The Frighteners (1996)

The Frighteners parents guide

Nothing past what an R promises: a few tense moments and several jump scares.

Scare

Mildly scary

A few tense or eerie moments.

Jump scares

Several

More than a couple of sudden jolts.

Gore

Light gore

Some blood or injury, briefly.

Violence

Some violence

Some fighting or peril.

Sex and nudity

Mild

Mild means innuendo, or sex implied off screen, with no nudity.

Language

Moderate

Some strong profanity, a few f-words.

How we rate: an AI reads what is known about each title and tags it 0 to 3; we check the tags against a hand-rated set and correct them by hand when readers tell us. Estimates, not a scene-by-scene review. Spot a mistake? Tell us.

Three questions

Is The Frighteners scary?

Only a little. The Frighteners has a few tense moments, nothing that follows you to bed.

How gory is The Frighteners?

Light gore and some violence.

What is The Frighteners rated, and is it OK for kids?

No. It is rated R, with several jump scares and some strong language.

What is The Frighteners about?

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 and crew

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The Frighteners is on our Horror, not scary; Con artists; Ghosts and hauntings; and Slashers lists.

More like this feeling

Prompts we typed into CouchRot, and the lists that share its tags.

• “funny but not stupid, under two hours”
• “a fun halloween movie, not too scary”
• “a horror movie that's actually scary”

Lists with the same feel: Late night and Dark.