abbott/Costello horror comedy formula that worked so well. Overall it is far from perfect, but if you like either lead actor, I think you'll enjoy this film.

Hemsley and Avalos are the Laurel and Hardy of the late eighties!

[sideburnsandbarley · 19 September 2003]

I LOVE THIS FILM!! This movie has everything: A breakdancing ghost, Hemsley in a dual role, Luis Avalos in a hot tub with a sexy ghost. The plot is fairly simple. Avalos and Hemsley (Who swears a lot for a PG film) must investigate a mansion haunted by a ghost of a plantation owner who is also a vampire who runs a zombie factory. Made in 1987, feels like 1982, but don't let that discourage you. It gets a little slow when it turns into a boxing film, but the SHOCKING ending will have you wondering if this was ever meant for kids. Rent it. Buy it. request your local Art House theater to show it on your birthday.

Spooky and spiffy

[Bbluelava · 8/10 · 19 February 2001]

This movie is a pretty good movie, despite its pour visual effects. When I was little my brother and I would watch this movie all the time. It was scary and also funny to us - - at the time that is. It is still a pretty funny movie, but just not as scary. I suggest that if you have a free weekend you rent this movie. It will not disappoint you.

Total Cult Classic

[harmonj-881-594547 · 10/10 · 26 October 2010]

Ghost Fever is one of the greatest "awesomely bad" movies of all time. If you go into watching this movie thinking, "This should be good", prepare to be fantastically disappointed. I remember watching this movie as a kid on HBO. Nothing entertained as much as the "invisible man" dancing in the Grand Ballroom. Sherman Hemsley is definitely the stand-out in the movie. I love his sarcasm and frank humor. The only thing I don't like about the movie is the main antagonist (Beauregard Lee) turning into a vampire at the end. They could have left it out and it would have been a perfectly bad movie. It gets an absolute ten from me, for it's humor and nostalgia.

VERY Underrated

[lastson_01 · 9/10 · 10 February 2005]

I remember seeing this in the video store around 1988, of course I never heard of it because it was a low budget film. But I took the chance and rented it, mostly because Sherman Hemsley was in it. I actually liked it, and watched it many times. I remember when it came on HBO, I taped it and watched it many times.

Sure, there are some cheesy parts in it. But that is what makes it so good. I wish I knew what happened to my copy of it, if by some chance I EVER FIND IT SOMEWHERE. Which I doubt I will I will get it. This movie is no worse than a lot of other movies out there, take for example 28 days later, a movie I could not follow.

Antiquated ethnic comedy

[lor_ · 22 March 2023]

My review was written in November 1987 after watching the film on Charter video cassette.

"Ghost Fever" is an earnest but unsuccessful attempt to resurrect the 1940s style of comedy associated with Abbott & Costello. Heavy dose of strained ethnic humor was released on a regional basis last March and is now a home video item.

Sherman Hemsley and Luis Avalosl poetry Buford and Benny, a pair of cops sent to evict two old ladies from their ante bellum mansion. The place is haunted by a spirit of Beauregard, an evil former slave owner (film's previous title was "Benny and Buford Meet the Bigoted Ghost"), who pulls practical jokes on the hapless heroes, while they dally with the beautiful blonde great-granddaughters of Beauregard. Commenting on the action are two other ghosts. Andy, played by Myron Healey, who is Beauregard's son and Jethro, Buford's ancestor (dual role for Hemsley).

Shenanigans climax pointlessly with Benny agreeing to fight ex-champ Terrible Tucker (played by former Heavyweight champ Joe Frazier) in order to raise money to save the mansion. Predictably dumb finish has the heroes better off dead.

Though Hemsley and Avalos are adequate farceurs, the material is lame and only interesting on a poor taste level (endless dialog referring to "spooks" and a wacky scene of Hemsley reading an illustrated Victorian-era porntome entitled "Groins of the Darker Species"). Pic was directed in Mexico in 1984 by Lee Madden, but anonymous later shooting caused him to have his name removed and fictitious Alan Smithee credited.