The Frighteners on PAL Laserdisc

Jeremy Clarke reviews

The Frighteners Distributed by
Pioneer LDCE

• Cat.no: PLFEB 36301
• Cert: 15
• Running time: 105 minutes
• Sides: 2 (CLV)
• Year: 1996
• Pressing: 1998
• Chapters: 39 (18/20+1)
• Sound: Dolby Surround
• Widescreen: 2.35:1
• Price: £24.99
• Extras : Trailer for “Daylight”
  

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  Director:

  Peter Jackson

Cast:

Michael J. Fox
Trini Alvarado
Peter Dobson
John Astin
Dee Wallace Stone
Jeffrey Combs
Jake Busey
Chi McBride

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Having written and directed the extraordinary Heavenly Creatures, based on an infamous fifties murder case that rocked the NZ town of Wellington and considered by many the best film ever made in New Zealand, Peter Jackson has a near insurmountable task in coming up with something equally impressive. His approach (with longstanding screenwriting partner Fran Walsh) was to write a screenplay for sale to Hollywood.

Enter Bob Zemeckis, director of Back To The Future, Forrest Gump and much else, co-screenwriter of the spec script 1941 (made by Spielberg!) who insisted that Jackson himself direct the piece. So here’s the result – an American genre piece written and directed by a New Zealander and shot in New Zealand, which doubles uneasily for small town America.

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The plot has shades of Heavenly Creatures, since it rests on a small town named Fairwater in the grip of a terrible past – in which a local Starkweather-obsessed serial killer Johnny Bartlett (Busey) notched up twelve victims in a hospital rampage before being captured and executed. His accessory girlfriend Patricia Bradley (Stone) now lives incarcerated in an old, dark house with her mother.

In a seemingly unrelated parallel tale, self-styled psychic investigator Frank Bannister (Fox) is gifted with the ability to see and talk to undead spirits, who cause havoc in the houses of Fairwater residents on his behalf just so Bannister can visit, exorcise and collect his fee. But Bannister starts noticing numbers appearing on people’s foreheads – and before you know it, they die by intense pressure upon their hearts.

What follows is a rollercoaster ride in the best Hollywood tradition, a feature that’s both a strength and a weakness since the film lacks (not that it ever attempts) the emotional resonance of Heavenly Creatures. But it does boast some extraordinary performance – Fox is impressive and there are strong bit parts from Full Metal Jacket‘s R. Lee Ermey (an undead military officer lording it over the local cemetery), the likeable Troy Evans as the local sheriff and – particularly – Jeffrey Combs (“my body is a road map of pain“) as the distinctly odd FBI agent in pursuit of supernatural quarry.

Then, there are the effects – a grim reaper who pursues speeding cars, monstrous animate beings that form in interior wall surfaces, a face that slides down the side of a coffin, and more. All this composed with Jackson’s extraordinary visual sense, exploiting the widescreen frame to the full (why would anyone want to watch a pan and scan version of this movie??) with a camera that, in the more frantic moments, swings around all over the place.

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Pioneer’s disc has plenty of chapters (38 plus one for a trailer) and generally in all the appropriate places. The side break works fine, although personally I would have placed it a few minutes later after the entire flashback sequence involving Mrs Bannister’s death, not merely after her fatal car crash which seems an odd point to break the narrative.

Speaking of odd points, in 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 PAL LD you see Combs’ head almost-explode, Fox falling through a floor, Combs head finish exploding, Fox falling through more floors. What’s removed is a cartoony visual splat – the film flows fine without it, but it’s irritating to know it’s gone.

Strangely, there are some far more unsettling scenes left intact by the censor (check out two chapters on – The Express Bus to Hell). It’s a shame, because aside from this peculiar cut, Peter Jackson’s extraordinary effects-laden visuals are perfect for presentation on LD, Pioneer’s transfer does them proud and the result is an otherwise truly gorgeous disc.

Film: 4/5
Picture: 5/5
Sound: 5/5

Review copyright © Jeremy Clarke, 1998.

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