Review for The Frighteners

Introduction

Behold, another quickie Blu-ray double dip review, as I continue on my wallet draining quest to have all of my favourite films in as best a quality as possible, and with this being the 21st Century, that now means Blu-ray. I can only be grateful that I don’t live in a house large enough for a meaningful 4k screen! Next up on my list is Peter Jackson’s The Frighteners, the Michael J. Fox supernatural vehicle that practically no one but I loved when it was released theatrically, but which everyone adored as soon as The Lord of the Rings movies were made. That initial lack of love meant a non-anamorphic DVD at first in the UK, but which got upgraded to special edition director’s cut in the mid-2000s, a three disc release which had the director’s cut on one disc, and the making of the film (taken from the laserdisc) on two further DVDs, in one of those lamentable stackpack cases. That wasn’t the definitive release by the way. The German release was a four disc job, which threw in the Theatrical Cut as well.


The Frighteners Blu-ray release, which came out in the UK in 2011, has all of the extra features, the Director’s Cut of the film, and the Theatrical Cut all on one disc. That’s four DVDs worth of material on one Blu-ray. I recently took a look at Dark City on Blu-ray which tried something similar and suffered because of it. Four discs into one surely can’t go, can it, even if it is Blu-ray? Something’s got to give!


Frank Bannister is an architect turned psychic investigator. When ghostly activity occurs in the sleepy town of Fairwater, he is invariably called to exorcise the restless spirits. In actual fact, Frank has chanced upon the perfect scam. Since a traumatic event, he actually has been able to see the spirits of the deceased. He's gathered a motley crew of dispossessed wraiths and uses them to engineer the hauntings. But events take a sinister turn when Frank becomes mixed up in an unexplained series of deaths. He performs an "exorcism" at the house of Lucy Lynskey but notices an ethereal number carved into her husband's forehead. Soon after, he dies of a heart attack.


The Grim Reaper is loose in Fairwater, and only Frank can see the cloaked spirit fleeing from the scene of each death. This has the unfortunate effect of making him prime suspect, and soon the amiable Sheriff and a creepy FBI agent are pursuing him. Meanwhile, Lucy, who is a doctor in the town surgery, has paid a visit to Patricia Bradley, a reclusive woman who lives with her mother in a dilapidated mansion. When Patricia was 15 years old, she was the accomplice of a serial killer, Johnny Bartlett, who murdered 12 people in the local hospital. Yet now Patricia is being terrorised in the mansion, and Lucy wishing to help gets drawn into the creepy history of the Bradley Bartlett murders. Events draw Lucy and Frank together as they fight the supernatural menace and try to solve the mystery of Patricia Bradley in this chillingly funny film.

As usual for my double dip reviews, I’ll point you to my review of the DVD version, and concentrate on the technical aspects of the Blu-ray here, for the purposes of which I watched the Director’s Cut only.

Picture

One advantage that the Frighteners has over the Dark City Blu-ray is that the Director’s Cut is merely an extension to the Theatrical Version, and that both versions of the film can be presented here via seamless branching, saving disc real estate. On my Panasonic Blu-ray player, it was a seamless experience, no pauses or glitches. The Frighteners gets a 2.35:1 1080p resolution widescreen transfer of a film source, and it is to my eyes, perfect. The print is clean, stable, and free of any signs of age. There is a light and consistent level of grain throughout, and the Blu-ray offers its customary upgrade in terms of detail and colour fidelity. The image is vibrant, offers depth, and at no point did I notice any compression or noise.


Like the Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson has made this film on location in New Zealand, with the town of Lyttleton substituting for the American coastal town of Fairwater. The scenery is just gorgeous, filled with rolling green hills and picturesque coastal views. The look of the film is carefully thought out as well, a faded palette of colours lending an unearthly touch to the story and adds a genuinely spooky atmosphere. Pale greens and rich browns dominate and all the characters have pale flesh tones. The only exceptions are the flashback and otherworld scenes. The only drawback there might be to this Blu-ray release is that the effects shots are beginning to show their age, especially the CGI representation of the Reaper, and Magda’s death in particular.

Sound

You have the choice between DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround English and DTS 5.1 Surround French, the latter on the Theatrical Cut only, along with English, French, and Spanish subtitles. I love this audio track! With the supernatural subject matter of The Frighteners, you can bet that there’s a whole lot of opportunity for inventive sound design, and the surround speakers are put to full use in conveying the films action and effects sequences. Danny Elfman’s score is a resounding driver of the film, and the LFE really does make its presence felt, literally so. Despite all this grin-inducing audio wizardry, the dialogue remains clear throughout, while I still love The Muttonbirds cover version of Don’t Fear the Reaper.

Extras

It’s just a disc in an Amaray case, using Universal’s stock menus, against scenes from the film. There are two of them actually, as you can choose between the Theatrical Version and the Director’s Cut.

It has the usual limited online interactivity, with a Ticker and DBox, whatever that is.

In the Director’s Cut menu, you’ll be able to access Peter Jackson’s 10th Anniversary Intro (2:40).

You’ll also find the feature commentary for the Director’s Cut from Peter Jackson.


Accessible from both menus, you get The Making of the Frighteners, split into 30 chapters, but if you select Play All, you’ll be sat there for 225:54, that’s three and half hours.

You also get 45:39 of storyboards, with commentary from Peter Jackson.

Finally there is the theatrical trailer (2:03).

All of the video extras are in 480i SD, and have optional subtitles. There aren’t any subtitles for the commentary though. Read more about the extra features in the review of the DVD.

Conclusion

Four discs into one do go! The Frighteners is one Blu-ray that I am wholly satisfied with, and I won’t be waiting on another release. The image quality is excellent, the audio similarly so, and you get both versions of the film and over four hours of extra features... all on one disc. I don’t even have to fiddle around swapping discs once every couple of hours. Just how lazy do you want me to be?


What astounds me is that I still feel about this film the way I did when I first saw it, back in 1997. It really hasn’t dated at all. You’ve Peter Jackson bringing his independent movie making spirit to his first real big budget studio film, and he’s still restrained enough to not induce butt-numbness to the point of gangrene. You’ve also got that combination of producer Robert Zemeckis and star Michael J. Fox, bringing a dark Back to the Future style sensibility to the movie. You have a cast of wonderful characters, a delicious story, and an assured execution, deftly blending comedy and horror, particularly in the director’s cut, that makes this feel like a Ghostbusters for the 1990s.


Incidentally, this disc marks the first time that the Theatrical Version has been released uncut in the UK (the cuts were waived for the Director’s Cut DVD).