THE FRIGHTENERS (1996)
Save your pea brain prattle for the classroom, boy. That was the soul collector and he's been taking people out since time began. He's been going about some dark business here in Fairwater and we ain't nothing but worm bait. When your number's up, that's it...
A mystery heart condition is killing people in the town of Fairwater and the body count is racking up. There's also an old house where an old lady lives with her daughter, Patricia. Patricia was involved in a mass murder back in the day where killer Johnny Bartlett killed 12 people in a hospital.
Dr Lucy Lynskey has moved to this town recently with her husband Ray and one day Frank, the local town psychic investigator gets distracted and drives onto their lawn, destroying their fence. Soon after they experience a haunting with their bed levitating and dishes being thrown around. They're left with no choice but to call Frank to help them. He says he will if they call it even for the fence. He gets rid of the ghosts and then leaves them.
Back at Frank's half built house we realize he can see ghosts and has three of them that work with him; The Judge, Cyrus and Stuart. They play a con game where they haunt houses and then Frank goes and charges a tone to fix it. He needs $15K to save his house but after the newspaper publishes a damning article about him he finds himself out of work.
Then Ray dies and Lucy reaches out to Frank to talk to him for her. They meet at a restaurant and Frank, who can see Ray, relays the conversation for Lucy. After Ray gets mad and spills a drink all over Frank, he heads to the bathroom where he sees an old man die, killed by a nasty spirit who pulls the life right out of him.
So now it's up to Frank to save the town - who is this terrifying spirit? And how is Patricia involved? And why does Frank keep seeing numbers on peoples foreheads?
Alright...so what did I love about this movie?
- It's directed by Peter Jackson who is a god send and does a great job with this film. It's also written by him and Fran Walsh (I LOVE YOU FRAN) and you can really see their sense of humor shine.
- The FBI agent - Milton Dammers is so fucking weird and creepy and hilarious. He's spent his entire career being forced to go under cover in all of the most fucked up cults.
- Patricia's backstory with Bartlett was so clever and I didn't see it coming. I'm a sucker for a bunch of murderous looney tunes in love.
- The ghosts are hilarious!
- Most of the effects hold up pretty well in a ghostbusters kind of way.
- I watched the directors cut so it actually kind of dragged on way too long in some parts.
Overall?
I've never seen this one before but I really loved it. Just a classic goofy ghost story with some great one liners and murder thrown in. Michael J. Fox unsurprisingly nails his role and is a delight to watch although sadly this was his last leading role in a movie. Dee Wallace was also stunning!
It's just a fun Halloween type movie and I luuuurved it.
8/10
Alright, one more movie to watch today and then I should be back on schedule!
Stay spooky!
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