The Frighteners (1996) - 50 mistakes

Visible crew/equipment: Outside the chapel, when Frank backs into the pedestal the statue begins to topple over. In the shot facing up, as the pedestal falls and Frank puts his arms out to catch the statue, the wires used in this stunt are perfectly visible.

Revealing: After Lucy discovers Mrs. Bradley in her bed, as she fights off and runs from Patricia, it is obvious that she wears knee pads for these shots.

Other: When Frank first runs into Ray's ghost on the street, and they duck into an alleyway to talk, Ray accidentally calls Frank (Michael J. Fox) by his real name "Mike" instead of his character name "Frank." Ray says "I felt this vise-like grip squeezing my heart, and I couldn't breathe, Mike."

Continuity: Frank catches the statue, that he accidentally knocks over near the chapel. The way he catches it is completely different in the first shot facing up and the next close-up.

Continuity: When Frank arrives at the Lynskeys to take care of their ghost problem, he drives onto their lawn again. In the wide shot he takes down a piece of the picket fence, which falls squarely on top of the little statues, including little Bonzo's grave, and proceeds to drive toward the house. However, the next close-up is of the statues, who are still standing, and as the car runs over them the picket fence does not slam down on them like in the wide shot of the 'same' action.

Continuity: At the Bradley house, when Patricia runs to and then up the stairs, to try and get away from the ghost, the blood stains on Patricia's white robe change position.

Continuity: When Mrs. Waterhouse walks into the livingroom and greets her three babies, there is a large area rug in front of the coffee table. However, as the babies fly towards her in the wide shot facing her, that area rug is gone!

Continuity: At Mrs. Waterhouse's home, the large potted tree, beside the doorway with the bouncing baby, is visible in consecutive shots and the leaves' position obviously differs in those shots.

Revealing: At the Fairwater Tuberculosis Sanatorium, when Agent Dammers shoots Frank in his left arm, the white wrapping around his arm, where the bullet holes appear, is visible under Frank's short sleeve.

Continuity: While Lucy is on the floating bed, only the floral blanket that Ray tossed is on the floor. After Ray helps Lucy off, they sit together across the room and in the next shot when the bed lands, the floral blanket and now a pink blanket are on the floor near the bed. When Lucy screams as Raggedy Anne pulls on her, the two blankets are visible across the floor and their positions differ.

Continuity: When Lucy is stuck on the floating bed the pillows are visible and when Ray helps her down the left pillow sham is lying flat. However, when the bed lands all the pillows and shams are upright and neat.

Revealing: As the three babies fly towards Mrs. Waterhouse, when they land on her it is blatantly apparent that they're merely three dolls in this shot. She actually grips two from behind and the center doll is attached to her as she moves backwards. Also, in the shot facing the babies the center baby is in the bouncer seat with the rod attachment overhead, yet, in the shot facing Mrs. Waterhouse the rod attachment is gone.

Continuity: When the 3 "flying" babies crash into their mother, look at the one in the red clothes. In the wider shot it has a lot of dribble on its chin, but this vanishes in the closer shot.

Visible crew/equipment: During the scene where Frank's ghost pals haunt Lucy and Ray's house, Ray begins hitting a moving Raggedy Anne doll that is near them on the ground. Look closely - behind the doll you can see a black bar that is mounted to the ground, causing the doll to jump and move.

Continuity: After Frank destroys Ray's fence, he backs the car over Budzo (the ceramic little gnome), crushing it on the lawn. Yet, when Ray picks him up crying out, "Oh, my Budzo! My Budzo!" he is holding the gnome's uncrushed head!

Continuity: At her house, Patricia runs away from the ghost and when she first enters the kitchen the countertops beside the sinks are completely bare. However, a few shots later there are neat stacks of china on the countertops, ready to fly off in the mayhem!

Revealing: A squib (a small explosive device) is seen on Frank's arm when Dammers shoots him.

Continuity: At the cemetery, as Frank grabs Ray the ghost to pull him from his grave, the grave diggers are seen shoveling dirt into the half-filled hole. A few seconds later, Frank yanks Ray out and the grave is now completely filled and the grave diggers are gone.

Visible crew/equipment: When Frank is walking down the street, after he walks into the pierced man in the grim reaper T-shirt (Peter Jackson in a cameo) when he walks across the street when he gets hit by the black hearse, the camera man, the camera and a few crewmembers are visible in the car door.

Audio problem: After Agent Dammers shoots Frank in the arm, in the close-up he shouts, "I don't want to shoot you in the back...I said turn around!" In the next close-up of Frank, Dammers repeats the latter, though nothing is heard.

Revealing: At the Excalibur Restaurant, when Ray's ghost gets angry at Frank he knocks over a wine glass with his hand. When the wine glass starts to tip over, the cloth under it moves and lifts up a bit to obviously tilt the glass towards Frank.

Continuity: The red marks on Frank's neck change in consecutive shots from the time he receives the injury.

Continuity: When Lucy watches the video about the history of Johnny Bartlett, the sweat stain on Ray's shirt changes in the following shots.

Continuity: Running from the ghost, as Patricia crouches behind the couch at her home and shouts, "Please don't hurt me!", the throw on the couch and the pillows change positions between shots, before she falls onto the couch, as well as the pillows behind her head after she falls onto the couch.

Continuity: When Frank returns home from the Lynskeys, he parks his Volvo right beside the outdoor fuse box post, with the box facing beyond the trunk of the car. However, after Frank goes upstairs, in the next exterior aerial shot the Volvo is 10-15 ft. away from the fuse box post and the box now faces beyond the front of the car.

Continuity: When Frank walks in through the Lynskey's front door he passes a table with assorted items, including a bouquet of red and yellow flowers. When Frank leaves their house, the positions of some items differ and the bouquet is arranged differently.

Revealing: When Frank, and later Ray, are shooting the water pistol, in the majority of the shots nothing is actually coming out when something is supposed to be.

Continuity: At the police station, when Dammers tells Lucy about the day that Debra died, there is a shot of the utility knife in Frank's toolbox and the initials F.B. are written in white on the knife. Later, when Lucy finds Frank's utility knife in Mrs. Bradley's bedroom, the initials are written differently.

Continuity: At the police station, when Agent Dammers sticks his badge in front of Sheriff Perry's face, the position of the badge in his hand differs in the shots facing Perry and the close-ups of the badge.

Continuity: When Frank hacks away at the door of the chapel, the broken wood at the openings differ in the close-up of Frank's face through the door and the following shots.

Continuity: After Frank takes the urn from Lucy, he reaches the bench near the chapel and a wood chair lies on its side beside the bench. After Dammers catches the urn, that chair is now upright behind Frank.

Continuity: At Frank's house, while Stuart rambles on about happy and productive ghosts, Frank pours himself a bowl of Jeepers Creepers yellowish color flake cereal. After Frank sprays Stuart in the face with the Shoo Fly, Frank eats cereal that are roundish dark-colored bits.

Continuity: When Frank slams his car into Ray's fence, the Volvo sustains body damage on its left side near the headlight. This damage disappears in later shots.

Visible crew/equipment: When Frank is in the freezer in the hospital laboratory, as Lucy and Agent Dammers fight over the door latch, the brief reflection of a crew member wearing red is visible in the large polished stainless steel hinge on the door.

Continuity: After Mrs. Waterhouse says good morning to her children, in the wide shot she walks to the coffee table to get her mail. In the next close-up, a couple of things disappear from the table, as well as the pillow on the floor, which leans against the couch behind the table.

Continuity: When Frank's car is on Ray's lawn, until he pulls away, the position of the garden hose and bits of picket fence lying around on the lawn differ in the consecutive shots.

Continuity: After Frank nearly collides with the truck, he crashes through Ray's fence. The breaks in the picket fence differ depending on the camera angle.

Continuity: When Patricia is in the kitchen, the ghost wreaks havoc and when she gasps at the exploding stove the refrigerator is visible. In the next shot when things tumble down from the top of the refigerator as it moves away from the wall, the shadows on the wall are completely different. Then the corner cabinet door under the sink opens fully, however, in the shot from under the table as she dives under, the corner cabinet is closed.

Continuity: When Frank is in Lucy and Ray Lynskey's house pretending to get rid of the 'persistent residue of the departed', things in their kitchen (floor, fridge, counter, etc...) appear/disappear and/or change position between shots.

Continuity: At the police station, the filing cabinet beside Lucy is visible in the wide shot, just before Dammers says, "Debra's corpse had the number thirteen carved into its forehead." Then, in Lucy's close-up different things are on top of the filing cabinet.

Continuity: When Frank reaches the chapel he places the urn down and there are scattered pieces of wood hanging over the edge of the bench. After Frank breaks through some of the wood on the chapel door he causes the pedestal to fall over on the bench and the wood is gone.

Continuity: In the sanatorium, after Frank accidentally knocks over the statue outside the chapel, the pedestal falls onto the bench sending the urn flying above. In the overhead wide shot the urn flies upside down as it reaches the window, yet, in the next close-up the urn is right side up as it comes through the window.

Continuity: During the dinner with Lucy at the restaurant, Ray's ghost knocks over the wine glass and the wine visibly spills onto Frank's vest, yet, the vest is dry in the following shots.

Continuity: After Frank 'bumps into' the hearse leading the funeral procession, he sees Ray's ghost running up the street towards him. In Frank's front close-up as he raises his arms in shock, the whicker baskets in front of the pet shop are on his left. As Frank hits the ground the baskets are beside him and they are arranged quite differently.

Continuity: During the dinner with Lucy, Frank goes to the lavatory to dry his pants and when he pulls on the paper towels more than a foot is left hanging out the bottom of the dispenser. However, in the following shots it's either nothing or a some of it sticking out of the dispenser.

Revealing: In quite a few shots it is obvious that Michael J. Fox's dark-haired stunt double drives the Volvo or does particular stunts.

Continuity: When Frank drives over and crushes Ray's little gnome statue, as Ray shouts the subtitles read, "Budzo! Oh, my Budzo! My Budzo!" However later in the film the gnome's grave marker actually reads, "Bonzo."

Continuity: At the Gazette office, as Ms. Rees-Jones watches, Steven scrolls up the next front page of the Gazette on his PC and under the photo of Chuck Hughes it reads, "..dead at age 37." However, when Frank gets into his car after being kicked out of the cemetery, under the current Gazette headline it reads, "30 yr. old Chuck Hughes who died of a mysterious heart ailment..."

Continuity: The colours on the dial of the freezer Frank goes in changes between shots. When Lucy turns it down you can see the colours are light and dark blue. Later on in the wider shots and when she tries to open the door and Milton Dammers stops her, you can see it's blue and red.

Revealing: The scar near Agent Dammers's left eye changes shape and position throughout the film.