The Frighteners

 


The Frighteners (1996)

The Plot: Michael J. Fox sees dead people

The Frighteners is a movie of its time. Made in the mid-90s when CGI was first becoming prominent. Since this is a ghost story we get many, many CGI ghosts floating through objects, being run over by cars, emerging from mirrors, etc. The temptation to go overboard must have been too much to resist. Michael J Fox is a bit of a con man at first since he can see the ghosts, he befriends them in order to have them "haunt" someone so he can then come in and charge a fee so he can remove them. Sort of a con-man Ghostbuster. Sadly, I feel if this was something that could happen in the real world, the amount of Ghostbusting grifters would be many. 

Everyone needs some ghost friends

I've always wondered what kind of clothes ghosts would wear in the afterlife. Luckily, this movie answers that by saying you are stuck with whatever clothes you normally wore the year you died. There is no changing that out in the afterlife. This means one poor ghost from the 70s gets stuck in disco clothes for eternity apparently. I wonder if the other ghosts make fun of him?  Sing Stayin; Alive to him constantly. At least guns still work in the afterlife as an armed Michael J Fox uses machine guns against them once he enters the ghost realm. 

Proof there are firearms in the afterlife

Ultimately, Michael J Fox is forced into a drug induced near death state in order to enter the ghost realm to fight the evil mass murderer ghost played by Jake Busey, which is amazing casting actually. The is a fight that reaches to heaven and hell. Yes, we do get to see a mid-90s CGI version of hell. 

You've got grim reapers in your mirror

The Frighteners relies heavily on mid 90s CGI which dates it. It probably could be remade today with even more CGI but at least it would be better looking than here. I give The Frighteners 6 disco dressed ghosts.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Poltergeist II: The Other Side

Image
Poltergiest II: The Other Side (1986) The Plot: Fleeing from the events of the Original movie, The Freelig family are followed and  once again terrorized by ghosts   Poltergeist II: The Other Side suffers as a movie simply because it follows the great first movie and has the same plot. Sure there are some differences as they enlist the help of a Native American shaman instead of a gypsy medium. Although,  Tangina does show up briefly. It also ratchets up the possessed household objects where we get to see attacks from a chainsaw, electric wire, even Robbie's braces. They're baaaaack!   At first you think it may go a different route when it looks like the super creepy Reverend Kane would be the antagonist, but that turns out not to be the case. Kane is only in a handful of scenes before it's off to the ghosts.  He is really criminally underused here. If the plt of your movie has a golden opportunity to feature an old timey, creepy reverend, the...
Read more

Candyman

Image
Candyman (1992) The Plot: A graduate student working on her thesis on folklore legends finds more than what she bargained for!   Despite the title, there is no candy in Candyman. Instead we get bees. Many, many bees. The worst of which are the bees filling a toilet. Toilet bees should not be a thing. It's probably the most disturbing thing in this movie. We should thank our lucky stars that we don;t have to check our toilets for bees on a regular basis.  My God! Toilet bees!   Candyman tells the story of a boogyman with a hook for a hand that appears when his name is said 5 times while gazing into a mirror. Go ahead, try doing that. I dare you. BWAHAHAHA! Virginia Madsen  doesn't believe this so she does that...and hilarity ensues! OK maybe not, death ensues. But not before she gets kissed by Candyman who has a mouthful of bees! Bee kissing! first bee toilets, now bee kissing. Don't watch this movie if you are scared of bees.  Check out these m...
Read more

Slugs, The Movie

Image
Slugs (1988) The Plot: Toxic waste mutates slugs and the townsfolk get more than they bargained for.   Slugs. Gross but harmless, right? Sure! Until they are exposed to toxic waste, and then they mutate...into killers! Oh you may think they are slow, and that their brains may only hold the most limited ability to only process the most basic functions to survive; but that would only apply to the garden variety non-toxic waste exposed slugs. (pun intended) Mike Brady, yes, Mike Brady,is the head of the department of health in a sleepy little town who gets caught up in the investigation of some mysterious deaths in town. He is the first to theorize that slugs are the culprit.  Of course, most people think he's nuts. But Mike Brady always gets his gastropod mollusc. These aren't your garden variety slugs   These slugs show no mercy. and the death toll is high. 11 people. Yes, 11 people die by slug in this movie. The hunt in packs so the question is, are there a g...
Read more