The Frighteners (1996)★★★☆☆

I was disappointed with this one. I blame myself on that front, because I went into this with my expectations way too high.

I never saw this until tonight. I remember really really wanting to see it when it came out just over twenty years ago but for one reason or another it never happened. So I was excited about getting to watch it for this blog, and even more excited when I realized it would fit into a Throwback Thursday review quite nicely (after July 18, of course).

Well, shame on me. And shame on Peter Jackson, who apparently has a thing about ghost sex. There was a lot of ghost sex in this movie. Or at least a lot of ghostly sexual innuendo.

And for a movie named The Frighteners, the only thing frightening was the thought that Peter Jackson directed it and it might never end. It did, though. With a weirdly sappy and moralistic ending, but it did end. And only about 45 minutes too late.

I’m being generous with my three out of five rating here, though – it was reasonably well acted and the story was interesting enough (but incredibly predictable and terribly paced). I guess I just wanted something a little scarier for myself tonight.