The Frighteners
Directed by	Peter Jackson
Produced by	Peter Jackson Jamie Selkirk Executive producer: 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)	United States: July 19, 1996 New Zealand: December 26, 1996 United Kingdom: January 24, 1997 Australia: March 13, 1997
Running time	Theatrical: 110 minutes Director's Cut: 122 minutes
Country	United States New Zealand
Language	English
Budget	$30 million1
Gross revenue	$29.36 million
IMDb • Allmovie

The Frighteners is a 1996 comedy horror film directed by Peter Jackson and co-written with his wife, Fran Walsh. The film's cast includes Michael J. Fox, Trini Alvarado, John Astin, Jeffrey Combs, Dee Wallace-Stone, Jake Busey and Chi McBride. The Frighteners tells the story of Frank Bannister, an architect who develops psychic abilities allowing him to see, hear, and communicate with ghosts. After losing his wife, he uses his new abilities by cheating money out of customers for his "ghosthunting" business. However, a mass murderer comes back from Hell, prompting Frank to investigate the supernatural presence.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Development 3.1 Production 3.2 Visual effects 4 Release 4.1 Box office performance 4.2 Critical analysis 4.3 DVD 5 References 6 Further reading 7 External links

Plot

The Frighteners starts with a panicked woman named Patricia Bradley running from a ghost seen through the shape of walls. She is saved when her elderly mother shoots at the Grim Reaper-like ghost. Meanwhile, years ago, architect Frank Bannister loses his wife in a car accident and given up his profession, letting his unfinished "dream house" sit incomplete for years. Following his wife's death, Bannister gains the power to see ghosts and puts this skill to use by befriending three ghosts named Cyrus (a 1970s individual), Stuart (a nerd, presumably from the 1950s) and The Judge (an Old West gunslinger). Cyrus, Stuart and Judge help Bannister by haunting houses in the area to drum up work for Bannister's ghostbusting business; Frank then proceeds to "exorcise" the houses for a fee (one of these houses is that of Dr. Lucy Lynskey and her husband). However, Bannister is depicted by locals as a conman. He discovers that the husband of Lucy Lynskey has been killed and an encounter with his ghost leads him to discover that an entity resembling the Grim Reaper is killing people, and marking numbers on their forehead.

Frank tries to help the people whom the Reaper is after with his motivation being that his wife was found dead after the car crash with a similar (lower) number carved into her forehead. Because Frank can see the numbers ahead of time, he can foretell the murders, but this puts him under suspicion by the police, and an eccentric FBI agent named Milton Dammers. Frank is eventually arrested for the death of a person he was trying to save, but in prison, Lucy pays Frank a visit. Seeing that Lucy is the reaper's next target, Frank attempts to prevent her death and escapes from prison with the help of Cyrus and Stuart. Frustrated by his inability to fight the reaper, Frank attempts to kill himself but Lucy gets him to instead go to the freezing works so that he can be brought back.

Frank confronts the Reaper and discovers that the killer is the ghost of Johnny Charles Bartlett. In life, Bartlett was crazy about being a prolific serial killer and murdered twelve people in a psychiatric hospital with the assistance of Patricia Bradley, 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 released to live with her overbearing mother under careful observation, while Bartlett received the electric chair. Using Barlett's Scythe against him, Frank rids Johnny of his Reaper form but before he can do anything else he is forced back into his body.

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 is till communicating with Bartlett's ghost. Patricia then 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 realizes that this was the hospital where the original crimes were committed, but the ashes are thrown away 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 utility 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 (as well as Cyrus and Stuart), is told it is not yet his time and is sent back to earth. Frank and Lucy fall in love, and due to the traumatic experience the two went through, Lucy can see the ghosts too. Dammers is seen in the back of the sheriff's car 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.

Cast

• Michael J. Fox as Frank Bannister:
• Trini Alvarado as Dr. Lucy Lynskey:
• Peter Dobson as Ray Lynskey:
• John Astin as The Judge:
• Jeffrey Combs as Special Agent Milton Dammers:
• Dee Wallace-Stone as Patricia Ann Bradley:
• Jake Busey as Johnny Charles Bartlett:
• Chi McBride as Cyrus:
• Jim Fyfe as Stuart:
• Troy Evans as Sheriff Walt Perry:
• Julianna McCarthy as Old Lady Bradley:
• R. Lee Ermey as Sergeant Hiles:
• Elizabeth Hawthorne as Magda Rees-Jones:
• Angela Bloomfield as Debra Bannister:
• Peter Jackson as Man with Piercings:

It was Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh's idea to cast Michael J. Fox as Frank Bannister. Zemeckis, who directed Fox in the Back to the Future trilogy, immediately agreed.² Fox read the script and was impressed by its "weirdness and macabre".³ Jackson opted to cast Jeffrey Combs as the eccentric FBI agent because he was a fan of the actor's work in Re-Animator.³

Development

Production

Peter Jackson and wife/co-writer Fran Walsh conceived the idea for The Frighteners in 1992, during the scriptwriting phase of Heavenly Creatures. Together, they wrote a two-page film treatment and sent it off their talent agent in Hollywood. Robert Zemeckis viewed their treatment and highly considered using it as the basis for an episode for his television series, Tales from the Crypt.⁴ Zemeckis was also intending to direct the episode.² However, during a meeting with Jackson in early-1993, Zemeckis decided that The Frighteners would work better as a full-length film directed by Jackson, executive produced by Zemeckis and funded/distrusted by Universal Pictures.⁴ Zemeckis read Jackson and Walsh's completed script for The Frighteners during post-production on Forrest Gump, and the project was then greenlighted to commence pre-production.⁴ Universal Pictures granted Jackson and Zemeckis total creative control and the right of final cut privilege.²

The decision to film The Frighteners entirely in New Zealand was Peter Jackson's idea.⁵ Zemeckis and Universal agreed on the condition that Jackson make New Zealand look similar to the Midwestern United States.³ Principal photography began on May 14, 1995 and lasted until November 16, which is one of the longest shooting schedules Universal Pictures ever approved of. Six weeks into the shoot, cinematographer Alun Bollinger had a serious car accident. His replacement, John Blick, later alternated duties with Bollinger for much of the rest of the shoot.⁶ Location shooting primarily included Wellington and three weeks spent in Lyttelton. Interior scenes were compiled at Camperdown Studios in Camperdown, New South Wales, Australia.³

Visual effects

Jackson's Weta Digital created the visual effects, which included computer-generated imagery, as well as scale models, prosthetic makeup and practical effects with help from Weta Workshop. Visual effects supervisor Richard Taylor explained that effects work on The Frighteners was complex due to Weta's inexperience with computer technology in the mid-1990s. Prior to this film, Weta worked largely with physical effects. With so many ghosts among its main cast, The Frighteners required more digital effects shots than almost any movie made up till that time. For a special effects company that had been in existence less than three years, the eighteen-month period for completing The Frighteners was largely stressed.⁶ Rick Baker was hired to design the prosthetic makeup for The Judge, portrayed by John Astin (the detachable jawbone was later added digitally). However, Baker was not able to apply Astin's five hours of makeup himself due to his commitment on The Nutty Professor.⁶ Makeup artist Brian Penikas (Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) fulfilled Baker's duties.⁷

The extended shooting schedule for The Frighteners owed much to the fact that scenes where ghosts and human characters interacted had to be filmed twice; once with human characters acting on set, and then with the ghost characters acting against a blue screen. The two elements would later be digitally composited into one shot with the use of split screen photography. Such sequences required precise timing from the cast as they traded dialogue with characters who were merely blank air.⁶ The hardest challenge for the digital animators at Weta was creating the Grim Reaper, which went through many transformations before finding physical form.⁷ "We set out with the intention of doing the Reaper as a rod puppet, maybe shooting it in a water tank," Jackson commented. "We even thought of filming someone, dressed in costume, at different camera speeds."⁶ Test footage was shot with puppets and a man in a Reaper suit, but in the end, it was decided that using computer animation would be the easiest task. Another entirely computerized character called "the Gatekeeper", a winged cherub who helps guard the cemetery, was deleted from the final cut.⁶

With digital effects work running behind schedule, producer Robert Zemeckis convinced Wes Takahashi (from George Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic) to help work on The Frighteners. "The shots Zemeckis showed me were pretty remarkable," Takahashi reflected, "but there were still about 400 shots to do, and everyone was kind of worried."¹ Takahashi was quickly drafted as a visual effects supervisor, and began looking at the schedule, trying to work out whether The Frighteners could be finished in time. "There was no way we'd make the deadline. I figured out a concerted plan involving Jackson and Zemeckis to convince Universal it was worthy of asking for more money."¹ The executives at Universal proposed splitting some of the shots to visual effects companies in the United States, but Jackson, for whom the film was a chance to show New Zealand filmmaking could stand alongside Hollywood, convinced Universal otherwise.¹ Instead, The Frighteners received an accelerated release date, four months earlier than planned, and an additional $6 million in financing, with fifteen digital animators and computer workstations (some were borrowed from Universal and other effects companies in the US).¹

Release

Box office performance

The original release date was October 31, 1996, but after Universal studio executives viewed a rough cut of The Frighteners, they were impressed enough to move the release date to July 19, 1996, in place of the "summer blockbuster" season.⁸ Jackson often disputed over the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) over the film's rating. Aware that he was meant to be delivering Universal a PG-13 rating, Jackson tried his best to omit the amount of graphic violence as much as possible.⁹ The Frighteners was released in the United States in 1,675 theaters, earning $5,565,495 during its opening weekend. The film eventually grossed $16.76 million in the United States and $12.6 million internationally, coming to a worldwide total of $29.36 million.¹⁰ The Frighteners was not declared a financial success, although it faced competition from Independence Day, Romeo + Juliet and Ransom.¹¹

Critical analysis

Based on 24 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, 71% of the critics enjoyed the film with an average score of 6.2/10.¹² The Frighteners received mixed reviews from New Zealand, Jackson's native country.⁹ Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times gave a largely positive review. "Director Peter Jackson, at home with all kinds of excess in New Zealand, keeps everything spinning nicely, not even losing a step when the mood turns increasingly disturbing."¹³ Janet Maslin from The New York Times enjoyed The Frighteners, but "walked out the theater with mixed emotions," she commented that "Peter Jackson deserves more enthusiasm for expert, imaginative effects than for his live actors anyhow. These lively touches would leave The Frighteners looking more like a more frantic Beetlejuice if Jackson's film weren't so wearyingly overcrowded. The Frighteners is not immune to overkill, even though most of its characters are already dead."¹⁴

Michael Drucker, writing in IGN, explained that by making The Frighteners as his first mainstream film, Jackson was already achieving the ranks of director Tim Burton, who coincidentally directed Beetlejuice.¹⁵ Internet reviewer James Berardinelli believed that "The Frighteners isn't a bad film, but it is a disappointment. Following Jackson's powerful, true-life matricide tale, Heavenly Creatures, The Frighteners falls short of expectations by being just one of many in the long line of 1996 summer movies."¹⁶ Roger Ebert gave a largely negative review, feeling that Jackson was more interested in prosthetic makeup designs, computer animation and special effects than writing a cohesive storyline.¹⁷ At the 23rd Saturn Awards, the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films honored Jackson with nominations for Best Direction and Best Writing, the latter he shared with wife Fran Walsh. The Frighteners also was nominated the Saturn Award for Best Horror Film, and for its Special Effects, Make-up (Rick Baker) and Music (Danny Elfman). Michael J. Fox and Jeffrey Combs were also nominated for their work.¹⁸

DVD

The Frighteners was first released on DVD in August 1998, but included no special features.¹⁹ To coincide with the release of Jackson's King Kong,¹⁵ Universal Studios Home Entertainment issued the two-disc director's cut of the film in November 2005.²⁰ The director's cut is also available in HD DVD format.²¹

References

Further reading

• Brian Sibley. Peter Jackson: A Film-maker's Journey. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-00-717558-2. 
• Michael Jahn (July 1996). The Frighteners: A Novel. Novelization of the film. Berkley Books. ISBN 978-1572971875. 

External links

• The Frighteners at the Internet Movie Database
• The Frighteners at Allmovie
• The Frighteners at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Frighteners at Box Office Mojo

Preceded by The Ghost and the Darkness

Box office number-one films of 1997 (UK) January 26, 1997

Succeeded by Fly Away Home

v • d • e Peter Jackson Director Bad Taste (1987) · Meet the Feebles (1989) · Braindead (1992) · Heavenly Creatures (1994) · The Frighteners (1996) · The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) · The Two Towers (2002) · The Return of the King (2003) · King Kong (2005) · The Lovely Bones (2009) Other Forgotten Silver (1995 TV spoof documentary) · Jack Brown Genius (1996) · Tintin (2010) · The Hobbit films (2011/12) · Halo: Chronicles (video game) Companies Weta Workshop · Weta Digital · Wingnut Interactive · Park Road Post

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