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The Frighteners Stars: Michael J. Fox, Trini Alvarado, Jeffrey Combs and Dee Wallace Stone Director: Peter Jackson BBFC Certificate: 15 Opened: 24th January 1997 Running Time: 106 mins |
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And so, Peter Jackson, the man who gave the world the fabulous schlock-horror/comedies
Braindeadand Bad Taste, yet who is probably better known for his work on
Heavenly Creatures, returns to his roots with this wickedly funny, special effect-tastic fest of
eye-candy, farcical humour and witty one-liners. Starring Peter-Pan a-like Michael J. Fox as Frank
Bannister, failed architect turned fraudulent 'psychic detective' in the pleasant coastal town of
Fairwater who, after a traumatic near-death experience is given to seeing and communicating with
'Earth-bound apparitions', and who uses this ability to con the neighbourhood into paying for his
'ectoplasmic removal' services. However, when the spirit form of a dead serial killer Johnny Bartlett
(played by Jake Busey) begins causing heart-attacks amongst the town's largely pleasant populous,
Bannister becomes a prime suspect and, with the help of love interest Lucy Linksey, played by Trini
Alvarado - who is the spitting image of Andie MacDowell, fights to clear his name and destroy
Bartlett (whom he later discovers was responsible for the death of his wife) for good.
Along the way we are introduced to slimy FBI guy, Milton Dammers, played Carey-esque by Jeffrey Combs. A side-splitting revival of R. Lee Ermy's Full Metal Jacket Drill Sergeant. The twisted, still living sidekick of Bartlett, Patricia Bradley (Dee Wallace-Stone) and Bannister's three spirit partners in fraud, played by Chi McBride, Jim Fyfe and John Astin who as a decomposing Judge gets a hilarious scene involving an Egyptian mummy and some ectoplasmic hanky-panky. Fox seems to have learnt much from his many disastrous big-screen outings (Doc Hollywood, The Secret Of My Success et al), delivering jokes in moderation and letting his co- stars and the glorious CGI special effects do most of the comedy work for him. Certainly his finest film since Back To The Future, though the two are hardly comparable. Alavardo is satisfactory, though has little interesting or funny to do or say, other than scream a lot and get into trouble. Busey is wonderfully twisted as the serial killer who tries to become famous by getting a higher kill score than any other mass-murderer before him. Combs is a little too much like Jim Carey for comfort in his joke-ridden role as Special Agent Dammers. Wallace-Stone is fine as the innocent woman turned evil murderer. No, the acting is not the real star here, neither, perhaps surprisingly are the seamless CGI effects which serve more as comic and dramatic devices than they do as entertainment in their own right (a la Independence Day), for the real kudos must go to director Peter Jackson whose schlock-horror background shines through in this wonderfully funny and at times very scary movie. From the opening shot, where we zoom in through the window of an a-typical 'haunted house', through a hole in the floorboards and down the stairs to be treated to a no-holds-barred carpet monster FX-laiden action sequence, to the final, slo-mo, cross-cut and CGI riddled climactic showdown between Bannister/Lynskey and Bartlett/Bradley, Jackson's lively, though easy-to-follow direction, combined with Takahashi's exuberant computer-generated special effects will have you alternately fingernail biting and howling with laughter. Though not well received in the US and certainly not destined to become a classic motion picture, The Frighteners is one of the most entertaining films to hit these shores for a very long time. Go see it. Now. Reviewed by: Tom Green
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