The Frighteners

"No rest for the wicked."

Jul 19 1996 R 1h 50m
Comedy, Fantasy, Horror

Once an architect, Frank Bannister now passes himself off as an exorcist of evil spirits. To bolster his facade, he claims his "special" gift is the result of a car accident that killed his wife. But what he does not count on is more people dying in the small town where he lives. As he tries to piece together the supernatural mystery of these killings, he falls in love with the wife of one of the victims and deals with a crazy FBI agent.

Plot

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!

Written by

Fran Walsh, Peter Jackson

Directed by

Peter Jackson

Production Countries

United States of America, New Zealand

Production Companies

Universal Pictures, WingNut Films

Languages

English

Awards

3 wins & 17 nominations total

Scores
# of Votes
98,613
Average Rating
7.1 out of 10
Metascore
52
Popularity
NA