The Frighteners
That’s not to say that the individual story strands are uninteresting. The film’s teenage serial killers (Dee Wallace Stone and the uber-creepy Jake Busey) are a continuation of the themes explored in Heavenly Creatures, albeit this time from beyond the grave. And lead character Frank Bannister (Fox), a supernatural con man who teams up with a trio of ghosts, represents the sort of high concept comedic riff Zemeckis is famous for. But layered atop one another, the tone of the movie becomes dangerously schizophrenic, with Jackson’s penchant for gore muddying the family friendly waters.
The Director’s Cut additional 14 minutes of footage are an improvement, with more face time for Fox’s friendly spirit friends and a great sexually charged scene with Stone, Busey and a very phallic kitchen knife. It’s not enough to completely redeem the film’s flaws, but it provides welcome additions that round out the film’s chaotic cast of characters.
The Director’s Cut additional 14 minutes of footage are an improvement, with more face time for Fox’s friendly spirit friends and a great sexually charged scene with Stone, Busey and a very phallic kitchen knife. It’s not enough to completely redeem the film’s flaws, but it provides welcome additions that round out the film’s chaotic cast of characters.
An early example of fully-realized computer effects, The Frighteners is insanely ambitious in terms of camera moves and on-set actor / CGI interaction. Jackson goes for the “wow” shot early and often, setting up sight gags and scare shots with equal enthusiasm. But his secret weapon might just be actor Jeffery Combs, whose fascist FBI agent hits just the right note of amusing psychosis.
Arrow’s Limited Edition delivers both the theatrical and Director’s Cuts in 4K presentations, and a second Blu-ray supplies open-matte versions of each—a particularly nice bonus for anyone who remembers the film’s full-frame home-video life. The Director’s Cut also gets a Dolby Atmos remix, while both versions retain the original stereo and home-video 5.1 options.
Most importantly, Arrow has preserved the best material from the legendary LaserDisc package: Peter Jackson’s commentary on the Director’s Cut, his 10th-anniversary introduction and the mammoth 225-minute Making of The Frighteners documentary. Produced in 1998 by Jackson’s own WingNut operation, the thing has aged into an artifact in its own right—not some studio-issued EPK stitched together out of sound bites, but a remarkably thorough record of a production still figuring out how far computer effects could be pushed.
And Arrow adds something the older editions lacked: No Way to Make a Living, a feature-length 2022 retrospective with new interviews from Wallace Stone, Busey, cinematographer John Blick, production designer Grant Major, effects maestro Richard Taylor, visual-effects supervisor Wes Takahashi and producer/editor Jamie Selkirk. There is also a separate 2022 conversation with Taylor, plus an image gallery and a booklet built around Jackson’s original LaserDisc introduction, production notes and two period American Cinematographer articles.
Arrow’s Limited Edition delivers both the theatrical and Director’s Cuts in 4K presentations, and a second Blu-ray supplies open-matte versions of each—a particularly nice bonus for anyone who remembers the film’s full-frame home-video life. The Director’s Cut also gets a Dolby Atmos remix, while both versions retain the original stereo and home-video 5.1 options.
Most importantly, Arrow has preserved the best material from the legendary LaserDisc package: Peter Jackson’s commentary on the Director’s Cut, his 10th-anniversary introduction and the mammoth 225-minute Making of The Frighteners documentary. Produced in 1998 by Jackson’s own WingNut operation, the thing has aged into an artifact in its own right—not some studio-issued EPK stitched together out of sound bites, but a remarkably thorough record of a production still figuring out how far computer effects could be pushed.
And Arrow adds something the older editions lacked: No Way to Make a Living, a feature-length 2022 retrospective with new interviews from Wallace Stone, Busey, cinematographer John Blick, production designer Grant Major, effects maestro Richard Taylor, visual-effects supervisor Wes Takahashi and producer/editor Jamie Selkirk. There is also a separate 2022 conversation with Taylor, plus an image gallery and a booklet built around Jackson’s original LaserDisc introduction, production notes and two period American Cinematographer articles.
Comments
Post a Comment