Rating: 
Summary: Visually stunning, non-stop fun!
Review: Peter Jackson is a visual genius, and here he works with some really wonderful special effects as well as fun and energetic performances to create an underrated joy ride of a thriller that pulls out all stops. Michael J. Fox is pitch perfect, Dee Wallace Stone is a blast, the creepy ghoul is awesome, and Danny Elfman's score is spectacular! Unpredictable, funny, suspenseful, and even a little scary at times, "The Frighteners" is one fun little horror film!
Rating: 
Summary: The Frighteners
Review: The Frighteners was the best movie I ever saw! Great special effects - I loved the ghosts! And give my regards to whoever did Michael's hair! ;)
Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT MOVIE, BAD DVD
Review: Peter Jackson approaches his own script with the kind of technique most Hollywood directors wouldn't ever even imagine. Jackson has his own and unique brand of movie-making and this is a perfect example of how to make an original and superior film.Michael J. Fox (who looks like he did some working out for the role) plays Frank Bannister, a Psychic investigGATOR, who pursues a strange and sinister cloaked figure who seems to be terrorizing both the physical and supernatural world. That's all I'm going to tell because I don't want to ruin it for you. Universal tried to sell the film totally on it's wonderful SFX. But this was in a year when audiences were wowed by the superficial FX of ID4 and didn't really care about a bunch of ghosts. The Frighteners is criminally under-rated and underseen so I suggest you run down to your local store and either buy/rent the DVD/VHS right now. You'll love it. Hopefully, now that LOTR is on the horizon, Jackson will get a lot more respect and credibility in Hollywood and Universal might release the directors cut of The Frighteners on DVD complete with the 4-hour documentary (yes you heard me) that covers every area of the film's production. But this DVD is barebones, with 1 trailer and a couple of boring production notes. It is Dolby 5.1 and is anamorphically enhanced at 2.40:1.
Rating:
Summary: A Frighteningly Good Time
Review: This film is horribly underrated and appreciated. It deserved so much more attention. This Peter Jackson directed film stars Michael J. Fox as a sort of ghostbuster. But he's a con. He has two ghost friends that he sends out to haunt somebody so they can call him and give him some business. Then he is put to the test when a ghost believed to be the grim reaper starts terrorizing the town and taking souls. The identity of the ghost is not who we originally thought it was. The movie is filmed with a cold, spooky, eerie feel. Michael J. Fox does a fantastic job as Frank Bannister. Former "Addams Family" star John Astin is absolutely unrecognizable as the ghost named 'Judge'. He is really impressive in his too short role. Dee Wallace Stone also turns into a magnetic performance. The first opening minutes are a classic. Worth your time.
Rating: 
Summary: Average at best
Review: Frank Bannister (Michael J. Fox) is a fraudulent paranormal detective who isn't that well liked by most people. It doesn't seem like things can get any worse than they already are, but they do when he finds out that some ghosts, headed by the Grim Reaper, are killing several people. I'm a huge fan of both comedy movies and horror movies, so I figured that I'd like "The Frighteners," but unfortunately I was wrong. "The Frighteners" tries to be a comedy movie during the first half of the film and it tries even harder to be a horror flick the last half. It didn't even make me grin the whole time, and when it got to the 'scary' parts, it didn't make me compelled to watch it in the least sense. Another thing that I didn't like was that it went a little too far in depicting heaven, hell, and the Grim Reaper. But "The Frighteners" isn't all bad. I have to admit that it does have great special effects. In my opinion, "The Frighteners" isn't a good movie and I would say that its special effects are the only good quality of it. But then again, I haven't ever been a fan of the type of 'comedy' that it depicts, which is roughly the same as the comedy in "Scary Movie" and "Celtic Pride." Most people seem to really like this movie for some reason, so you might want to try it out, but myself, I don't recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Good, Funny, Frightening, Suspenseful
Review: This film is a parody, a funny horror film. A mass killer and his teenage accomplice go on the rampage in a hospital and kill a great number of people. The mass killer is electrocuted. His accomplice is sentenced to a prison term and freed after a while provided she remains under the control of her mother who makes her a recluse. This mother is the real cause of her love for the mass killer : she evades her mother's victimization and choking control this way. After her release from prison, she submits to her mother's victimization in the most humble way. But the mass killer comes back and kills many other people by frightening them into a massive heart attack. The hero, Franck, is in touch with some ghosts and he tries with these friends to neutralize and send the mass killer's ghost, along with his lover, into the limbos of hell. It is thus a parody of many other films in the horror field, but there is a heavy load of humor, even if morbid humor, in his fight against the essential killing ghost thanks to the FBI agent who is completely crazy. An entertaining film that you must watch to have a giggle and to reflect on this idea that executed criminals come back to go on with their crimes, turning the film into a denunciation of the death penalty, because a crazy criminal becomes a crazy ghost after his execution. It is in a way a call for treatment for those criminals, even if they might be executed afterwards, though it would not be justified then. If they are, at least they will be sane ghosts. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
Rating:
Summary: Under-Appreciated Fun Film!
Review: I saw this movie back when it came out in 1996. The theatre was empty and I wasn't expecting much. But I was pleasantly surprised. It was funny, scary, and highly entertaining. I told all my friends to watch the film and they all loved it. Watch this film!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Underrated horror comedy
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Good stuff...Good stuff...but...
Review: Right off the bat in frightners you know you are in for a good ride. It starts with a wall-and-carpet surfing phantom chasing a young girl through a "bates motel" like house. The segment, one of many, leaves you on the edge, whether or not she get's it. Frighteners has something to offer that is definately unique: A funny rip roar into the horror and thriller world. I will go ahead a get the bad stuff out of the way. First off, in the tv preview, there is a scene that makes the hint that we are going to see Micheal and the ghost's meet the first time. Well, this scene...the one that looked the coolest (him sitting in a chair while the ghost's taunt him)...wasn't in the film. Eh, buzzer. Second off, why in the heck was this movie "R"? Not since last of the mohicans has a movie been so openly plastered with the wrong rating (Look at mars Attacks, for instance)! But it is still not appropriate for some. Thirdly, the cowboy ghost. He had no purpose, and yes he was funny at times, but the poor bone dropping roper could have been left out. (The jumping into the casket and rollicking with the dead corpse scene should have been left out! Tacky!) Now, the good stuff. This is for Tim Burton buffs. Even though he didn't direct it, you still get that Burton feeling. Micheal J. Fox rocks, of course, as an expert on the paranormal. There is a character in this movie so befitting Jim Carey, that I wonder why they couldn't fork out a few more bucks and get him to do it. The character is a nervous and wacky investigator that lightens up the mood (exactly opposite - but just as well as Fox.) This is a definate 4 out of 5 star movie, and could have been a little better, but heck no movie is perfect. Frighters all in all, is a re-watcher!
Rating:
Summary: The hyperkinetic manic director
Review: This movie is an exercise in manic excess. The special effects are entertaining to a point, but without any human characters to care about, this movie descends into eye-candy quicksand. The plot is bizarre and uninvolving (some may say quirky), the humor is juvenile, and it's not very funny seeing ghosts doing pratfalls that would elicit groans if humans were to do the same. Some scenes were inventive, but they're drowned under reams of gratuitous action and computer effects. Michael J. Fox would have been interesting as a sort of grown-up version of Joel Osment in "The Sixth Sense", but his character takes a backseat to paranormal chaos. In the "Sixth Sense", what the spirits can do is sharply delineated (and their appearances more sparce), which adds awe and terror to the story. "The Frighteners", on the other hand, doesn't play by the rules, allowing apparitions to walk through walls and yet get splattered by trucks for the sake of clever special effects. One gets confused trying to understand what the hell hurts these ghosts, when in one scene a car can usher them away while in another a fist or weapon does no damage. The result is a contradictory and undeveloped script.
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