1996’s “The Frighteners”, directed by Peter Jackson.
Starring Michael J. Fox, Trini Alvarado, Peter Dobson, John
Astin, Jeffrey Combs,
Dee Wallace, Troy Evans, Elizabeth Hawthorne, Jake Busey,
and Chi McBride.
What is it about?
Michael J. Fox stars as a hack paranormal investigator who
uses his dead room mates’ ghosts to scam people to pay him for his “services”. Able
to converse with ghosts, they have a friendly relationship. However, his town
is turned upside down, when the grim reaper appears and starts murdering
people, and Fox has to move past memories of his wife passing away in order to stop
death’s dominion. Teaming up with a recently widowed woman who believes in him,
will he be able to stop death- or will he end up going up into the light?
Why is it worth seeing?
“Frighteners” (along with 1994’s “Heavenly Creatures”) was
Jackson’s entry into the mid tier of Hollywood. After impressing people such as
Robert Zemeckis with his low budget and strange
New Zealand splatter/exploitation films, they went to bat for him to get
“Frighteners” made, while Fox signed on to star. Jackson’s next film(s) would
be the “Lord of the Rings” Trilogy.
Possessing more great camera tricks and solid focus (as
always), Jackson advances things better than the overall story deserves. It’s story
involving Fox (now squarely in middle age) grappling with his own personal
demons, while chasing a brutal and practically unstoppable grim reaper are
compelling. However, the comic banter of his holographic-like business partners
grows tiresome, as they blithely pop in and out of scenes. It’s also not clear
about the movie’s rules/internal logic, in terms of whether ghosts can touch humans
and vice versa (or not). Finally, the movie’s final scene ends with an
indifferent sigh, as if the studio got tired of micromanaging and just rolled
the credits.
But (usually) keeping things dark and even graphic at times,
with a fantastic appearance by the perfectly cast Jake Busey, combined with a
wonderful climatic sequence, makes The Frighteners’ sometimes great sense of
adventure a spooky treat worth checking out.
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