The Frighteners
"Got me a score of twelve!"

Every so often a director comes along that makes me want to fall on my knees and thank the Goddess for the Australian and New Zealand film industry. New Zealand director Peter Jackson is one of them. With an eclectic range of films to his name, Jackson is one of those writer/directors whose films go wherever the story takes them and are often the much better for it. The Frighteners is a good example of this, which is the major reason why it's number six in my top ten favourite films.

The story is quite difficult to sum up succinctly - in the sleepy town of Fairwater lives Frank Bannister, a bogus psychic who specialises in exorcising houses possessed by the spirits of the recently deceased. Except of course that Frank actually *can* see and communicate with the dead - the bogus part comes from the fact that he sets up the hauntings himself with the aid of three ghosts who work for him. But when Frank's latest client drops dead of apparently natural causes, Frank's life is brought into direct conflict with that of a mysterious death-like spirit who has been killing the living citizens of Fairwater for the past three years. Add to this the world's most unstable FBI agent (an example of what would *really* happen to those left to deal with the X files) and a woman who might or might not have been involved in a killing spree decades ago at the local hospital, and you have one incredibly complex film.

Whilst the CGI is superb and the acting is pretty good (even from Michael J. Fox), what really puts the icing on the cake for me is the plot. Because the director allows the film to flow down whatever path seems most natural, the audience can be led on more than one occasion to believe that things are just about to be resolved moments before another plot twist takes the film down a new and even more unexpected route. Combine this with some top-notch angles, use of cinematic shocks, and music from Tim Burton's favourite composer of film scores, Danny Elfman, and you have a film so intense that when I first saw it three years ago it managed to restore my mental equilibrium from the worrying mood swings that had been plaguing me earlier that day!

(Please note, all pictures displayed here are not mine are used without permission of their owners because I'm recommending that you go out and rent/see/buy a copy of this film, thus increasing their profits. However, should they disapprove, please can they mail me and I'll remove them.)

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