Ghost Fever (1987) Spoiler-Free Summary – What It's About

In the sweltering heat of Greendale County, Georgia, a routine eviction notice becomes the gateway to a world where the past refuses to stay buried. The crumbling plantation at the heart of the story is steeped in history, its grand rooms echoing with memories that have never truly rested. As the living step onto the ancestral grounds, they quickly discover that the house is far from empty; mischievous spirits linger, yearning to protect what they consider theirs.

Detective Buford, a hard‑headed city cop played with swagger by Sherman Hemsley, is the film’s driving force. He approaches the supernatural with the same relentless determination he brings to any case, treating restless ghosts as another kind of criminal to be apprehended. His no‑nonsense attitude collides with a reality that bends logic, setting up a dynamic tension between law‑and‑order protocol and the untamed realm of the afterlife.

Joining Buford are his partner Benny, whose street‑wise sensibility balances the detective’s rigidity, and a pair of enigmatic sisters, Linda and Lisa, who inhabit the mansion and seem to know more about its lingering inhabitants than anyone else. When a seasoned medium, Madame St. Esprit, is called in to make sense of the spectral activity, the air crackles with an uneasy mix of dread and dark humor. The ghosts themselves, including former owner Andrew Lee and the tragic former slave Jethro, hover between helpful mischief and stubborn resistance, hinting at deeper ties to the land.

The film sways between Southern gothic melancholy and off‑beat comedy, inviting the audience to feel the weight of history while laughing at the absurdity of a detective chasing phantoms. It paints a portrait of a place where the living and the dead are forced into a fragile partnership, each wary of the other’s motives, and where every creak in the floorboards promises a new, uncanny discovery.