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The Frighteners (1996)
R (US) | New Zealand, USA | English | 110 min
Directed by: Peter Jackson
6.6
After a car accident in which his wife, Debra, was killed and he was injured, Frank Bannister develops psychic abilities allowing him to see, hear, and communicate with ghosts. After losing his wife, he then gave up his job as an architect, letting his unfinished "dream house" sit incomplete for years, and put these skills to use by befriending a few ghosts and getting them to haunt houses in the area to drum up work for his ghostbusting business; Then Frank proceeds to "exorcise" the houses for a fee. But when he discovers that an entity resembling the Grim Reaper is killing people, marking numbers on their forehead beforehand, Frank tries to help the people whom the Reaper is after!
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Storyline
After a car accident in which his wife, Debra, was killed and he was injured, Frank Bannister develops psychic abilities allowing him to see, hear, and communicate with ghosts. After losing his wife, he then gave up his job as an architect, letting his unfinished "dream house" sit incomplete for years, and put these skills to use by befriending a few ghosts and getting them to haunt houses in the area to drum up work for his ghostbusting business; Then Frank proceeds to "exorcise" the houses for a fee. But when he discovers that an entity resembling the Grim Reaper is killing people, marking numbers on their forehead beforehand, Frank tries to help the people whom the Reaper is after!
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Cast & Crew
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Videos (1)
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Release Date
USA
(Universal City, California) (premiere)
1996-07-17
USA
No data
1996-07-19
Colombia
No data
1996-08-01
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Also Known As (A.K.A.)
The Frighteners
(Original title)
Muertos de miedo
Argentina
Los Espectros
Argentina (tv title)
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Parent Guide
Sex & Nudity
Mild
A ghost has sex with a mummy in a coffin in a museum. Mostly offscreen(we see a little ghostly movement) commenting that he "...likes it when they don't move."
In the bedroom, husband solicits his wife for sex; they are interrupted.
Two people kiss and have fun, The man goes on top of a woman and kisses.
None sex
A man says he was his family's sex slave for six months
Violence & Gore
Moderate
A ghost gets shot in the side of the ear by an old ghost from the wild west making a gape and blood squirts out and flies from his "body", a mention that the bullet would've killed him.
A dead elderly woman who was stabbed multiple times by a large knife is seen in the bed with lots of blood on the pillows and the walls with splat blood
There is a flashback where a mass murder in a hospital has many people shot with shotguns and lying in pools of blood; bloody numbers are carved in their foreheads., we see violence such as blood leaking from their mouths and faces etc well the blood looks fake anyways
A young man prepares to shoot himself in the head in order to become a ghost and battle "Death." (Instead a woman freezes the man in a controlled fashion where she should be able to bring him back from the dead of hypothermia.)
Drill Sergeant Hartman's ghost/spirit throws a man in the tomb and gets split in half and dies while firing his machine gun in the air. Cartoonish no gore.
Drill Sargant ghost punches a man and a man falls onto the ground. The man tries punching him but gets his hand on a shield hurting it. He turns into war mode and fires his machine guns around the cemetery
A ghost terrorizes a woman in the house. The woman cuts her hand in an opening scene by crashing dishes from a shelf of cups and a counter. The carpets move and the walls have ghosts in it so does the ceiling. The woman heads up the stairs where the ghost follows her and the elderly woman shoots the carpet figure in the head with a shotgun.
After dying, woman is grabbed by a man a man takes her back down but instead they go to hell. There are red, writhing snakes and worms. The snakes go in their mouths and tangle their bodies and the pedal closes in.
There's an antique film footage of the aftermath of a serial killer's hospital killing spree where twelve people were killed. Later it states that the killer was executed in the electric chair.
"Death" tears off a young ghost's face and his "remains" are then tossed onto a woman car (but of course she can't see any of this). After the ghost dies, it is completely dead.
A man's two ghost friends fight with "Death" to keep him from killing a woman. One of them is crushed and his "soul" is taken by "Death." The FBI agent prepares to shoot the man but the woman sprays a fire extinguisher on him. The man then kicks the agent and grabs his gun.
One FBI agent bashes a woman into a hospital wall. She in turn elbows him in the gut and then hits him in the face. He then chases her to the elevator but locks it so he can't get in
There's a long sequence at a museum party where a young man tries to warn the next victim, but the police arrive and then shoot their guns at him . Meanwhile the Judge ghost arrives and shoots his pistols at "Death" who in turn cuts the judge in half with his Scythe.
A man knocks out the next victim, throws her over his shoulder and carries her out to his car where the police fire their guns at his escaping car. Death then flies by trying to get her, his scythe ripping through the roof of the car and nearly cutting the man's throat. The car wrecks, the man has flashbacks to when his wife died in a similar car wreck, and then "Death" comes along and kills the woman.
Patricia grabs a large kitchen knife and then comes after Lucy, swinging and stabbing the knife at her. Moments later she starts firing shots at Lucy and then at Lucy and Bannister.
A man's ghost is thrown down into a grave by a Drill Sargant where he comes face to face with a decomposed corpse with worms crawling in its face. The ghost shoots death with a machine gun until death falls apart where the ghost of a serial killer is splat on a grave. The Reaper goes to a burial vault and fights with him. The ghost grabs a grim reaper spear about to finish him off but wakes up saved from the defibrillator basically reviving him from his hypothermia.
A man and a woman are brutally beaten by the villains. One bashes the woman on the head with the butt of her shotgun and then strangles the man to death. She then prepares to do Lucy in with a pick axe, but the man's ghost shows up and kills the villain sucking the soul out of her.
An old skeleton are seen leaning out of coffins when opened and more hauntings occurs, one opens and hits a man on the head while chasing a woman whom he tries to attack. The woman then smacks the man in the face while chasing her.
A man has marks all over his torso that represents all the missions he had with the FBI and the pain and agony he had to face in those missions. He also revealed that he was involved of the Manson family murders.
In a cell, the Grim Reaper stabs another ghost in the head. His ghost body deflates off like a balloon onto the ground and he dies in his cell, we later see him go to heaven.
A man sees a ghost through the stall and a Grim Reaper goes through a mirror, one man in a public bathroom gets his soul sucked out of him in a heart attack by the Reaper and dies instantly, we see his body go to heaven
A ghost gets buried in his own burial spot. He falls underground then onto his own coffin where he sees his body, he tries going back up. His head is seen from the ground while he is shoveled dirt on him being ignored.
A ghost falls in a burial spot on his own body and screams. Then he starts getting dug up and pleads for help getting ignored, as if he were about to drown.
The Grim Reaper gets run over by a truck. One man gets his ghost face run over a few times. Some ghosts get flattened or squished with cartoonish effects all not bloody.
Johnny Bartlett's soul is in a Mona Lisa painting tries to strangle Lucy. The painting on the other side tries to fight Frank. Frank drops the painting on a knoll and Johnny's soul gets trapped in a urn.
In a vision, Johnny goes on top of Patricia which has blood all over her hand. She wipes the blood on Johnny's shoulder and kisses him, See sex and nudity for more details.
In a flashback, a man's wife is seen getting her soul sucked out of her and cut open with a box cutter off screen by a woman.
A ghost comes in to someone's house and we see him seek behind the wall and he kills a man living offscreen. We see his ghost when he bumps to someone else as he were to die from a heart attack.
A man knocks down someone's fence and destroys gnomes resulting in property damage.
A few large knives are seen in Patricia's home. Patricia grabs the largest knife and pretend stabs Johnny multiple times.
Bannister sticks his hand through ghost Stuart's chest to grab a Shoo Fly bug spray and sprays Stuart's face leaving a hole of gore flying on the back of his head. His eyeballs are seen dangling.
A ghost dog bites into an animal's jawbone, In another scene, a man trip falls three stories crashing down every floor and finally lands on a hospital bed.
Frank holds on the ghost dog's tail and that drags him to the wall with the dog sticking through. The dog swallows the jaw.
One particular ghost who is from the 19th century has a missing stomach and exposed spine bone. Organs are not seen
A man grabs a woman in the mouth and she is seen trying to gag air in panic he bangs her into the wall. The woman elbows him to the wall throws him into the wall and the man chases her but the woman closes into the elevator.
A grim reaper like ghost chases a man through a car and flies above him. The reaper sucks the soul out of a woman giving her a heart attack, she dies and we see her flying to heaven.
A corpse who died of a heart attack is seen in the museum with a crowd of tourists.
Some ghosts in the graveyard had numbers carved on their forehead. Some ghosts are seen with scars on their faces.
A man is targeted between Patricia and Milton. Frank drops down from a whole instead of shooting Frank, Milton's head is graphically blown off ) with a shotgun (his head explodes in a bloody mess but it is really unrealistic due to the CGI being blown to pieces probably the most graphic part of the movie) His neck is actually shown but his head turns to a ghost. In the tv version he gets shot in the chest and his body flies onto chapel doors
A couple of ghosts are seen rotting (body parts falling off, etc.) some have worms in them maggots and skeletons all could gross out some viewers.
The cloaked- figure (The Soul Collector) goes after people who have a number carved into their heads (only seen by Frank, although they aren't graphic). He is then seen plunging his hand into the victims chests and squeezing their hearts (which kills them instantly).
The Soul Collector also slaughters other ghosts with an extremely large scythe, this slices them in half or kills them in another violent manner... but however, no red blood is seen, they usually just explode in a gooey mess.
There are other more comical scenes where ghosts get hit or ran over by cars and trucks, etc.
A man is shot in the arm many times by a small machine gun or Uzi. Some blood is seen but no harm is done.
Profanity
Mild
"Jesus" (5), "Goddamn" (6), "For christ's sake" (3), "For god's sake" (2), "Oh my god" (4), "God," "damn" (12), "hell" (10+), s-words (15), "ass" (10+), "crap," "son of a bitch" (2), "bastard," "pissed," etc.
Moderately Mild language
Phrases: "Stupid moron," "Bastard," "Bitch," "Idiot," "Pissed off," "Scumbag," "You little maggot," and "Loser."
15 uses of goddamn; fuck is mouthed once; some other mild language (shit, hell, damn, piss, etc.)
Alcohol, Drugs & Smoking
Mild
A ghsot wants to smoke cigars
Some characters are seen drinking wine in a restaurant.
A couple of characters smoke.
Frightening & Intense Scenes
Moderate
Some ghost have there bodies flattened and emptied, and there faces are replaced with large holes. No blood or gore is shown.
Many of Bannister's ghost friends are seen, but they don't behave in any frightening ways. Their various stages of decomposition.
The movie really isn't R rated however the head blown off scene was the reason it was an R rating. The film was supposedly a PG-13
There is a lengthy sequence where a man experiences flashbacks regarding people getting shot with shotguns in a hospital by the two villains, there is some blood and it could disturb some viewers. Blood is seen and numbers carved on their forehead could scare some
The Frighteners is a horror/comedy film; as such, there are quite few intense scenes. On the other hand, some of the violence is played for laughs, and shouldn't be disturbing.
Many "jump out of your seat" or "GOTCHA!" moments.
A decaying body is shown in it's coffin covered in maggots.
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