
The Frighteners (1996)
No rest for the wicked.
Keywords
The Frighteners rating: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic
With 65% on Rotten Tomatoes, backed by 7.1/10 on IMDb and 52/100 on Metacritic, critical reception of this film has been mixed.
About The Frighteners
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.
Cast of The Frighteners

Michael J. Fox
as Frank Bannister

Trini Alvarado
as Lucy Lynskey

Peter Dobson
as Ray Lynskey

John Astin
as The Judge

Jeffrey Combs
as Milton Dammers

Dee Wallace
as Patricia Bradley

Jake Busey
as Johnny Bartlett

Chi McBride
as Cyrus

Jim Fyfe
as Stuart

Troy Evans
as Sheriff Perry

Julianna McCarthy
as Old Lady Bradley

R. Lee Ermey
as Hiles
The Frighteners facts
- Budget
- $30M
- Box office
- $29.4M
Ranked by the iRankMovies editorial teamUpdated August 2026MethodologyData sources
Audience opinions
What the audience liked
- •Peter Jackson crafts inventive black humor sequences
- •Con man protagonist brings charm to supernatural chaos
- •Creative visual execution elevates horror comedy formula
What the audience disliked
- •Unevenness between comedic and horror-dramatic moments
- •Character arcs feel rushed through episodic encounters
Trailer
Where to watch The Frighteners(US)
View on JustWatch →Rent / Buy
Availability may change. Data by JustWatch.
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