Disc Reviews
The Frighteners 4K Review
Michael J. Fox plays Frank Bannister, a short-time con man who can see the dead. Yes, he has ghosts living with him, and they help aid in conning the locals into thinking that their houses are haunted. Technically, it isn’t a lie, as his ghosts are haunting at his behest. But Frank is a man with a dark past, a dead wife and an uncertain future living in an unfinished home. Then – some of the locals start dropping dead with numbers carved into their foreheads. It seems the Grim Reaper has come a callin’, and Frank and recent widow Lucy (Trini Alvarado) seem like the only ones who can put the pieces together and stop what is going on.
Did I mention this is from Peter Jackson? This is the film he made before the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Not unlike his early work, there are some ingenious and icky FX work, but there is also a devilishly fun dark sense of humour as, despite the title, The Frighteners is actually mostly a comedy. Jackson and partner Fran Walsh are very good at weaving horror, comedy and drama and largely making it all work. The film’s runtime does get on a bit in the second half, but it’s an easy film to get on with and features very colourful main and supporting characters throughout – the highlight of which is probably Jeffrey Combs as a badly wired FBI Agent who arrives to investigate the scene and get in Frank’s way. So, despite the second half plodding, it still leads to a satisfying climax where good, evil, and idiots in the way, finally clash. Jackson and Walsh proved they knew how to deliver big on thrills and laughs, and remain engaging, even though they were working in a genre that had less respect at the time the others.
Disc one has two cuts of the film. Theatrical and director’s cut. Peter Jackson shows up in, surprisingly, the only commentary track, which features on the director’s cut only. Seems a bit odd with his huge ensemble team of people so eager to talk over the LOTR trilogy on their multiple commentary tracks that this doesn’t have all departments crowing over it as well.
Disc two is pretty much the Blu-ray version of the 4K disc 1. Both cuts of the movie with the same extras.
Disc three more than makes up for the lack of additional commentaries with some weighty making-of material. There is a 2022 online interview with Richard Taylor which looks awful, but what he has to say is very generous in the 40-plus minute run time of the interview. Don’t let the Skype-esque nature of the look of it put you off. It is after all people talking to each other. There is also a 90-minute 2022 new documentary on the making of the film.
And then there is the almost 4 hours making off made back in 2005 for the laser disc version which charts the film’s production from conception to competition and it is fascinating. This is where you get to hear from all departments as they work on the film. It’s simply genius and the gem of this extras set.
Naturally, this is the best the film has looked and sounded. The 4K is what will get some people rebuying if they already have a previous edition, but Arrow have made sure to pad this one out with enough extras to make it the most definitive edition yet.
Steven Hurst
SPECIAL FEATURES:
4K ULTRA HD LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS
- 4K restoration from the original camera negative
- Reversible sleeve featuring two original artwork options
- Collectors’ booklet featuring Peter Jackson’s 1998 introduction to the LaserDisc release, original production notes, and two 1996 articles from American Cinematographer
DISC 1 – THEATRICAL AND DIRECTOR’S CUTS (4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY)
- 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation of both cuts in Dolby Vision (HDR10/compatible)
- Original lossless theatrical mix in DTS-HD MA 5.1 (theatrical cut only) and original lossless 2.0 stereo audio (both cuts), plus DTS-HD MA 5.1 home video mix (both cuts) and optional Dolby Atmos remix (director’s cut only)
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Optional English subtitles on all bonus materials
- Audio commentary by co-writer/producer/director Peter Jackson (director’s cut only)
- Peter Jackson’s 10th anniversary introduction to the film
- Theatrical trailer
DISC 2 – OPEN MATTE VERSIONS (BLU-RAY)
- High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation of both cuts, with the same audio/subtitle options and extras as Disc 1
DISC 3 – EXTRAS (BLU-RAY)
- No Way to Make a Living: A Look Back at The Frighteners, a feature-length documentary produced in 2022, featuring new interviews with actors Dee Wallace Stone and Jake Busey, cinematographer John Blick, production designer Grant Major, creature and miniature effects supervisor Richard Taylor, visual effects supervisor Wes Takahashi, and producer/editor Jamie Selkirk
- The Making of The Frighteners, an exhaustive 225-minute documentary exploring every aspect of the film’s production, from script development and casting to post-production and release, produced in 1998 for the LaserDisc release, with a 2005 retrospective introduction by Jackson
- A Conversation with Richard Taylor and Alexandre Poncet, a 2022 interview with the man behind the film’s creature and miniature effects
- Image gallery
The Frighteners is released on 26th October