Frank Bannister: Michael J. Fox (The American President, Back To The Future Trilogy, Blue in the Face, Bright Lights Big City, Casualties of War, The Concierge, Doc Hollywood, Greedy, The Hard Way, Light of Day, Mars Attacks!, The
Secret Of My Success, Teen Wolf)
Lucy Lynskey: Trini Alvarado (American Friends, The Babe (1992), Little Women, Paulie, The Perez Family, Stella)
Ray Lynskey: Peter Dobson (Forrest Gump, Too Hot To Handle, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Where The Day Takes You)
The Judge: John Astin (Freaky Friday, Gremlins 2, Move Over Darling, National Lampoon's European Vacation, Return of the Killer Tomatoes, The Silence of the Hams, Teen Wolf Too, That Touch of Mink, West Side Story, TV:
The Addams Family)
Patricia Bradley: Dee Wallace Stone (10, Alligator II: The Mutation, Critters, Cujo, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, The Hills Have Eyes, The Howling, The Stepford Wives)
Milton Dammers: Jeffrey Combs (Bride of Re-Animator, Cyberstalker, Fortress, The Guyber, Love and a .45, The Man with Two Brains, The Pit and the Pendulum, Re-Animator, Trancers 2)
Johnny Bartlett: Jake Busey (Contact, Enemy of the State, Home Fries, I'll Do Anything, PCU, S.F.W., Starship Troopers, Straight Time, Twister)
Cyrus: Chi McBride (The Distinguished Gentleman, Hoodlum, Mercury Rising, What's Love Got To Do With It)
The Frighteners
is a comedy/thriller set in the small town of Fairweather from Heavenly
Creatures' director Peter Jackson, starring the excellent Michael
J. Fox as psychic investigator Frank Bannister. If there's something
strange... and it don't look good... who ya gonna call when the Ghostbusters
aren't around? Frank's your man, or is he?
Not everyone believes that Frank can really see into the spirit world. At
first, new, loving couple Lucy (Trini Alvarado) and Ray Lynskey
(Peter Dobson) welcome him into their home to rid their abode of a
poltergeist, but things take a nasty turn for the worse when Ray ends up dead,
after which point Frank won't get to hear the end of it as he is hassled day
and night by Ray. Frank had a hint that Ray's number was up, when he saw the
number "13" burned into his forehead...
While we accept that Frank can see what the rest of us can't, he does use a
little artistic licence - he actually shares a house with three ghosts:
The Judge (The Addams Family's original Gomez, John Astin),
Cyrus (Chi McBride) and Stuart (Jim Fyfe), all of which serve
to help pull off any manner of freaky encounters in a bid to pull in the
bucks and pay the bills.
However, there's a problem and it's not just one that affected Ray - lots of
other people are dying too. One of Lucy's psychiatric patients, Patricia
Bradley (Dee Wallace Stone, in a role that makes her completely
unrecognisable as the mother in E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial) has teamed
up with the dead 12-strong mass-murderer Johnny Bartlett (Jake Busey)
and the fact that he's making his presence felt from beyond the grave doesn't
matter a jot when Frank's being framed for several murders. Hmm... 12 murders.
What number follows 12?
This is all Frank needs because he's still trying to get over the death of
his wife Debra (Angela Bloomfield) after a car crash, which comes
back to him here in a horrifying flashback.
If that wasn't enough, he's also being tracked down by Milton Dammers (the
Jim Carrey-ish Jeffrey Combs) and there's a comic-turn reprisal
for R. Lee Ermey who plays the dead Sgt. Major Hiles in a role that's
clearly a piss-take on his tour-de-force original from Full Metal Jacket.
The picture quality for this, one of Universal's back-catalogue releases,
released through Columbia, is very good and thankfully it's released in its
original widescreen ratio of 2.35:1 - the only way to make sense of Jackson's
visuals as he employs full use of the frame, not least with some incredible
special effects such as the face that morphs along interior wall surfaces
in the opening scenes and the mind-blowing "Express Bus To Hell" in the
penultimate chapter.
The rating for picture quality loses a point for NOT being anamorphic when
the Region 1 disc is. The average bitrate is a very good and steady 7.17Mb/s.
The sound is available in Dolby Digital 5.1 for most languages on the disc
and if the comments on the picture quality whet your appetite, then note that
the sound quality matches this with gusto.
Extras :
Chapters and trailer :
There's only 16 chapters here to cover the 105-minute film, the usual for a
Universal film released through Columbia, which isn't enough. The original
theatrical trailer is included though.
Languages and Subtitles :
Dolby Digital 5.1 for English, French, Italian and Spanish; Dolby Surround
for German citizens, but the Polish and Czech communities get basic stereo.
Subtitles can be seen in English, French, German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian,
Danish, Finnish and Portuguese.
Filmographies, Biographies and Production Notes:
Extensive biographies with accompanying filmographies are available for
all of the actors and actresses listed in the cast list at the top of this
review, plus director Peter Jackson. A few pages of production notes give
some background info on the film.
Menu :
Similar to most Universal releases, the menu is static and silent
with a picture mirroring the cover on the main menu.
I absolutely loved this film when I first saw it in the cinema and the
only way to see it is in its original 2.35:1 widescreen ratio. It's just a
shame that this disc has two major problems :
The film isn't anamorphic, unlike the Region 1 DVD
The film isn't uncut, unlike the Region 1 DVD.
The latter was easier to pin-point with the PAL laserdisc as it occured during
Chapter 34 (Dammers Loses His Head). The American NTSC LD release shows
Combs' head explode, followed by Fox falling through several floors. But in
this version you see Combs' head almost-explode, Fox falling through a floor,
Combs head finish exploding and Fox falling through more floors. What's
removed is a cartoony visual splat.
So, it's not a major cut but an unnecessary pain that, while not precluding
the casual viewer from making this rental choice, won't make this disc top
of the list for purchases.
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
