- Directed by Peter Jackson
- Written by Fran Walsh, Peter Jackson
- Stars Michael J. Fox, Jeffrey Combs, Jake Busey
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 50 Minutes
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This one has a lot of really dark humor to it. It starts out pretty frivolous and gets darker as it goes along. Great performances from Dee Wallace and Jeffrey Combs really stand out along with the rest of the cast doing a fine job. The effects are cool and still hold up well. This is one worth seeing for sure if you haven’t already.
Synopsis
The camera zooms through an old house as we see bad things happening. A woman screams as the walls themselves grab at her. An old woman shoots at the ghost. Credits roll.
We hear a reporter reading an article he’s written discussing a long series of sudden heart failure deaths. Dozens of people have abruptly died in town. Could the Grim Reaper be stalking them? The Shadow of Death? What’s the angle? The boss tells him to quit referencing Death as a person.
There’s a funeral. Frank Bannister, a psychic investigator, hands out business cards. He wrecks his car into Ray’s fence because he’s the worst driver ever. Across town, Lucy makes a house call to the old mental institution – now a residence – and Old Lady Bradley lets her in. She’s the old woman we saw earlier, and the injured younger woman is Patricia, who never leaves the house. Lucy is a doctor, and she notices the bruises all over Patricia and suspects abuse. She wants Patricia to come to the hospital, but they both say no. Later, at home, we see that Lucy’s married to Ray.
John Charles Bartlett was a mass-shooter who was captured. Patricia was his girlfriend and was implicated in the murders. He was sentenced to death and executed.
Ray and Lucy talk about their day, and suddenly, the house goes crazy with stuff flying around. Lucy immediately calls Frank, since he’s an expert. He’s got a squirt gun full of holy water, and he’s not afraid to use it. He’s a big fraud, and Ray knows it, but Lucy is all in on his nonsense. As he leaves, Frank sees the number “37” glowing on Frank’s head.
As Frank gets home, several ghosts get out of the trunk. He sees them and talks to them; they’re friends of his. They help him fool the rubes – they “haunt” a place and Frank comes in and chases them away. Stuart and Cyrus are the ghosts and also comic relief. There’s also an old gunslinger, the Judge, and his ghost dog. They’ve all got problems. Frank’s about to lose his house, and he needs money fast, so he tells them to pump up the scare factor.
Cyrus and Stuart go into a big old house with wealthy people and do their thing. Of course, Frank is called to help, so he goes over to “exorcise” the house. The Judge says the town is in trouble; “Death is amongst us.” When Frank gets there, the owner shows him a newspaper article about him being a con man.
We then get a quick Peter Jackson cameo as Frank walks through town and runs into Ray, who is now a ghost. Ray is a little hazy about what happened to him. Ray wants to go to his own funeral, so they make a quick trip to the cemetery, which is full of ghosts including a drill sergeant who beats up Frank and yells a lot. The sheriff talks to Frank about the mysterious deaths. It doesn’t seem quite natural, but the experts can’t explain it.
Lucy is at the funeral, and she still believes. She goes to dinner with Frank that evening, acting as a mediator between her and Ray. He explains that he gained his abilities after a traffic accident. While there, he sees a man with “38” on his forehead in the restroom. He also sees a dark, cloudy shape in one of the stalls. He watches as the figure kills the man by plunging a ghostly hand into his chest. Another death from sudden heart attack..
Frank follows the creature in his car, while Lucy tells the sheriff about her dinner with Frank and the ghost. Milton comes to the police station. He’s a Special Agent from the FBI, and also a psychic and paranormal expert. He says Frank is a suspect. He’s very strange and goes into excruciating detail about how Frank had a traffic accident that killed his wife. Milton says it was intentional. His wife had the number “13” on her forehead.
The Judge says that creature was “the soul collector,” and he tells Frank and the other ghosts about it. Franks finds victim #40, and the Judge fights the creature off. Frank is arrested but escapes with the help of the ghosts. The soul catcher kills the Judge, and Frank kidnaps the next victim, the editor of the newspaper, Magda. The soul-catcher does his job, and she dies in the same place as Frank’s wife did. He then goes to the police station to turn himself in.
Milton and Frank talk about the 28 dead people in town. Milton thinks Frank is responsible, but the sheriff disagrees. Frank explains what he’s seen and what he can do, but Milton thinks he’s a psychopath.
Lucy goes back to the mental hospital, and Ray, who is still following, sees what an evil house it is. Lucy goes in and looks for Patricia, and the two have a long talk. She had nothing to do with the murders, but her mother has been keeping her prisoner in the old house. As she tries to sneak back outside, the house attacks Ray. When she comes to visit Frank in jail, we see the number “41” on her forehead.
The soul catcher kills Stuart, but Cyrus fights him off long enough for Frank to escape.
Frank decides he needs an out-of-body experience to see what’s happening on the other side. Lucy locks him in the meat freezer until he freezes. Milton finds them and wants to let Frank die, so he arrests Lucy. Meanwhile, Frank’s soul climbs out of his body and becomes a ghost. Frank fights with the soul catcher as Milton and Lucy go to the cemetery, where Milton rambles how he spent six months as Charles Manson’s sex slave. And a myriad of other horrible cults and groups he spent time with.
Frank steals Milton’s car and goes after Lucy again. Frank steals the drill sergeant’s machine guns to fight the creature. Frank recognizes the creature as Johnny Bartlett, who is trying to increase his kill count.
Frank’s ghost tries to fight Bartlett, but before he can win, Lucy revives him back in the meat locker. He tells her about Bartlett, so Lucy rushes over to Patricia’s house to warn her. When Patricia hears about Johnny, she reverts back to her former murderous self– she really was involved in the old murders. Johnny tells Patricia to finish off Lucy. Lucy finds old lady Bradley dead and then has to fight Patricia.
Frank arrives and fights with the ghost of the house as Lucy runs from Patricia. They find Johnny’s ashes, and Frank says that they need to get them to a church. As they run around the old hospital, Milton arrives on the scene, and Frank gets flashbacks of Johnny and Patricia’s murder spree many years ago. Milton grabs Lucy and the two of them fight.
Frank makes it to the chapel, but Milton ends up with the ashes and dumps them out, which is really bad. Milton shoots Frank, and Patricia kills Milton, turning him into a ghost. Patricia and Johnny kill Frank, who grabs the soul right out of Patricia and drags her into the light. Johnny follows and gets her back.. Except the two of them go somewhere different and much less pleasant…
Stuart and Cyrus welcome Frank to Heaven, where he reconnects with his wife. However, it’s not his time to die yet, so they send him back. Frank wakes up in Lucy’s arms. Some time later, we find out that now Lucy can see dead people now too.
Commentary
The stretchy-face-through-the-wall gimmick must have been new when this came out, as it’s heavily used here, even in the movie posters. It’s a fun effect though and still holds up pretty well.
It’s really hard for me not to make a joke about how Frank drives like a guy with Parkinsons, but that would be in poor taste. Still, there’s no explanation for his awful driving.
If you removed all the comic elements from this film, it would still stand up really well as a serious horror film. Still, if that had happened, we would have missed out on one of Jeffrey Combs’s best roles. Michael J. Fox pretty much plays the same character he always plays, just this time with psychic abilities. The other actors do fine, with Dee Wallace in a rare appearance as a villain for once. The comedy more or less vanishes about 45 minutes before the end, but makes the setup of the story more interesting.
It’s a little different, but it’s absolutely worth watching.