The Frighteners
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- For the Matt Helm spy novel by Donald Hamilton, see The Frighteners (novel).
| The Frighteners | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover for The Frighteners |
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| Directed by | Peter Jackson |
| Produced by | Robert Zemeckis |
| Written by | Fran Walsh Peter Jackson |
| Starring | Michael J. Fox Trini Alvarado John Astin Jeffrey Combs Dee Wallace-Stone Jake Busey Chi McBride |
| Music by | Danny Elfman |
| Cinematography | John Blick Alun Bollinger |
| Editing by | Jamie Selkirk |
| Distributed by | MCA Universal |
| Release date(s) | July 19, 1996 |
| Running time | Theatrical: 110 min. Director's Cut: 122 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
The Frighteners is a 1996 film directed by Peter Jackson about a psychic private detective who stands in the way of a serial killing death-like creature. As with his later films, Jackson filmed the movie in his home country, New Zealand. The film earned $16 million at the U.S. box office in July 1996. Sometime in 1998, director Peter Jackson, who went on to direct the Lord of the Rings trilogy, commissioned Universal Studios home video to release a laserdisc special edition of the film (with a four and a half hour documentary) as well as a standard edition DVD. Some collectors spend up to $500 to get a copy of the out of print laserdisc special edition on eBay. A Director's Cut Edition DVD was released in December 2005, to coincide with the release of Jackson's film King Kong. This edition included the 4 1/2 hour documentary and feature commentary of the laserdisc version, as well as a short introduction by Peter Jackson recorded for the DVD. The Director's Cut DVD set is available in Regions1, 2, 4 and 5.
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[edit] Filming
The film's digital special effects were innovative at the time of its release, and can be seen as foreshadowing the Paths of the Dead sequence in The Return of the King, which featured an army of ghosts.
The museum in the film was at that time the National Museum of New Zealand.
One of the ghost characters is played by John Astin, whose son Sean Astin stars in the Lord of the Rings movies as Samwise Gamgee. In his book There and Back Again: An Actor's Tale (2004), Sean Astin cites his father's enthusiasm for working with Peter Jackson as the chief reason for his auditioning for the role. Sean Astin's daughter also appears in The Return of the King as Sam's daughter Elanor Gamgee, so that Jackson has worked with three generations of Astins.
R. Lee Ermey, playing the ghost of Sergeant Hiles, virtually reprises - not for the first time - his Sergeant Hartman role from Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket.
[edit] Plot
After a car accident in which his wife was killed and he was injured, Frank Bannister (Michael J. Fox) develops psychic abilities allowing him to see and hear ghosts. After losing his wife, he gave up his job as an architect and 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. He then proceeds to 'exorcise' the houses, for a fee. But then he discovers that a Grim Reaper-like entity is killing people one after another, marking numbers on their forehead beforehand, he tries to help the people whom the reaper is after. We discover that the reason for this was that Banisters wife was found dead after the car crash with a number carved into her forehead. Sure that they are connected, Bannister decides to hunt down and discover the identity of the killer. After two people are killed, Bannister discovers that killer is the ghost of Johnny Charles Bartlett (Jake Busey). Bartlett, in life, was crazy about being a prolific serial killer, who with his young girlfriend Patricia, went and murdered several patients in a hospital. She was sent to live with her mother due to her age, and kept under careful observation. Bartlett received the death penalty, just after shouting that he killed "one more than Starkweather" .
Because he can see the numbers ahead of time, Bannister can foretell the murders, which puts him under suspicion by the police. He tries to stop the murders, helped by Dr. Lucy Lynskey (Trini Alvarado), whose house was "exorcised" by Bannister before her husband was killed, and his three ghostly friends. The film end with them discovering that Patricia is still working with the ghost of Bartlett. The two chase both the doctor and Bannister to the hospital where the original crimes were committed. Bannister, who stole Bartlett's ashes, desperately tries to get them to a chapel, for when this happens Bartlett will be sent to hell. However, Patricia breaks the ashes and then kills Bannister. Bannister's ghost then drags Patricia up towards heaven with him, Bartlett in hot pursuit. However, when they arrive both Bartlett and Patricia are sent down to hell, whilst Bannister is reincarnated. He and Lucy fall in love. After this, due to the traumatic experience the two went through, we discover that she too can see the ghosts, and Frank goes back to being an architect, building the dream house that he never finished for his wife.
[edit] Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Michael J. Fox | Frank Bannister |
| Trini Alvarado | Dr. Lucy Lynskey |
| Peter Dobson | Ray Lynskey |
| John Astin | The Judge |
| Jeffrey Combs | Milton Dammers |
| Dee Wallace-Stone | Patricia Ann Bradley |
| Jake Busey | Johnny Charles Bartlett |
| Chi McBride | Cyrus |
| Jim Fyfe | Stuart |
| Troy Evans | Sheriff Walt Perry |
| Julianna McCarthy | Old Lady Bradley |
| R. Lee Ermey | Sgt. Hiles |
| Elizabeth Hawthorne | Magda Rhys-Jones |
| Angela Bloomfield | Debra Bannister |
| Desmond Kelly | Harry Sinclair |
| Jonathan Blick | Steve Bayliss |
[edit] Trivia
- The Frighteners would be Michael J. Fox's last major film before doing his stint on Spin City and eventually leaving the business altogether due to Parkinson's Disease.
- The movie was originally intended to be released under the Tales from the Crypt banner, but this was later dropped after Robert Zemeckis read the script and decided to produce and release it on its own merit.
- At one point, Johnny Bartlett mentions a man in Russia killing over fifty people. He's referring to infamous Russian serial killer Andrei Chikatilo.
- While filming scenes with the judge, Michael J. Fox would occasionally call him Doc by accident, referring to Doctor Emmett Brown, a main character from the Back to the Future trilogy, a film series which Fox portrayed the main character. These films were also made by Universal.
- The Frightener's initial cinema release was banned in Tasmania, Australia as the films content bear a resemblance to the Port Arthur massacre which occurred in the same year. This also included a similar appearance of the antagonist in the film and shooter Martin Bryant and was not released because of sensitivity of the nature of the recent events. However the film was later released on video and DVD and has been televised.
- Peter Jackson plays a cameo part in this movie. He appears as the pierced, biker jacket-wearing person Frank Bannister runs into with when storming out of the newspaper office.
[edit] External links
| Films Directed by Peter Jackson |
|---|
| Bad Taste • Meet the Feebles • Braindead • Heavenly Creatures • Forgotten Silver • The Frighteners • The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring • The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers • The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King • King Kong • The Lovely Bones |
