Horror Extreme Movie Catalog

I saw a small part of this movie on tv and stopped right away because I wanted to see it all. I looked everywhere trying to find it. Due to the age of the movie online was my only option. This movie is wonderful. I'm normally not into 'scary' movies. This movie has such a wonderful balance of fun and scary, it is a MUST SEE!

Yet another horror movie in which I found little redeeming value, despite universally positive reviews...The Frighteners. This is another movie that attempts to tackle the near impossible task of successfully fusing horror and comedy, and as with most others of its kind, I felt it failed quite miserably. Strongly lacking in horror, jokes that range from tacky to just plain goofy, and jam packed some of the cheesiest CGI you've ever laid eyes on, I'm stunned at the overall 4.5 star rating.

The movie uses this principle: Sometimes when a person under-goes a traumatic event, they gain some sort of phenomenol ability (Or something like that). In Frank Banister's case, he is involved in a car accident and in turn is able to visualize the spirits of the dead among us. So Frank is a con man who uses his ghost buddies to scare people around town in order to rake in clients for his ghost hunting business. When a malevolent spirit comes to town and starts claiming victims, ghosts and humans alike, Frank needs to put aside his selfish ways and save the town. And he needs to solve the mystery of a serial killer. And have an out of body experience to battle the evil ghost. And save his girlfriend all while evading the police...Honestly there is so much going on in this movie, you just have to see it for yourself to even begin to grasp what's going on here.

This is clearly a movie that at its time of release was all about the special effects, and not much else. As I mentioned it is over-brimming with really dated looking CGI, and in addition to the movie's subject matter being goofy to begin with, it really only enhances the corniness. In fact if you edited out some of the language and the brief gory moments, I really do think this could pass as a kids movie. The "humor"? A crusty old ghost makes some sort of comment aluding to erectile dysfunction if that's any indication as to what kind of classy flick we're dealing with here. On top of that, most of the characters are unlikable such as Frank, boring like his girlfriend, and others are just plain obnoxious like the two serial killers. The only saving grace, which should come as no surprise, was Jeffrey Combs as the weirdo FBI agent. He was the only thing remotely interesting and funny, as well as being menacing at times.

Overall The Frighteners struck me as a dud as it didn't scare me or make me laugh as it apparently was intended to. I guess I learned that just because Peter Jackson's name is on it doesn't make it a winner. For Jeff Combs fans, this one is a must. Otherwise I'd say you can safely skip this one.