15 Greatest Horror Movie Comedies
3. The Frighteners
The Frighteners is an underappreciated classic from Peter Jackson, prior to him becoming one of the world’s most famous directors with his Lord Of The Rings trilogy.
It features a great performance from Michael J. Fox as Frank Bannister, a kind of third-rate exorcist, psychic and con-man. Frank uses three ghosts to set up hauntings in people's houses before coming in to investigate and clear the house of paranormal activity, collecting a fee on the way out
When a series of unexplained deaths are linked to Frank through similarities with the death of his wife he begins to attract the attention of local cops and one particularly creepy FBI agent (Jeffrey Combs). Frank begins to notice numbers carved into victim’s foreheads before they die and starts to investigate and unravel the mystery.
The Frighteners is wonderfully well-written with some great black comedy. It has some insanely good moments of CGI for the time and the performances are all great, particularly that of Combs who is absolutely on form as the deranged FBI man. There are a handful of particularly dark moments and the creation of the soul-taker creature which Frank takes on is very impressive.