The Frighteners

Robert Zemeckis present a WingNut Films Production. Universal Pictures. USA. Copyright 1996. Budget: $US 29.66 million. Locations: Wellington, Lyttelton. Distributor: United International Pictures. Rating: M. Contains violence. August 1996. 35mm. Dolby Stereo. Colour. 100 minutes (amended to 106 minutes).

Director: Peter Jackson. Executive producer: Robert Zemeckis, Producers: Jamie Selkirk, Peter Jackson.Co-producer: Fran Walsh. Screenplay: Fran Walsh, Peter Jackson. Directors of photography: Alun Bollinger, John Blick. Camera operators: Richard Bluck, Allun Bollinger. Editor: Jamie Selkirk. Production designer: Grant Major. Costume designer: Barbara Darragh. Effects makeup: Rick Baker, Richard Taylor. Visual effects: WETA Ltd. Digital effects producer: Charlie McClellan. Creature and miniature effects designer: Richard Taylor. Visual effects supervisor: Wes Takahashi. On site supervisor: George Port. Composer: Danny Elfman. Orchestrator: Steve Bartek. Conductor: Artie Kane. Music editor: Ellen Segal. Players: the Muttonbirds, Sonic Youth. Sound: Randy Thom, Hammond Peek, Phil Benson, Mike Hopkins, Janet Roddick, Mark Herman, Cindy Bowles, Sam Negri, Brent Burge, Tim Prebble, Mike Jones, Craig Tomlinson, Ross Chambers, Helen Luttrell, Mike Hedges, Gethin Creagh, Chris Ward, John Neill, David Boulton, Charleen Richards, Christ Burt.

U.S Cast

Michael J. Fox (Frank Bannister), Trini Alvarado (Lucy), Peter Dobson (Ray), Jeffrey Combs (Milton), Dee Wallace Stone (Patricia), Chi McBride, John Astin, Jim Fyfe, Julianna McCarthy, Troy Evands, Jake Busey, R. Lee Ermey.

NZ Cast

Elizabeth Hawthorne, Jonathan Blick, Angela Bloomfield, Todd Rippon, John Sumner, Michael Robinson, Jim McLarty, Anthony Ray Parker, Paul Yates, Stuart Devenie, Desmond Kelly, Ken Blackburn, John Leigh, K.C Kelly, Alan O'Leary, Lewis Martin, Danny Linehan, Melanie Linskey, Nicola Cliff, Genevieve Westcott, George Port, Liz Mullane, Billy Jackson.

In the small U.S own of Fairwater (Lyttelton), Frank Bannister, down on his luck, uses his paranormal abilities to eke out a living exorcising houses that have had the Frighteners put on them by his three ghost friends. Frank is in trouble because the editor of the local paper is on to him. His problems are exacerated when police think he is connected to a spate of deaths in the town. Frank sees that the perpetrator of the "heart attacks" is none other than the Grim Reaper, who marks out his victims by carving a number into their foreheads. Joining forces with Lucy, a doctor whose bullying husband has been struck down by the ghoul, Frank and his ghost friends do battle with the Death figure. Meanwhile, Lucy ministers to Patricia, a woman living as a recluse since her release from jail, where she was incarcerated following her participation in psychopathic Johnny Bartlett's mass murder spree at he local hospital. Things turn nasty when Lucy and Frank learn that Bartlett is the Grim Reaper. The showdown, complicated by the ghastly stalkings of a mad FBI agent and by Frank's spasmodic transportation to the scene of the original mass murder, results in the friendly ghosts finding a comfortable place in heaven, the Grim Reaper and his sidekick vanquished, and the brave couple united.

The hybrid genre of this "thrillomedy" described by Peter Jackson as "Casper meets Silence of the Lambs", allows room for slapstick, splatter, verbal gags, daredevil comic stunt driving and numerous film allusions to be combined with straight action. The frantic pace rushes the tightly packed narrative along. The over-the-top tone compensates for the sometimes perfunctionary attention paid to plot and logic and characters drawn in too-broad strokes. A good natured romp, with Peter Jackson and his baby Billy making brief cameo appearances, the film is more amiable than frightening. Interest is sustained by details like the send-up of Natural Born Killers' psycho-sexual pair bond, the clever use of setting, and the excellent production design. In characteristic Jackson-Walsh style, Frank strikes a tongue-in-cheek blow for the sensitive new age man, while the monster-mother in Braindead resurfaces here as a reformed character. Special effects highlights include the antics of the film's numerous ghosts and the Grim Reaper's vicious hauntings.

The film employs an army of rotoscope artists, character animators, technical directors, digital compositors and the like. It was fully financed and released by Hollywood's Universal Pictures. Shot and post-produced in New Zealand, The Frighteners showcases some 500 complex, state-of-the-art special effects, created by WETA LTD, that marked a watershed in computer graphics and raised the international profile of the country's film-making sills.