A ghost-busting cross between Fawlty Towers and Blithe Spirit, Neil Jordan's boil-in-the-bag Beetle Juice goes for Ealing whimsy and easy laughs and, incredibly, manages both in spite of such a slender plot. Peter O'Toole hits the right note of craziness as a "haunted" castle owner whose staff of fake spectres battle real poltergeists during the American tourist season, with suitably madcap results. However, too many desperate characters veer off into so many disparate subplots that complete Carry On Screaming-style satisfaction is never achieved.

When a hotelier attempts to fill the chronic vacancies at his castle by launching an advertising campaign that falsely portrays the property as haunted, two actual ghosts show up and end up falling for two guests.