The Frighteners: Director’s Cut (1996) May 24, 2007
Posted by gproject in : Recently Viewed , trackbackDirected by: Peter Jackson
As Jackson himself puts it, this is the movie that joins his low-budget indie flick Heavenly Creatures, with the mega-budget Lord of the Rings trilogy that would go on to make him an international directing legend. It’s an interesting stopgap and while it wasn’t a blinding success on its release, this film has built up a bit of a following over the years since, even producing one of the finest laserdisc releases to ever hit the format in its short existence.
The film centres on Frank Bannister (Michael J. Fox) who works as a supernatural investigator, exorcising ghosts and spirits from distressed dwellers homes. Some believe he is a con-man, and he is, but not in the way you might think. You see, Frank can see and talk to ghosts - he actually employs two of them to make sure that he stays in business. Unfortunately, he is forced to use his talents for a real job when people start having mysterious heart attacks all over town. The culprit is a death-like character, swooping in and squeezing the life out of those who have been ‘marked’. Since only Frank can see the marks, it’s up to him to save the town and stop the murdering apparition, before it takes somebody close to him.
Fulfilling the comedy horror premise, this movie certainly has its moments for both laughs and scares, although both come in moderation. Michael J. Fox, in one of his last headlining film roles, is a strong lead who manages to pitch his character perfectly within the zany spooks and the caped maniacs that occupy his existence. The supporting roles are also played effectively by the likes of Trini Alvarado, Peter Dobson and Jeffrey Combs.
Film geeks might note that this feature once again teams up Michael J Fox with Robert Zemeckis (as executive producer), their first collaboration since the Back to the Future series. It was Zemeckis who pulled the story for The Frighteners from becoming a Tales from the Crypt feature, in order to make it separately. The actual script is nicely written and the dialogue flows well. The narrative structure however is a little erratic at times, putting what amounts to almost a false ending in about 20-minutes before the actual conclusion.
Peter Jackson’s direction is very strong, with good use of camera movement to keep things lively even during the non-action scenes. As for the CG sequences, they form some of the films high points - especially the ghostly ‘death’ character, although the really detailed work can be seen best in Stuart and Cyrus, Frank’s spirit colleagues. These special effects nicely foreshadow what WETA (Peter Jackson’s effects company) would eventually be able to create come later production on Lord of the Rings and King Kong.
It is also worth noting that this ‘director’s cut’ adds 14 extra minutes to the running time, but moreover, that it’s nice to have a Peter Jackson director’s cut that comes in at only two hours. The insertions are mainly conversational in nature, although the extra time does flesh out the characters a little more than in the theatrical version.
All in all this is a great slice of dark comedy, if a little overplayed in terms of the number of characters, some of whom don’t get the proper screen-time. Jackson has a lot of fun with the genre, and it comes together to form a real achievement for a director who would take the skills learnt here and apply them to a much bigger project.
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