literally like a living cartoon so unbelievably goofy i was having the time of my life
Once an architect, Frank Bannister 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 of one of the victims and deals with a crazy FBI agent.
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Cast & crew
6What people say
The jovial 90s charm of Robert Zemeckis and the wild wackiness of Peter Jackson’s early foray into horror-comedies combine to create a movie about Michael J. Fox and his ghost friends trying to save the future of cinema from a reliance on CGI special effects. Spoiler alert: they failed. The VFX here were lauded in 1996; I don’t really have a problem with them as a staple of their time, especially since they still kick the ass of many, many films that came out well over a decade later, but yeah I’m not going to pretend they haven’t aged like milk in comparison to the vast majority of (my most used word pairing on Letterboxd) practical effects. Doesn’t really matter though, because the big highlight here isn’t anything to do with the ghosts themselves—it’s the three-way tie between Dee Wallace, Jake Busey, and Jeffrey Combs for who can ham it up more as a total fucking weirdo. Jackson really, really, REALLY needs to go back to doing shit like this. Fuck a hobbit, mane.
We, as a people, have failed The Frighteners. Needs more attention. Worth it for an extra slimy Jeffrey Combs alone.
Common questions
What is The Frighteners about?+
A con man who uses fake exorcisms aided by real ghosts gets caught up in a series of actual supernatural murders in his small town.
Who directed The Frighteners?+
The Frighteners was directed by Peter Jackson in 1996, prior to his work on epic fantasy adaptations.
Find showtimes for The Frighteners on Mood.+
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