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Post by stefancrosscoe on Mar 22, 2017 15:32:12 GMT
"Give it up, Frank! Death ain't no way to make a living!"Frank Bannister (Michael J. Fox) are the one and only living exorcist and official ghost hunter in town. A special ability that he got from having survived a horrible car accident. This "gift" of his, makes it possible of seeing and communicating with the dead, and it does not take very long before realising the potential it has, and by turning it into a very profitable business opportunity. But when people all over town are beginning to drop like flies, Bannister has to come with the fact that if he wants to have any living and breathing customers left to hustle in the near future, he has to get to the bottom of what is going on. Because it seems like the grim reaper has arrived, and he is on a real roll and with no time to lose. I remember stumbling upon the film's fantastic and very cool looking movie poster as kid. It was all over town and in several of my local video stores during the summer of 97. But by the end of the year, a lot us of kids had already forgotten about it and moved on, as very few local cinemas seemed to care showing it, either that or you had to bring along a parent, and my dad worked all the time, and my mum hated horror movies. 6 years later, and Peter Jackson was now not just a smalltime "cult" director, but a real Hollywood big shot with his own groundbreaking fantasy/adventure trilogy, Lord of the Rings. And in summer of 2003 I guess it was about time to cash in on his lesser known titles, so I bought the newly released (DVDs) that included, Bad Taste (1987), Meet The Feebles (1989), Brain Dead aka Dead Alive (1992) and The Frighteners (1996). The first three titles were more in the vain of typical 80s low budget or b-movies that often seem to pay tribute to the likes of Troma productions or Evil Dead/Re-Animator films, with the over-the-top violence, tons of splatter/blood scenes and hilarious badly made monster special effect etc. But for me, the true standout film, was The Frighteners. It was a comedy all right, but still a lot darker than the other ones, and featured a much bigger budget, names and very heavy use of CGI animation. So it was clearly a movie that the studios had hoped would be huge box office summer blockbuster, kind of like the Ghostbusters of the 90s, but sadly it tanked big time. I guess some of the reason might have been down to just poor marketing, as I remember there were only a short 25-30 seconds teaser clip that kept popping up on TV around summer 97, and it did not do any justice to the film in any way, and looked more like it was taken right out of a Jim Carrey slapstick comedy. Even though it starts off as a quirky, overnatural comedy/adventure film, not that unlike of say, Tim Burton and his classic, Beetlejuice (1988), it soon becomes very clear that The Frighteners is not only about the laughs, as it changes to a more violent and dark tone, which I guess upset a lot of people/critics. To this day, it seems like the film is most known either for the heavy use of CGI, being a flop or because it was Michael J. Fox last leading movie role, and he really went out with style, as I think that Frank Bannister is one of his best roles ever. Blending in slapstick comedy, romance, action and a bit of dark/dramatic moments, and it also helped being backed up with a highly talented cast including: The beautiful Trini Alvarado, Jeffrey Combs as the eccentric and hilarious Special Agent Milon Dammers, 70s-80s scream queen Dee Wallace Stone delivering some of her best work as the psychotic Patricia Ann Bradley and then you have the great John Astin as a crazy ghost along with Chi McBride, Peter Dobson, Jim Fyfe, R. Lee Ermey and of course Jake Busey.
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Post by movielover on Mar 22, 2017 15:44:03 GMT
Decent movie, but I wish they hadn't made it a comedy. It would have been so much better as just an adventure/horror film with no comedy.
The comedy really hurt the movie, in my opinion, because it undermined all that great supernatural/suspense element in the movie.
I still give it a 7/10, but could've easily been an 8 or 9.
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Post by stefancrosscoe on Mar 22, 2017 15:53:15 GMT
I can see how the comedy part might be a bit of hit and miss, but I guess the producers wanted their money back, and then some. And by having the film going into a more darker tone, they probably opted for a lighter/funnier final product instead. I remember hoping that the directors cut would maybe improve on that, but instead it just included more unnecessary and silly/goofy scenes, which did not fit in very well with the theatrical cut.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 22, 2017 22:50:53 GMT
I liked it a lot. I think the comedy is OK.
8/10
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Post by sugarbiscuits on Mar 22, 2017 23:02:47 GMT
I like the movie and a lot of others with Michael J. Fox.
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Post by FridayOnElmStreet on Mar 22, 2017 23:38:24 GMT
8/10 Solid film.
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Post by TheOriginalPinky on Mar 23, 2017 14:54:52 GMT
I enjoyed the heck out of it. A dark horror comedy, and it has some really chilling parts, despite the comedy. 8/10
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Post by naterdawg on Mar 23, 2017 18:44:48 GMT
I think the comedy worked to an extent. What I could never understand is why Dee Wallace's character is being chased all around her house by her boyfriend's ghost. Was this ever explained?
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Post by movielover on Mar 23, 2017 18:59:39 GMT
Just to clarify, I'm not saying the comedy didn't work, or that the movie wasn't funny. It was. I'm just saying that the comedy detracted from the adventure/horror element of the film, which I think hurt the movie overall, as I found the adventure/horror aspect the best part. Like I said, I still gave it a 7, but make it a non-comedy, and it would have been higher.
In some movies, it does work. I love The Lost Boys, for example, an adventure/horror movie with a lot of comedy. I loved the comedy in that movie and never felt it undermined the adventure/horror of the movie.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Mar 27, 2017 9:30:27 GMT
This is one of my favourite movies, though sadly I missed seeing it at the theatre and first watched it on TV. I’ve loved it ever since.
Just from the opening alone, it grabbed my attention (as to the question of Partricia being chased around by her boyfriend’s ghost – I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that they’d had this ‘game’ of sorts between them when he was alive and would do that with her. I guess it was just part of their being ‘crazy’. I’m not sure if it was a deleted scene or not, but I remember reading about it and accepting that as the answer).
After that great opening, the music/atmosphere when the opening credits began really set the mood. I liked that we were hearing via voice-over the town's backstory (which would be important) whilst seeing other stuff going on as the opening titles were displayed. It served several purposes all at once.
I really enjoyed Michael J. Fox as Frank, and despite how he made a living, I still liked the guy. I also liked Lucy, thanks mostly to Trini Alvarado making her so likeable (at least to me). She was really nice to Frank and therefore made it easy for me to want her and him together and for her husband to be out of the picture (due to his personality). I also liked that she stood up to Frank in the latter half of the movie and called him on his b.s. She was no ‘pushover’.
Despite what I said about Ray, I did grow to like him slightly after he sought out Frank’s help (though I loved Frank earlier crushing Ray’s beloved gnome – gnomes are evil!). He then reverted to being a jerk again, but more or less ‘redeemed’ himself later on by putting Lucy’s safety first at the house...and getting his face sliced off for his trouble.
I enjoyed Frank’s three ghost friends – enough that I felt bad for each of them, and for Frank, when they got ‘killed’ (the aspect I always pondered was how these ghosts could get ‘killed’ when they were already dead, but I think Frank gave some kind of explanation of what they were, and I just figured any of the ‘ghostly weapons’ the ghosts could hold – be it scythes, guns, etc – could do damage to them, but naturally couldn’t do damage to the living, and vice versa). I never let these sorts of questions distract me, as I was enjoying the movie too much.
I wasn’t really aware of Jeffrey Combs before seeing him in this, but his portrayal of Milton Dammers is one I’ll always remember him for. Not only did he give Dammers all these weird ticks and little intricacies, but even the way he’d deliver lines – there was just so much ‘oomph’ behind them. He packed every piece of dialogue with so much ‘character’, I thought. He was certainly an a-hole, though, and his fate was quite satisfying.
Jake Busey was...well...freaky as Johnny Bartlett (but that was to be expected). Dee Wallace also brought the crazy when the reveal of her character came, but I thought she was convincing playing the total opposite of that throughout most of the movie as well, which made the ‘reveal’ all the more effective.
I just love so much about this movie – the music, the look, the effects, it had just the right amount of violence, I never felt as though it ‘dragged’, it was freaky at times, funny and emotional at other times, and best of all, the use of ‘Don’t Fear the Reaper’ over the end credits just perfectly capped off what has become one of my most favourite movies ever.
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Post by Marv on Mar 27, 2017 16:24:11 GMT
I've always liked it. The effects don't hold up that great tho if I remember correctly. It's been a few years since I've watched it last.
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Post by Lebowskidoo 🦞 on Aug 9, 2018 11:13:24 GMT
One of Michael J. Fox's last big starring roles in a movie. Read that he hated being so far away in NZ for so long, away from his family, and after this is when he decided to return to TV on Spin City.
It's a fun movie, Chi McBride is hilarious, just like he was on Pushing Daisies.
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Post by politicidal on Aug 9, 2018 13:59:05 GMT
I liked the effects work but it's an uneven mess.
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