4 out of 5

Director: Peter Jackson

Besides the film being pretty non-stop entertaining, one of the most impressive things about The Frighteners – and speaks to Jackson’s career-long awareness of and fascination with special effects, both practical and computer – is how well the look of it holds up.  The style chosen for the ghosts still looks right (even in HD), the sight-lines and interactions between blue-screened/CG elements and the actors are better than in your average modern film, and there is, for the most part, an awareness of using shadows and framing to block shots where maybe they couldn’t pull it off completely.  Is it still rough around the edges, visually?  Yeah, there are hinks, and the film suffers from a bit too much action, frankly (even in the 2-hr plus extended edition), and shares “Dead Alive” ‘s overkill frenzy at the end, but on the whole – this is probably Peter’s most rounded work, combining his humor with his flair for action that he would hone with LOTR, as well as wringing some rather dedicated performances from his principles to sprinkle what should be a popcorn flick with some surprising pathos.  Though for sure it can’t be said it’s a weighty film in the vein of Heavenly Creatures – there’s no doubt from shot one that Frighteners is meant to be fun fun fun, a supernatural mystery of a con man who can talk to the dead.  Jeffrey Combs delivers one his most fun performances, and the flick dips into an R-rated pool of humor and gore sometimes, which is nice (but TV by today’s standards).  As stated, the non-stop feel wears a little thin, but this was the perfect edge for Jackson to teeter on before desc- or ascending to big-budget fame.