Ghost Graduation (2012)

A young teacher can't seem to keep a job because of his special gift... he's able to see and talk to spirits.  When he finally gets a job at a new school, it's inhabited by five spirits of students who died in a library fire in 1986.  Can he put his talent to use and help them move on?

Ghost Graduation (2012) is a Spanish, quirky mix of "Ghostbusters" and "The Breakfast Club".  The start of the film shows a young Modesto (Raúl Arévalo) when he sees his first ghost... he dances with a young girl at a school dance to
"Total Eclipse of the Heart", only to be mocked by his classmates and he realizes he's the only one who can see her.

Grown-up Modesto is a teacher, bouncing from job to job because his "gift" has affected his work and put him in therapy.  He finally ends up at a school where five teens died in a library fire during a party in 1986.  The school no longer throws parties and is in danger of being closed because of all the strange happenings with students and staff.

Modesto learns from the ghost haunting his therapist's office (the therapist's dead father, who was also a therapist, of course) that spirits need to complete their unfinished business in order to move on.  These ghosts need to graduate high school!

I felt really bad for the literature teacher who was trying to teach Shakespeare (Hamlet, what else for a ghost story?) and only wanted to make a photocopy of a relevant passage in the English version.  It was reminiscent of the library scene in "Ghostbusters".  I found the constant book-flapping hilarious, especially when you could see the ghost doing it.

There were many, many laugh out loud moments in this movie, despite the subtitles... I counted sixteen LOLs, but I'm pretty sure I missed quite a few because I was laughing so much.  Modesto's cry of "No, I'm very unstable... like Jello!" struck me as funny, as well as many of the pranks and comments by the staff.

Since this is in Spanish, and subtitled, it is very bad for crafting unless you can craft without looking or are fluent in Spanish.  My two years of High School Spanish did not cut it.  But if you're nostalgic for the '80s like I am, or love a funny, supernatural ghost story, watch it anyway.  It's a cute romance wrapped in a story about people, living and dead, who have a hard time talking about stuff.

There is some female nudity, a lesbian kiss, some adult situations, and a male mooning that will not soon be forgotten... just a warning for the pearl-clutchers.  Definitely find it on Netflix.  If you like it, maybe you'll want an import DVD or suitable Blu-ray.