The Frighteners

R

Released Jul 19, 1996

1 hr. 49 min.

Fantasy

Comedy

List

67%

43 Reviews

Tomatometer

71%

50,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Once an architect, Frank Bannister (Michael J. Fox) now passes himself off as an exorcist of evil spirits. To bolster his facade, he claims his "special" gift is the result of a car accident that killed his wife. But what he does not count on is more people dying in the small town where he lives. As he tries to piece together the supernatural mystery of these killings, he falls in love with the wife (Trini Alvarado) of one of the victims and deals with a crazy FBI agent (Jeffrey Combs).

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Critics Consensus

Boasting top-notch special effects and exuberant direction from Peter Jackson, The Frighteners is visually striking but tonally uneven.

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Albert R

Starts as a comedy, but turns into a true horror movie. I've of Michael J Fox's best.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

10/10/21

Full Review

Michael S

Easily one of the most entertaining films I've ever seen. It's an absolute shame how bad it did at the box office. The cast is excellent, the soundtrack is awesome & the humor totally works. Michael J. Fox is amazing, miss him in cinema.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

04/01/24

Full Review

Teddy B

Peter Jackson's direction is spot-on, but the plot is just undercooked enough and Michael. J. Fox is very much miscast to not make this a great swan song for Peter Jackson's exuberant and audacious filmography as a cult director.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/10/24

Full Review

Dallas H

Although this movie is a notch in the Hollywood careers of Michael J. Fox and Peter Jackson, it feels like a chaotic mess. Fox is at his peak during the 80s on through to the mid-90s. Jackson was building his career as a director before he landed the sweet production deal of a lifetime with the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The Frighteners feels like a "Chaotic Neutral" story to me. It gives the vibes of being everywhere at once while following a traditionally linear storyline. And I'm not sure how I feel about all the supernatural ghosts being original to this movie's story except for the randomly unoriginal cameo appearance of R. Lee Ermey in what seems to be a direct copycat of his role in Full Metal Jacket.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/04/24

Full Review

Lance U

Although the "comedy" in this movie is as atrocious now, as it was when originally released, this underrated, wonderful gem of a cult classic, co-written & directed by ‘The Great' Peter Jackson, (years before he would take home Oscar gold with his LOTR Trilogy, and his remake of the 1933 classic'King Kong')! So, if you haven't watched ‘The Frighteners', I highly recommend you do! B~

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

12/04/23

Full Review

Wayne K

The Frighteners was the last film Peter Jackson made before changing the cinematic landscape a few years later with the Lord Of The Rings trilogy. Jackson established his directorial career with horror comedies, some low budget, some middling budget, and The Frighteners is on the higher end of the monetary scale. It's a fun story about a conman who sells bogus house cleansings, but ends up having to do some real good when Death literally comes to town and starts picking people off left, right and centre with no rhyme or reason. The dead effects are really well done, especially on the Judge, a Wild West gunslinger whose jaw is only tenuously connected to his body, and the mystery itself is fun to decipher, but the film is tonally all over the place. It seems like it's going to shift from being a jovial, knockabout comedy to a serious, life-threatening drama in some crucial moments, but instead it jumps back and forth, so you're never sure whether you're supposed to be laughing at what you're watching or feeling shocked by it. Jeffrey Combs provides a remarkably over the top performance, never allowing an inch of scenery to go unchewed, and Michael J. Fox does well in his final leading role. It's an enjoyable movie to watch, but wildly uneven, but if it's what convinced studio executives that Jackson was the man to helm the LOTR films, then it's a movie we should be profoundly thankful for.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

11/06/23

Full Review

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Peter Jackson

Director

Michael J. Fox

Frank Bannister

Trini Alvarado

Dr. Lucy Lynskey

Peter Dobson

Ray Lynskey

John Astin

The Judge

Jeffrey Combs

Milton Dammers

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The Frighteners: Official Clip - Back from Hell

3:00

The Frighteners: Official Clip - A-Hole with an Uzi

2:15

The Frighteners: Official Clip - Death Comes for Lucy

2:38

The Frighteners: Official Clip - Frank Bannister in Action

3:29

The Frighteners: Official Clip - Sergeant Spook

1:34

The Frighteners: Official Clip - Fleeing the Reaper

3:00

The Frighteners: Official Clip - Death in the Restroom

2:04

The Frighteners: Official Clip - Psycho Killers

2:39

The Frighteners: Official Clip - African American Apparition Coalition

1:46

The Frighteners: Official Clip - Fighting Death

3:00

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Gene Siskel

Chicago Tribune

[Michael J.] Fox seems to be trying to get hip in the movies, and he's lost his way here.

Rated: 2/4

Aug 23, 2017

Full Review

Todd McCarthy

Variety

Story was originally conceived as an episode of "Tales From the Crypt," and that is perhaps what it should have remained, as the thinness of the conceit shows throughout, painfully so in the first half.

Mar 26, 2009

Full Review

Nigel Floyd

Time Out

At times the relentless special effects and tangled plotting veer towards visual and narrative overkill, but the final tonal swerve is shocking and effective.

Jan 26, 2006

Full Review

Patrick Cavanaugh

The Wolfman Cometh

The rare horror-comedy that is both funny and creepy, thanks to the charming cast and the inventive direction.

Rated: 4/5

Sep 22, 2023

Full Review

James Croot

Stuff.co.nz

Twenty-five years on and what's striking about The Frighteners is how well the effects and Jackson's tension-building have held up.

Rated: 3.5/5

Oct 27, 2021

Full Review

Travis Johnson

Mr. Movie's Film Blog

The Frighteners is absolutely bursting with the desire to entertain.

Aug 8, 2021

Full Review

Read all reviews

Synopsis

Once an architect, Frank Bannister (Michael J. Fox) now passes himself off as an exorcist of evil spirits. To bolster his facade, he claims his "special" gift is the result of a car accident that killed his wife. But what he does not count on is more people dying in the small town where he lives. As he tries to piece together the supernatural mystery of these killings, he falls in love with the wife (Trini Alvarado) of one of the victims and deals with a crazy FBI agent (Jeffrey Combs).

Director: Peter Jackson
Executive Producer: Robert Zemeckis
Screenwriter: Fran Walsh, Peter Jackson
Distributor: MCA/Universal Pictures [us]
Production Co: Universal Pictures, WingNut Films
Rating: R
Genre: Fantasy, Comedy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jul 19, 1996, Original
Release Date (Streaming): May 8, 2015
Box Office (Gross USA): $16.5M
Sound Mix: Stereo, DTS, Surround
Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)

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