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    		•

    FILMS

    The Frighteners (1996)
  • Starring Michael J. Fox, Trini Alvarado, Peter Dobson, John Astin, Jeffrey Combs, Dee Wallace-Stone, Jake Busey, Chi McBride, Jim Fyfe

  • Directed by Peter Jackson


    • I didn't seen this movie until a year or two after it had left the theaters. In fact, I had never heard even heard of it or anything about it (presumably it didn't do terribly well in the box office) until one evening my roommate asked if I wanted to watch it. Huh? "Frighteners?" Sounded kind lame. Then my roommate informed me that Michael J. Fox was in it. Well, hell, I like him. He's pretty cool. Marty McFly and all.

    It being a slow night and me being a home-body, I agreed. We popped the video in the the VCR and sat down to what amounts to an extremely enjoyable and creepy movie. A complete surprise.

    I had never heard of Peter Jackson before. Of course, by now, everyone knows who this guys is—he's the genius who's brought us a wonderful and faithful adaptation of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. We love him, we revere him, we hate the Academy and call it many bad names for not giving him an Oscar for The Fellowship of the Ring. However, back when I first saw this film I was ignorant of his skill as a director.

    Warning: Spoilers ahead.

    Fox plays a psychic con-man. But the twist here is that he can actually see and speak with dead people. He's a con-man in that he hires dead people to haunt houses and then uses his "psychic powers" to exorcise the spirits from the home. In reality, they just leave because they're working with him. Not a bad way to make a few bucks. Dishonest, but it's easy work.

    I love this concept. Frighteners offers an original and well-written spin on the ghost-story genre. The acting is great and the direction is transparent. Fox does a fantastic job as a well-meaning huckster, and I got a real kick out of seeing Chi McBride (of Boston Public fame) as an afro-wearing, '70s-styling dead dude.

    One of the best effects in this film is The Reaper. It's a specter who is killing people left and right—before their death, the victims always have a number on their forehead, which only Fox can see.

    There's a lot of backstory to Fox's character that I won't bother getting into here, as I don't want to give away too much of the plot.

    Aside from McBride and Fox another notable performance is that of Jeffery Combs. This guy is creepy (see the picture at right). I'm talking uber-creepy—if it was biologically possible for Crispin Glover and Charles Manson to have an offspring, Jeffery Comb's character would be it. He plays an FBI agent who specializes in cults and supernatural phenomena. He's fragile and edgy and, I imagine, just being in the same room would give me the heebie-jeebies. If everything Fox Mulder of The X-Files saw was real, he would be in the same mental state as Combs' character.

    I'd categorize this movie as an adventure/horror with a dash of dark comedy.

    After watching The Frighteners you will fear the Reaper.