DVD Review: The Frighteners (1996)

Before King Kong and Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson was busy at entertaining us with such movies as The Frighteners.

Starring Michael J Fox and Jeffrey Coombs, Jackson brings us a psychic investigator who can see numbers carved on people’s heads. Believed to be a fraud, Frank Bannister is magnetised to a serial killer called Johnny Bartlett (Jake Busey) who, even after death, is trying to climb up the death toll ladder by killing seemingly random people by squeezing their hearts to death?

By far the most compelling character is Coombs’s. As Milton Dammers, he gives us a very different insight into FBI investigation by combining psychic detection, cults, and a nefarious exploit into solving an old case: the death of Bannister’s wife.

What both characters do not realise is that all these events are inextricably knitted together with one Johnny Bartlett at its centre. Can Bannister stop the murders, aided by three ghosts be has befriended, or is Bartlett out to get more than revenge for his own death?

By far, this movie is under-rated. I am no fan of Michael J Fox (with the exception of the Back to the Future series), and the rest of the cast cannot be faulted. Milton is hilarious and follows Coomb’s artful interpretation of the horror genre after Re-animator.

The Frighteners is a fresh take on an old ghost story with interesting characters which keep the plot moving and the viewer thinking. If you haven’t had the opportunity to see it, then what the hell are you doing reading this!