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Episode #888: The Frighteners (1996) (Patreon)

Published:
2026-10-06 04:00:05
Imported:
2026-10
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“I’ve seen this movie dozens of times” - Andrew

On this week’s episode, we’re kicking off the 2026 Halloween Spooktacular in grand fashion as we go long on Peter Jackson’s super-fun paranormal comedy, The Frighteners!

Should they have tried to nail down a set of ghost rules for our spooky characters? Couldn’t Universal have waited and released this banger in October, instead of the summer, especially when Peter Jackson & Co. hadn’t finished the special effects?! How fantastic is Michael J. Fox leading this movie? Should the studio have let Jackson go even wilder with the horror elements? Is this movie, fun as it is, possibly overstuffed? Are there many things more spooktacular than Jake Busey’s terrifying, vacant stare? And who wants to make a rezzy and grab dinner at Excalibur’s? PLUS: A Spooktacular round of the VHS Trailer Game!

The Frighteners stars Michael J. Fox, Trini Alvarado, Peter Dobson, Jeffrey Combs, Dee Wallace, John Astin, Chi McBride, Jim Fife, Troy Evans, Julianna McCarthy, R. Lee Ermey, Elizabeth Hawthorne, and Jake Busey as Johnny Bartlett; directed by Peter Jackson.

We hope you are enjoying AD-FREE WHM! Thanks so much for being the kick-ass Patreon subscriber that you are. Your support keeps the lights on around the old clubhouse and keeps us on the air. We know you have a lot of options for podcast enjoyment and we're stoked you chose to spend some time with us!

Be sure to visit the WHM Merch shop over on Dashery and check out all the latest show-related designs you can slap on t-shirts, hats, coffee mugs, stickers, whatever! Make your friends jealous by flaunting some WHM merch today!

Original cover art by Felipe Sobreiro.

Files

Comments

Matthew Lloyd

Oooooh, been waiting for this one.

Busiris

I can't help but admit I got a really big laugh from the old Jersey/New Jersey confusion because I too was confused and felt dumb afterwards. I'm like "Oh wow, I gotta read up on that German occupation of New Jersey." lmao

Mike

Nothing better than having one of your favorite movies getting an episode and it having a VHS Trailer Game 🥹. Really liking the new Bonus Games.

kathm4ndu

45:35: Squirt guns filled with holy water were used in The Lost Boys (1987).

Jason

When it happens during Spooktacular month, the VHS game gets a new rule: the jame-master lives in the other fella’s houses, hider-in-the-walls style.

Todd B

So, since you guys brought it up, I got curious and looked - as October of 1996 goes, it looks like there was only one horror movie on the docket (give or take for how you classify Freeway) That movie? Previous episode, THIIIIIIINNERRRRRR

Gone

The Spooktacular remix of the theme remains my Emotional Support Podcast Theme Song after all these years.

Paul Losekamp

I remember renting this from Blockbuster back in the late 90s going home and toking my 20 ounce soda pop bottle bong

MarkNM

Whew, thanks Steve, I thought I would be the only "crazy" one who doesn't get this movie. Besides being 15 minutes too long, The Frighteners is like a Chicken Alfredo pizza; it's made up of several elements that I love when presented elsewhere, and I'll eat it if it's in front of me, but...nah. One and done. But the episode? Fantastic.

Ben Sharpe

I think besides BTTF trilogy Michael J Fox is amazing in this film!

WarOfTheBees

I wish Michael J. Fox made more movies when he was able to. Somewhere there's an alternate universe where he and Will Smith had a buddy cop movie together.

Rose Esposito

Uncontrollably fist-pumping at my desk at the VHS Trailer Game. Why do I remember Dark Water?!? EDIT: of course, Ernie Hudson's is great. He told you himself: "It's pretty extraordinary."

Robert Walton

For what it's worth, I've always used utility knife and box cutter interchangeably.

TJ Gaines

1:19:26 I need to know what Cabin’s experience was at King David’s to deserve that slight.

David Thompson

9/11 taught the UK what a box cutter is. We call it a Stanley knife. Not my only take away but remember thinking "what the fuck is a box cutter?"

WarOfTheBees

The seeing your friends' dick as a ghost talk this episode confirms the WHM gang has never touched tips...tragic.

Kevin Lynch

The Andrei Chikatilo story is wild and absolutely horrific. Basically he was able to kill for so long because the official Soviet State policy was that serial killers were something that decadent Americans dealt with and didn't exist in the Soviet Union. Soviet authorities pretty much knew who he was and what he was doing, but wouldn't stop him for that reason . Doing so would admit that these things did happen in the USSR

Marty TC (child-sized Cardassian)

re: indoor plumbing in Bannister's house, there is a scene in which he takes a shower. Is that only in the director's cut?

MarkNM

Citizen X is the world's most underrated serial killer film.

MarkNM

Theres always The Hard Way.

Barista Bran

Just recently marathoned through Friday the 13th 1-5 so I feel quite prepared for this next episode

Rob Brown

1:00:20 M. Night is great in “Trap” as the guy that explains what an uncle is.

Kureigu

Always loved this film, i had the vhs. Found out about the director's cut of this movie by accident a few years ago when a colleague and i decided to watch frighteners on a night shift. Both of us spent the whole film going "ive never seen that part before " . The extra parts really made it a much better film.

Russell Snyder

Andrew, you’re absolutely right about the bs AI ads. “Gummies for your dog or you’ll have to put her down.” My other two favorites are, “Dog sings a sad song to its owner how its water dish is killing her, you have to buy her a bespoke ‘safe’ bowl” and “I’m an overweight middle aged cuck, my wife left me, if only I had known the secret…. Mushroom coffee.” It’s called catastrophic counterfactual guilt advertising, and it’s not going anywhere unfortunately, because it works on really stupid people.

RJ Cunningham

Whoaaa that move Paulie was about a talking parrot? Not sure why that’s blowing my mind. and Jay Mohr to boot. Guess there are still some surprises left out there

Craig

They ask why didn’t an actor speak up about this and change the line? The most egregious example of this I’ve ever seen was an episode of Frasier where Daphne Moon refers to her “fanny”. If you’re in the UK, you know what’s wrong with a female British character sating that!

RJ Cunningham

Haven’t re-watched this movie this millennium until now and man what a great thrill to have realized that’s Chi McBride. I’m still holding out on the Chirenaissance

Matthew Lloyd

In the UK we call them a Stanley knife.

Matthew Lloyd

Also anyone notice that Combs character has had his nipples cut off?

Voror

Really looking forward to that Arrow release. I remember first noticing this one at the video store because I was a sucker for lenticular covers back in the day. Interesting that this was apparently meant to be under Tales from the Crypt in some fashion. If it had been it probably would have been the best under the name but I do want to give a shout out to Demon Knight which is a lot of fun and way better than Bordello of Blood (not that it's necessarily hard to do that).

Voror

I don't think I've ever seen that film and I managed to guess it. I just remember the name and some about the trailer for some bizarre reason.

RJ Cunningham

I think Peter Jackson got a lot of practice filming the hobbits in LOTR with Michael J Fox in this movie. Also compare Death to the Ringwraiths. Practical effects are so superior in every way

Kristen Davies

I didn't know what a box cutter was until I saw someone refer to a utility knife as a box cutter, and I grew up in Ohio.

Billie Jackson

Chi Macbride and Jackie Earle Haley are both good in that Human Target TV series. It's not a great adaptation of the DC comics character, but is an enjoyable enough weekly standalone action series.

Billie Jackson

Local drive in is having a dusk to dawn marathon of the first 7 movies this weekend, so is perfect timing.