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The Frighteners
The Frighteners is a 1996 supernatural comedy horror film directed by Peter Jackson and co-written with Fran Walsh. The film stars Michael J. Fox, Trini Alvarado, Peter Dobson, John Astin, Dee Wallace Stone, Jeffrey Combs, R. Lee Ermey and Jake Busey. The Frighteners tells the story of Frank Bannister (Fox), an architect who develops psychic abilities allowing him to see, hear, and communicate with ghosts after his wife's murder. He initially uses his new abilities to befriend ghosts, whom he sends to haunt people so that he can charge them handsome fees for "exorcising" the ghosts. However, the spirit of a mass murderer appears posing as the Grim Reaper, able to attack the living and the dead, prompting Frank to investigate the supernatural presence.
Jackson and Walsh conceived the idea for The Frighteners during the script-writing phase of Heavenly Creatures. Executive producer Robert Zemeckis hired the duo to write the script, with the original intention of Zemeckis directing The Frighteners as a spin-off film of the television series Tales from the Crypt. With Jackson and Walsh's first draft submitted in January 1994, Zemeckis believed the film would be better off directed by Jackson, produced by Zemeckis and funded/distributed by Universal Studios. The visual effects were created by Jackson's Weta Digital, which had only been in existence for three years. This, plus the fact that The Frighteners required more digital effects shots than almost any movie made until that time, resulted in the eighteen-month period for effects work by Weta Digital being largely stressed.
Despite a rushed post-production schedule, Universal was so impressed with Jackson's rough cut on The Frighteners, the studio moved the theatrical release date up by three months. The film was not a box office success, barely making back its budget, but it received generally positive reviews from critics. The film gained a cult following and is considered an overlooked work in Jackson's catalog.
In 1964, in the town of Fairwater, Johnny Bartlett is executed for murdering 12 people at a sanatorium, driven by his desire to become the most prolific serial killer. His teenage lover, Patricia Ann Bradley, is deemed an accomplice and sentenced to prison. Decades later, she is released into her mother's custody.
In 1990, architect Frank Bannister is living a selfish, strained marriage with his wife, Debra. During a heated argument, he drunkenly crashes his car, and police later find Debra dead nearby, with the number "13" carved into her forehead. Though Frank has no memory of the incident, the trauma leaves him able to see the spirit world. In the present, he lives in the abandoned shell of the house he was building for Debra. Consumed by guilt, he has become a cynical con man, using his abilities to "exorcise" hauntings staged by ghostly partners—streetwise Cyrus, nerdy Stuart, and The Judge, an Old West gunslinger.
During a job at the home of physician Lucy Lynskey and her arrogant husband Ray, Frank notices the glowing number "37" on Ray's forehead. Ray dies shortly after of a heart attack. Helping Lucy communicate with Ray's ghost, Frank witnesses a Grim Reaper–like entity crush the heart of another man marked "38". Panicked, Frank flees and follows a heavenly light to the museum, where he finds the number 39 victim. Soon after, a newspaper editor, Magda Rees-Jones—who accused Frank of Debra's murder—becomes victim number 40. The Reaper destroys The Judge in the process.
The mounting deaths implicate Frank, and he surrenders to the police. He is interrogated by Milton Dammers, a disturbed FBI agent traumatized by years of physical and sexual torture while working undercover in Satanic cults. Dammers is convinced Frank killed Debra and is psychically causing the unexplained heart attacks. Lucy visits Frank in jail, and they form a bond over shared loss. When the Reaper marks Lucy as victim 41, Cyrus and Stuart sacrifice themselves to save her and Frank. Knowing he cannot protect Lucy as a human, Frank asks her to induce a near-death state, slowing his heart with drugs and sealing him in a freezer. Dammers intervenes, capturing Lucy and leaving Frank to die—but Frank's spirit escapes, and damages the pursuing Reaper's form, revealing it to be Bartlett himself.
After Frank revives, Lucy warns Patricia, her patient, about Bartlett, only to learn Patricia has remained devoted to him. She summoned his spirit from Hell to continue their killing spree, and murders her own mother to protect him. Frank and Lucy trap Bartlett in his urn and flee to the derelict sanatorium, planning to use its chapel to banish him to Hell. Pursued through the ruins by Patricia and Dammers, Frank experiences visions of the 1964 massacre, showing that Patricia actively participated in the killings. Frank also recalls that Bartlett's ghost murdered Debra, while Patricia carved the number into her forehead. Dammers unwittingly frees Bartlett from the urn and is promptly killed by Patricia.
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The Frighteners
The Frighteners is a 1996 supernatural comedy horror film directed by Peter Jackson and co-written with Fran Walsh. The film stars Michael J. Fox, Trini Alvarado, Peter Dobson, John Astin, Dee Wallace Stone, Jeffrey Combs, R. Lee Ermey and Jake Busey. The Frighteners tells the story of Frank Bannister (Fox), an architect who develops psychic abilities allowing him to see, hear, and communicate with ghosts after his wife's murder. He initially uses his new abilities to befriend ghosts, whom he sends to haunt people so that he can charge them handsome fees for "exorcising" the ghosts. However, the spirit of a mass murderer appears posing as the Grim Reaper, able to attack the living and the dead, prompting Frank to investigate the supernatural presence.
Jackson and Walsh conceived the idea for The Frighteners during the script-writing phase of Heavenly Creatures. Executive producer Robert Zemeckis hired the duo to write the script, with the original intention of Zemeckis directing The Frighteners as a spin-off film of the television series Tales from the Crypt. With Jackson and Walsh's first draft submitted in January 1994, Zemeckis believed the film would be better off directed by Jackson, produced by Zemeckis and funded/distributed by Universal Studios. The visual effects were created by Jackson's Weta Digital, which had only been in existence for three years. This, plus the fact that The Frighteners required more digital effects shots than almost any movie made until that time, resulted in the eighteen-month period for effects work by Weta Digital being largely stressed.
Despite a rushed post-production schedule, Universal was so impressed with Jackson's rough cut on The Frighteners, the studio moved the theatrical release date up by three months. The film was not a box office success, barely making back its budget, but it received generally positive reviews from critics. The film gained a cult following and is considered an overlooked work in Jackson's catalog.
In 1964, in the town of Fairwater, Johnny Bartlett is executed for murdering 12 people at a sanatorium, driven by his desire to become the most prolific serial killer. His teenage lover, Patricia Ann Bradley, is deemed an accomplice and sentenced to prison. Decades later, she is released into her mother's custody.
In 1990, architect Frank Bannister is living a selfish, strained marriage with his wife, Debra. During a heated argument, he drunkenly crashes his car, and police later find Debra dead nearby, with the number "13" carved into her forehead. Though Frank has no memory of the incident, the trauma leaves him able to see the spirit world. In the present, he lives in the abandoned shell of the house he was building for Debra. Consumed by guilt, he has become a cynical con man, using his abilities to "exorcise" hauntings staged by ghostly partners—streetwise Cyrus, nerdy Stuart, and The Judge, an Old West gunslinger.
During a job at the home of physician Lucy Lynskey and her arrogant husband Ray, Frank notices the glowing number "37" on Ray's forehead. Ray dies shortly after of a heart attack. Helping Lucy communicate with Ray's ghost, Frank witnesses a Grim Reaper–like entity crush the heart of another man marked "38". Panicked, Frank flees and follows a heavenly light to the museum, where he finds the number 39 victim. Soon after, a newspaper editor, Magda Rees-Jones—who accused Frank of Debra's murder—becomes victim number 40. The Reaper destroys The Judge in the process.
The mounting deaths implicate Frank, and he surrenders to the police. He is interrogated by Milton Dammers, a disturbed FBI agent traumatized by years of physical and sexual torture while working undercover in Satanic cults. Dammers is convinced Frank killed Debra and is psychically causing the unexplained heart attacks. Lucy visits Frank in jail, and they form a bond over shared loss. When the Reaper marks Lucy as victim 41, Cyrus and Stuart sacrifice themselves to save her and Frank. Knowing he cannot protect Lucy as a human, Frank asks her to induce a near-death state, slowing his heart with drugs and sealing him in a freezer. Dammers intervenes, capturing Lucy and leaving Frank to die—but Frank's spirit escapes, and damages the pursuing Reaper's form, revealing it to be Bartlett himself.
After Frank revives, Lucy warns Patricia, her patient, about Bartlett, only to learn Patricia has remained devoted to him. She summoned his spirit from Hell to continue their killing spree, and murders her own mother to protect him. Frank and Lucy trap Bartlett in his urn and flee to the derelict sanatorium, planning to use its chapel to banish him to Hell. Pursued through the ruins by Patricia and Dammers, Frank experiences visions of the 1964 massacre, showing that Patricia actively participated in the killings. Frank also recalls that Bartlett's ghost murdered Debra, while Patricia carved the number into her forehead. Dammers unwittingly frees Bartlett from the urn and is promptly killed by Patricia.