“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!
