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Dom Robinson reviews

The Frighteners

No Rest for the Wicked.

Distributed by

Columbia TriStar

The Frighteners is a comedy/thriller set in the small town of Fairweather from Heavenly Creatures' director Peter Jackson, starring the excellent Michael J. Fox as psychic investigator Frank Bannister. If there's something strange... and it don't look good... who ya gonna call when the Ghostbusters aren't around? Frank's your man, or is he?

Not everyone believes that Frank can really see into the spirit world. At first, new, loving couple Lucy (Trini Alvarado) and Ray Lynskey (Peter Dobson) welcome him into their home to rid their abode of a poltergeist, but things take a nasty turn for the worse when Ray ends up dead, after which point Frank won't get to hear the end of it as he is hassled day and night by Ray. Frank had a hint that Ray's number was up, when he saw the number "13" burned into his forehead...

While we accept that Frank can see what the rest of us can't, he does use a little artistic licence - he actually shares a house with three ghosts: The Judge (The Addams Family's original Gomez, John Astin), Cyrus (Chi McBride) and Stuart (Jim Fyfe), all of which serve to help pull off any manner of freaky encounters in a bid to pull in the bucks and pay the bills.

However, there's a problem and it's not just one that affected Ray - lots of other people are dying too. One of Lucy's psychiatric patients, Patricia Bradley (Dee Wallace Stone, in a role that makes her completely unrecognisable as the mother in E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial) has teamed up with the dead 12-strong mass-murderer Johnny Bartlett (Jake Busey) and the fact that he's making his presence felt from beyond the grave doesn't matter a jot when Frank's being framed for several murders. Hmm... 12 murders. What number follows 12?

This is all Frank needs because he's still trying to get over the death of his wife Debra (Angela Bloomfield) after a car crash, which comes back to him here in a horrifying flashback.

If that wasn't enough, he's also being tracked down by Milton Dammers (the Jim Carrey-ish Jeffrey Combs) and there's a comic-turn reprisal for R. Lee Ermey who plays the dead Sgt. Major Hiles in a role that's clearly a piss-take on his tour-de-force original from Full Metal Jacket.

The picture quality for this, one of Universal's back-catalogue releases, released through Columbia, is very good and thankfully it's released in its original widescreen ratio of 2.35:1 - the only way to make sense of Jackson's visuals as he employs full use of the frame, not least with some incredible special effects such as the face that morphs along interior wall surfaces in the opening scenes and the mind-blowing "Express Bus To Hell" in the penultimate chapter.

The rating for picture quality loses a point for NOT being anamorphic when the Region 1 disc is. The average bitrate is a very good and steady 7.17Mb/s.

The sound is available in Dolby Digital 5.1 for most languages on the disc and if the comments on the picture quality whet your appetite, then note that the sound quality matches this with gusto.

Extras :

Chapters and trailer :

There's only 16 chapters here to cover the 105-minute film, the usual for a Universal film released through Columbia, which isn't enough. The original theatrical trailer is included though.

Languages and Subtitles :

Dolby Digital 5.1 for English, French, Italian and Spanish; Dolby Surround for German citizens, but the Polish and Czech communities get basic stereo. Subtitles can be seen in English, French, German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish and Portuguese.

Filmographies, Biographies and Production Notes:

Extensive biographies with accompanying filmographies are available for all of the actors and actresses listed in the cast list at the top of this review, plus director Peter Jackson. A few pages of production notes give some background info on the film.

Menu :

Similar to most Universal releases, the menu is static and silent with a picture mirroring the cover on the main menu.

I absolutely loved this film when I first saw it in the cinema and the only way to see it is in its original 2.35:1 widescreen ratio. It's just a shame that this disc has two major problems :

The latter was easier to pin-point with the PAL laserdisc as it occured during 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 version you see Combs' head almost-explode, Fox falling through a floor, Combs head finish exploding and Fox falling through more floors. What's removed is a cartoony visual splat.

So, it's not a major cut but an unnecessary pain that, while not precluding the casual viewer from making this rental choice, won't make this disc top of the list for purchases. 

FILM	 		: *****
PICTURE QUALITY		: ****
SOUND QUALITY		: *****
EXTRAS			: **
-------------------------------
OVERALL			: ****

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2000.

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