The Frighteners

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For the Matt Helm spy novel by Donald Hamilton, see The Frighteners (novel).
The Frighteners

Theatrical poster for The Frighteners
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 Universal Pictures
Release date(s) July 19, 1996
Running time Theatrical:
110 min.
Director's Cut:
122 min.
Country New Zealand
U.S.
Language English
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

The Frighteners is a 1996 comedy/horror film directed by Peter Jackson about a psychic private detective who stands in the way of a murderous Grim Reaper-like creature. As with his later films, Jackson filmed the movie in his home country, New Zealand on location in Lyttelton and Governor's Bay. Released on July 19, 1996, the film earned $16 million at the U.S. box office.

In 1998, Jackson commissioned Universal Studios home video to release a laserdisc special edition of the film (with a 4 1/2 hour documentary) as well as a standard edition DVD. Some collectors have spent 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 Jackson recorded for the DVD. The Director's Cut DVD set is available in Regions 1, 2, 4, and 5. A HD DVD edition of the Director's Cut was also made available prior to the ending of HD DVD production and has been made available in the fire sales with exactly the same features as the Director's Cut DVD.

Contents

[edit] Filming

The film's digital special effects were innovative at the time of its release.

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 The Lord of the Rings film trilogy as Samwise Gamgee. In his book There and Back Again: An Actor's Tale, Sean Astin cites his father's enthusiasm for working with Peter Jackson as the chief reason for his auditioning for the role.

R. Lee Ermey, playing the ghost of Sergeant Hiles, virtually reprises (not for the first time) his role from Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket.

[edit] Ratings controversy

Despite numerous attempts by Peter Jackson to achieve a PG-13 rating, the MPAA granted The Frighteners an R rating for terror violence. The MPAA was particularly perplexed by the film's shift in tone from wild comedy to gory thriller. Jackson felt this decision was unfair, as he always intended the film to be a PG-13. Because of this, the film lost much of its potential audience.

[edit] Box office and critical response

The film's box office response was disappointing. The majority of people involved felt this was due to the film's rating, even though it was generally billed as a youth-friendly supernatural comedy in the vein of Beetlejuice or Ghostbusters. Despite this, the film garnered mostly positive reviews, maintaining a 68% Fresh Rating on rottentomatoes.com. It has gone on to gain considerable success on Laserdisc, VHS and later DVD due to a cult following amongst horror enthusiasts and Peter Jackson fans.

[edit] Plot

The film starts with a panicked girl named Patricia Bradley running from a ghost seen through the shape of walls. She is saved when her mother appears and shoots at the Grim Reaper-like ghost. The movie then shifts to the story of Frank Bannister. After losing his wife, Bannister (Michael J. Fox) gave up his job as an architect, letting his unfinished "dream house" sit incomplete for years. Following his wife's death, Banister gains the power to see ghosts and puts this skill to use by befriending three ghosts named Cyrus, Stewart and The Judge (an Old West gunslinger) and getting them to haunt houses in the area to drum up work for his ghostbusting business; Frank then proceeds to "exorcise" the houses for a fee. But when he discovers that an entity resembling the Grim Reaper is killing people, marking numbers on their forehead beforehand, Frank tries to help the people whom the Reaper is after. His motivation was that his wife was found dead after the car crash with a similar (lower) number carved into her forehead. Sure that they are connected, Frank decides to hunt down and discover the identity of the killer.

After two people are killed, Frank discovers that the killer is the ghost of Johnny Bartlett. In life, Bartlett was crazy about being a prolific serial killer and murdered twelve people in a mental hospital with the assistance of Patricia, who was Bartlett's underaged girlfriend and daughter of the Director of the Hospital. The two were arrested and tried: Patricia was sent to prison on suspicion despite maintaining her innocence, but eventually released to live with her overbearing mother under careful observation, while Bartlett received the electric chair, just after shouting that he killed "one more than Starkweather."

Because he can see the numbers ahead of time, Frank can foretell the murders, but this puts him under suspicion by the police, and an eccentric FBI agent named Milton Dammers. He tries to stop the murders, helped by Dr. Lucy Lynskey, whose house was "exorcised" by Frank before her husband was killed, and his three ghostly friends. After learning the identity of the Reaper, Lucy worries that Patricia will become one of Johnny's targets. She enters the house, however makes a terrifying discovery: Patricia, who did aid Bartlett in the original murders, is still working with Bartlett's ghost. Patricia kills her mother and tries to kill Lucy, but Frank saves her and the two flee, stealing Bartlett's ashes from Patricia's room. Hoping to take the ashes to holy ground, they run for the chapel of an abandoned hospital to send Bartlett to Hell. Frank's powers help him realise that this was the hospital where the original crimes were committed through visions from the past. Unfortunately, the ashes are released by Dammers (whose is subsequently blasted with a shotgun by Patricia). Bartlett and Patricia hunt down Frank and Lucy. It is then that Frank makes sense of his repressed memories about the car crash that killed his wife. Bartlett, it seems, drove the two off the road and killed Frank's wife, Debra, then Patricia used Frank's box knife to cut the number into her forehead. The two kill Frank by strangling him, however, Frank's ghost seizes Patricia's spirit and drags her up towards Heaven with him, with Bartlett in hot pursuit. When they arrive, both Bartlett and Patricia are sent down to Hell, while Frank, after meeting Debra's spirit, is told it is not yet his time and is sent back to earth. He and Lucy fall in love. After this, due to the traumatic experience the two went through, it is revealed that Lucy can see the ghosts too- including a very displeased Dammers, evidently assigned as a guardian angel to the local sheriff - and Frank goes back to being an architect, demolishing the dream house that he never finished for his wife and building a life with Lucy.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Trivia

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • At one point, Johnny Bartlett mentions a man in Russia killing over fifty people, a reference to infamous Russian serial killer Andrei Chikatilo.
  • While filming scenes with the Judge (John Astin), Michael J. Fox would occasionally call him "Doc" by accident, referring to Doctor Emmett Brown from the Back to the Future trilogy, in which Fox portrayed Marty McFly. These films were also made by Universal and directed by Frighteners producer, Robert Zemeckis.
  • The Frighteners' initial cinema release was banned in Tasmania, Australia as the film's content bears a resemblance to the Port Arthur massacre which occurred in the same year. This included a similarity in appearance between the film's antagonist and Martin Bryant, and was not released because of sensitivity of the nature of the recent events. However, the film was later released on VHS and DVD, and has been televised.
  • Peter Jackson has a cameo in this movie, appearing as the pierced, biker jacket-wearing person with whom Frank collides while storming out of the newspaper office.
  • In the scene with the flying babies the baby in the bouncer is Billy Jackson, the son of Peter Jackson, the film's director.
  • In the brief tussle between Lucy and Patricia, actress Trini Alvarado nearly broke her finger in the bedroom door.
  • A creature known as the Gatekeeper was conceptualized by Jackson for the movie. It was putto-like in appearance and extremely obese. Jackson went so far during production to have a suit built for an actor to perform in, but the character was eventually removed from the storyline. Footage of the Gatekeeper can be seen on the supplemental material on the special edition Laserdisc/DVD.
  • During script reading at Peter Jackson's house, Jackson didn't have a tape recorder to document the readings, and instead used a video camera which he set on the floor by the actor's feet.
  • The production team originally attempted to use physical means to create the Reaper, ie: a stuntman in a Reaper suit, a rod-puppet Reaper and an all cloth Reaper.
  • When the film was given an R-Rating, Peter Jackson decided to reshoot Dammers' death. Originally, Dammers is simply shot in the chest by a shotgun and flies through a set of doors. The film now features a close-up of Dammers' head exploding.
  • The song that plays over the end credits is Blue Oyster Cult's (Don't Fear) The Reaper, covered by The Mutton Birds.
  • The novelization of the film is based on a very early screenplay draft, and bears only passing resemblance to the film.
  • The full name of the character potrayed by Jake Busey in the film is John Charles Bartlett. The middle name Charles is the first name of serial killer Charles Starkweather, who is mentioned throughout the course of the film. The last name Bartlett is shared with the last name of Caril Ann Fugate's family. Fugate was Starkweather's girlfriend, and her mother, stepfather, and stepsister were three of the eleven people murdered by Starkweather.

[edit] External links

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Films directed by Peter Jackson