He’s A Perfectly Normal Boy! Hooptober XI
8/32 - Director's Cut

The Frighteners is an interesting film outside the film itself. The movie is Peter Jackson's first big film, is backed by Zemeckis (was to be originally directed by Bob for Creepshow, I believe), has a score from Danny Elfman, starring Michael J. Fox, one of the biggest stars in the world, and it flopped. Jackson did everything to get a PG-13 rating but the MPAA wasn't having it—and that move may have sunk the film.

For most of the movie, you might wonder what made the ratings body cringe so much, as it plays out like Beetlejuice<.I> or Ghostbusters, but by the third act, when the creepy FBI agent who was tortured by the Mansons shows up before going full Natural Born Killers.

While the "unrated" cut is listed as a director's cut, it is more just putting more of what got him the R rating back in—sort of the opposite of the original intention of the film. What you do get is a great introduction about how buying a bunch of SGI computers for this movie led to him adapting Lord of the Rings. Some of the flying death effects are hard to get past in 2024, but the ghost stuff is great. R. Lee Ermey, Peter Dobson, and Chi McBride are hilarious as ghosts and always show up at the right time.

This is a fun re-watch with all of the context of this being MjF's last film before doing TV exclusively, the real birth of Weta Workshop, which would become a powerhouse effects studio, and some great haunted house and ghost sidekick moments. Dee Wallace is so freaking good in this movie, and is one of the unsung great character flips in horror. And that sums up part of what makes Jackson so fun—he can totally balance humor with horror and take you on a great ride.