THE FRIGHTENERS (1996) A Film Review by Ted Prigge Copyright 1997 Ted Prigge
Director: Peter Jackson Writers: Peter Jackson and Frances Walsh Starring: Michael J. Fox, Trini Alvarado, Peter Dobson, Jeffrey Combs, Jake Busey, Dee Wallace-Stone, Chi McBride, Jim Fyfe, John Astin, R. Lee Ermey, Troy Evans
"Dead Alive" (a.k.a. "Brain Dead") was a hilarious darkly comic horror film with the best single gorefest ever put on celluloid. "Heavenly Creatures" was a wonderfully disturbing character study/black comedy which examined two school girls' strange obsession with one another, going WAYYYY past simple homosexuality. Compared to these two amazing, amazing flicks, "The Frighteners," Jackson's American debut (and subsequent box office flop) is rather tepid.
That's not to say that it's not a good flick. Often when foreign and acclaimed directors arrive to make American films, they have a bit of trouble settling in (it's natural; just ask John Woo and Danny Boyle). In some cases, it's because they're homeland material is a tad too risque for our elite, censored-as-hell American tastes (most of Woo's Hong Kong flicks are "unrated," which also applies to "Dead Alive;" and I still haven't seen the uncut version of "Trainspotting").
Granted, Jackson's arrival is a tad more well-done than that of Woo's and Boyle's ("Hard Target" is considered a "failure," and...I mean, it starred Van Damme; and "A Life Less Ordinary" MIGHT peak 5 million bucks and might get more than 10 good reviews out of the whole country). But it's just not as good as his earlier films. I've never seen his early early work (like "Bad Taste," and the sick Muppet parody, "Meet the Feebles" - both are more rare than finding a gas station in Philadelphia - inside joke), but I'm pretty sure that "The Frighteners" is just as tepid as it seems.
Not to say it isn't a shock for us Americans. The film's mood twists and turns: it starts off as an off-beat comedy, then ultimately settles into wild horror. The film opens spectacularly, giving off hints of Jackson at his most manic, with a ghost chasing a screaming woman (Dee Wallace-Stone - you remember the mom from "E.T.") through a crumbling mansion, seeping through walls, and creeping under the carpet, and ending in a great shot that scares the hell out of the viewer.
The we meet Frank Black (Michael J. Fox, right before "Spin City" came out), a bitter, world-weary con-man, or so it seems. He says he's a psychic and can exorcise ghosts, and no one really believes him...until a ghost starts poltergeisting (a word?) them. Then Frank comes in, does his stuff, and no more ghosts. Maybe he's the real thing...guess again. Yes, he can communicate with ghosts, but they're really his buds, and are working with him (or for him) to get him money and business, a pure example of the cleverness of the script.
But soon numbers are appearing on people's heads, only seen by Frank. And soon enough, they turn up dead. It seems a serial killer ghost is doing the nasty deeds, and making it look like Frank is the culprit. The film shifts into horror, yet never really looses the twisted humor from the first parts.
The humor in this film is in no way as great as that of "Dead Alive" and "Heavenly Creatures." A typical joke in "Dead Alive" featured a woman turning into a zombie sitting at lunch with a group of people who don't know she's a zombie, and accidentally eating her eyeball, which has fallen into her soup. And a "Heavenly Creatures" joke involved great style, and acting by one of the actresses, especially a scene where a paranoid father was checking up on the two girls who were in the bathroom, taking pictures of eachothers' clevage.
But "The Frighteners" is a little more off-beat, and more American. Sometimes there's some good old American slapstick, but then there's some good old American movie allusions. One of the funniest film geek jokes involves a graveyard where the general of it just happens to be the robotic, insulting drill sergeant from Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket," reincarnated as a ghost and played by the exact same actor as in the film, the great R. Lee Ermey. And cult horror fans will love that Jeffrey Combs ("Re-Animator") shows up halfway through as a totally bizarre and surrealistic investigator who's hung out with way too many cults.
But the humor just isn't as wild and manic as it was in Jackson's earlier "Dead Alive." I mean, I probably laughed more during the final 30 minutes of that movie than I would have if I watched all of Chris Farley's movies, and multiplied the number of times I laughed at all of them combined by one thousand. But "The Frighteners" is much more restrained, and there-in lies its main problem.
Sometimes when a film is too structured, it looses the impact it would have needed. Sure, "Heavenly Creatures" was structured, but it was a more dramatic film than his other flicks. But "Dead Alive" was funny because it went wild. "The Frighteners" needed this same kind of touch to it, to differentiate itself more from American flicks. I mean, there's a reason why we bring acclaimed foreign filmmakers over here to make films: money. But the other reason is to bring a part of their culture over to this one. When they assimilate, they kind of loose their luster, and "The Frighteners" looses that.
On better news, the film works on its own anyway, although it's nothing absolutely spectacular. The acting is also very good, with Fox doing a strangely good job in a role he was definitely not typecast for. Trini Alvarado ("Little Women") does a good job as his love interest (there has to be one: it's American). Jake Busey plays the big villain, and has that same kind of creepy-ass visage his father once had...hell, he still has it. John Astin, unrecognizable under layers and layers and layers of make-up and special effects, does a good job with a small role. And Jeffrey Combs is...wow, he's a cool guy.
"The Frighteners" works, but is not as jaw-droppingly amazing as Jackson's other films, yet still shows that Jackson can at least do a pretty good job on his American debut. But if you want to see a real piece of Jackson-ography, see "Dead Alive" and/or "Heavenly Creatures."
MY RATING (out of 4): ***
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