The Frighteners
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Movie Reviews of The Frighteners
Movie Review: BEST MJ FOX MOVIE SINCE BACK TO THE FUTURE
Summary: 5 Stars
Frank Bannister is a simple single man with an average life eccept for one problem. HE CAN SO GHOSTS!!!!! He even lives with some and befriends them. The biginning of this movie makes you think it's gonna be a stupid ghost/comedy movie that Michael J. Fox has wasted his time on. WELL IT'S NOT. Close to the middle of the movie is when the horror begins. In other words, All Hell Breaks Loose starting with this part of the movie. Frank notices a very creepy looking spirit flying around and killing people in his town. It seems that it reaches inside its victums and squeezes their hearts until they they stop. This creature looks just like the grim reaper, complete with cloaked body and sythe in hand. Frank attempts to stop it with the help of his ghost friends but with little affect. Frank can see who it will come after next because just before they die, he notices they have numbers carved into their foreheads. Trying to save people, however, only makes him become a suspect in this murder spree. When this evil spirit starts coming after the women he's in love with, having already lost his wife in a car crash, he takes this save the victums thing to a whole new level. He trys an out-of-body expierence to fight the evil spirit hand to hand. This was one of the great special effects scene. Another good special effects scene is when victums die and float up into the spirit world. There is a huge cloudy spiral and everything. This movie has funny parts early on but middle to end is terrifing, slasher , blood and guts horror. Michael J. Fox does a great acting job. If you barely like him at all you will love The Frighteners.Movie Review: Underrated horror comedy
Summary: 5 Stars
THE FRIGHTENERS is an anomaly among horror films. It has no bad acting, no sex-starved teenagers, or any other of the trappings that give horror movies a bad name. Instead it is well acted, by the entire cast, and the plot is very original. Plus it is very funny too.Michael J. Fox plays a man who speaks to deceased people who have yet to make a transition to the afterlife. He also sees numbers on the foreheads of the living who are about to become victims of a serial killer who may have literally cheated death. Of course, his "ability" brings suspicion instead of respect. And you can guess who is a suspect at this point.
There are a lot of great things that can be said for THE FRIGHTENERS like the plot and the special effects. But the characters are the true strength of the movie. John Astin is funny as a ghost. As is the dead drill sergeant who is played by the same actor, who was a DS in real life, as the DS in FULL METAL JACKET. Jeffrey Combs is great as the FBI agent who reminds you of someone who walked out of one of H.P. Lovecraft's stories. There are more characters, but those are my favorites.
This was directed by Peter Jackson, who also directed the ultra gory classics BAD TASTE and DEAD/ALIVE. For a time, I thought Jackson fell off the face of the earth because this movie did not quite do that well at the box office. But from what I hear Jackson directed the upcoming LORD OF THE RINGS movies. If he put half the effort into LOTR that he did into THE FRIGHTENERS, audiences are going to be in for a treat.
Movie Review: A well thought out horror/comedy
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of those well done movies that balances several genres into a single story. On the one hand, you have Bannister's (Fox) tragic character who never fully got over the death of his wife. And his grief has made him pretty self destructive, so he's fallen from a successful and wealthy architect to a con-man living in his own, half-finished masterpiece. On the flipside of this are his partners in crime, the ghosts who scare Bannister's potential clients into hiring him in the first place. The humor gets pretty bizarre at times, but actually balances very well with the other story elements. Things go from grim, to funny, and back again just when they should. The third angle is the almost gothic and equally bizarre horror element to the story, where the ghost of a dead serial killer shows up as the bad guy. Bannister, the broken down wreck who can barely keep himself together is the only one who can see the killer. Yet even he's powerless to stop his enemy. Even worse, the wonderfully played FBI agent (Jeffrey Combs) has pegged Bannister as the "wacko" killer, though it's clear that the agent is the most deranged of all. Trini Alvarado does an excellent job as his potential love interest. She's a little naive, but strong willed.If you like well thought out, thinking man's horror (instead of just the slash'em up variety) and have a dark (or even twisted) sense of humor, you'll like this movie.
Movie Review: One of the few genuinely scary films
Summary: 5 Stars
I don't know why I'm bothering since there are already 70 revies of this film, but I'm just compelled to do this. The Frighteners is probably the best horror movie ever made. Most films in that genre rely on gore or sudden action to scare there audience, but Peter Jackson is having none of that. This film builds its creepyness into a frenzy that you should not watch alone in the dark. What makes this film so good at scaring you is the way Jackon's story weaves the ordinary life of Frank Banister (Fox) from a chance encounter with some truly evil people, into a vice-like grip where Banister must break free or be brought down himself. And when I say that the villians in this film are evil, I don't me the typical horror movie "I'm a phychopath, so I kill people" evil, no Jackson gives them motivations that hit you where you live.
Without giving anything away, let me conclude by saying that this movie is a masterpiece of horror worthy of Hitchcock (OK, that may be going a bit far, but not much). It has almost no gore (and what's there is mild) yet it delivers a spooky, chilling aptmosphere that will linger long after you swich off your set. The perfomances by the actors are top knotch and Peter Jackson does a masterful job of blending drama and comidy while still delivering a deep and complex plot.
See it today, but don't see it alone.
Movie Review: Love the Film , Questionable Rating Again.when will the MPAA learn?
Summary: 5 Stars
The Frighteners is really treat for families with older kids and adults. the real shame is that this film was slapped with an R rating, i'm not sure why because they're nothing that warrant it in the film ( they're no nudity or F bombs in it). just a film filled with humor and some scary parts for fun, so i'd recommend it to anyone with older kids as some parts are a bit scary for little kids so i'd say probably 12 and up could see it. I'd give this film a PG rating also, not an R shame on The MPAA for giving it a hard rating when it did'nt deserve it in the first place. so if you like slightly scary films with humor in them than this is for you, plus it's a fun story. it reminded me of some Alfred Hitchcock films and tv stuff for some reason. the cast does a great job in it. this Peter Jackson's american debut as filmmaker.
So Parents should rent and screen this themselves to see if they'd like to show their kids this, like i said before. they're nothing in it that's terrible other than langauge and scary moments in the film besides that, nothing else comes to mind . have a frightful, laughful time with The Frighteners it's a really treat.
So i'd Give A PG Rating or at lease a 13. but not what it got,the MPAA really messed up with this one.