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The Frighteners
After a car accident in which his wife was killed and he was injured, Frank Bannister develops psychic abilities allowing him to see, hear, and communicate with ghosts. After discovering this, he decides to put these skills to use by befriending a few ghosts and getting them to haunt houses in the area to drum up work for his ghost busting business. After the ghosts do their thing, Frank proceeds to "exorcise" the houses for a fee. However, when he discovers that an entity resembling the Grim Reaper is killing people, it’s up to him to figure out how to stop it.
Before he brought us adventures in Middle Earth, a giant-sized version of King Kong and Tintin, Peter Jackson was first and foremost a purveyor of fine tales of horror. From his early beginnings with the shock spectacular Bad Taste to his incredibly imaginative zombie tale Dead Alive, Jackson showed a strong affinity for the genre. The Frighteners, released in 1996, marks the final film Jackson would make before he became consumed with the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and it’s also one of his finest efforts to date. While he had previously delved into the realm of the comedic horror film with the aforementioned Dead Alive and Meet the Feebles, the balance he found with The Frighteners remains one of the best I’ve ever seen. Easily shifting between true horror to slapstick comedy, Jackson created a Keystone Kops sort of tribute film, one full of loving nods to everything that had influenced him to this point in his career. Ultimately, The Frighteners exists somewhere between the two halves of Peter Jackson's career, both in style and quality. It isn't his best film, but what it lacks in polish, it makes up for in twisted fun.
"Well at least he won't have to worry about lockjaw."
Jackson directed and co-wrote the script with Fran Walsh and while the film does have some issues in the plot department it’s definitely one hell of a roller coaster ride throughout. The pacing here is excellent and bears a lot of similarity to Jackson’s earlier film Dead Alive. In that one, things moved forward so quickly you didn’t have time to stop and say “wait a minute, that didn’t make senseâ€. Here things are mostly the same, though a few quick lulls in the action (for exposition purposes of course) do tend to leave you scratching your head. However, why bother thinking about things too deeply when Jackson and company are wowing you with some of the best special effects you’ll ever see in a ghost film. Along with that, Jackson really shows that he “gets†what makes the horror genre so great; a tongue-in-cheek style of humour along with some nifty kills and a creepy atmosphere. Is it really so hard for others to figure out what seems to come so easily to him? Obviously it is, or we’d have more freaky fun flicks like The Frighteners to watch. As for the script, sure it’s got some problems with overly kitschy characters, but they really just add to the fun and since the film is so over-the-top to begin with they all fit nicely.
"How could you not trust this man?"
Michael J. Fox plays Frank Bannister and turns in a wonderful performance, made even more so when you realize he was already suffering from the Parkinson’s that would put his career on hold for a time. This was actually his final major film role and at the very least it’s nice to see him go out on top of his game. Fox has no trouble getting into the spirit of things right from the get go and really adds some top notch personality to his character. He also has excellent chemistry with Trini Alvarado, who plays first a client and then an ally of Bannister. She’s not exactly the best actress in the world, but she’s more than capable of playing this role and again, her scenes with Fox are stellar. The strong casting doesn’t stop here however; there is no shortage of strong players in this film. Jake Busey, cast as the villain, is delightfully mad and one can see that the apple certainly didn’t fall very far from the tree. Horror movie icon Jeffrey Combs plays an ultra-paranoid FBI agent and while he’s totally hamming it up you can tell how much fun he’s having with the part. Even the ghosts themselves are played by some acting stalwarts, including John Astin as an old judge and R. Lee Ermey as, what else, a drill instructor! Finally, The Howling star Dee Wallace Stone appears as Busey’s lover and she’s certifiably nuts in what is easily her best performance since that film.
"Babies get to have all the fun."
The story behind The Frighteners is that it was originally planned as a Tales from the Crypt episode, but producer Robert Zemeckis liked the script so much, he decided it should stand on its own and not be part of a series. I commend him on his foresight, as there is just no way I could see this film condensed down to a mere half-hour vignette. I guess if you were to remove almost every character and a large portion of the plot it could work, but so much of what makes the film great would be lost. As it is, Jackson managed to cram so much into the 110 minutes this film runs that it’s quite clear he was already having trouble editing himself down; a problem that would become much more noticeable once he began work on the Lord of the Rings films. However, here I have no trouble with him throwing the entire kitchen sink at us since it’s all so much damn fun! The only major issue with the film is the soft R rating, part and parcel of doing business at a major studio. Jackson and Walsh excel when they’re allowed to go balls to the wall, something that they clearly weren’t here. While there are certain moments where things are truly crazy, more often than not the film feels like it’s missing the sharp teeth of their earlier works. Still, that’s the only real problem here and it doesn’t distract you from enjoying the film for what it is; FUN. In this day and age of vampires and werewolves and vampires fighting werewolves before making out with them, a good old-fashioned ghost story is definitely welcome; The Frighteners is a great one. 8/10.
"Coming up tomorrow...an anthology film that really grows on you."
