Director: Peter Jackson
Screenplay: Fran Walsh, Peter Jackson
Starring: Michael J. Fox, Trini Alvarado, Peter Dobson, John Astin, Dee Wallace Stone, Jeffrey Combs, Jake Busey
Country: United States, New Zealand
Running Time: 110 minutes
Year: 1996
BBFC Certificate: 15
Director Peter Jackson’s Pre-Lord of the Rings CGI bonanza of ghost comedy horror is like Beetlejuice on crack. This popcorn feature has a fast-unflinching pacing with sharp and funny humour, boasting a sublime 90s cast helmed by the great Michael J. Fox.
Arrow Video is releasing The Frighteners (1996) on 4K UHD and Blu-ray 1080p HD with a restoration from the original camera negative. The package comes in three discs with the theatrical and director’s cuts included. The 4K presentations come with Dolby Vision and are HDR10 compatible.
It also comes with the 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 an optional Dolby Atmos remix (director’s cut only).
Jackson is a self-confessed physical media nerd, so this package comes with his archival LaserDisk audio commentary, his insanely detailed four and a half hour making-of documentary feature and a feature length retrospective documentary made in 2022.
Arrow summarises the plot as follows: ‘Fox (Back to the Future) stars as Frank Bannister, a small-town psychic who uses his ghostly friends to con unsuspecting locals – until a series of mysterious deaths points to a far darker force. Racing to uncover the truth, Frank realizes he’s the only person capable of stopping a malevolent spirit from claiming more victims… even if it means facing his own haunted past.’
This was Fox’s final on-screen starring role before he succumbed to Parkinson’s which is a sad fact as he’s so phenomenal as Frank in this, masterfully balancing humour and drama into a compelling performance. Leading lady Trini Alvarado feels about as 90s as you can get with her bushy brown curls, reminiscent of Andie MacDowell. She gives a powerful and engaging performance as she gets sucked into the bizarre supernatural events.
The supporting cast are all really strong, especially Frank’s ghost sidekicks played by comedians Chi McBride and Jim Fyfe who serve up a lot of laughs with their improvised dialogue. There’s a wonderful cameo from Full Metal Jacket’s R. Lee Ermey who’s essentially playing a ghost version of his most famous character. There are so many more great performances I could name in this movie – it really is an ensemble piece, with some fantastic whacky acting from bad guys Jake Busey and Jeffrey Combs.
The film’s real success her is the impressive visual effects. Some of the character designs do look similar to the Lord of the Rings characters – particularly the Nazgul, or Black Riders, who look similar to the film’s main villain.
What an absolute treat this film was to watch in 4K UHD with a Dolby Atmos soundtrack. I felt as if the ghosts were whizzing around my living room with lots of noise projecting from the rear speakers in just about every set piece. A lot of care and attention had also been put into the atmospheric noises, such as thunder, lightning and the pouring rain.
Even the camera darts around like a ghost within the film, moving through objects at a brisk pace, making for a vicarious experience which felt very cinematic. While the film is goofy mindless fun, I’d go as far to add, in terms of sound and visuals, this is likely one of the best overall viewing experiences I’ve had with a 4K disc.
Film:
Special Features
- Audio commentary by co-writer/producer/director Peter Jackson (director’s cut only)
- Peter Jackson’s 10th anniversary introduction to the film
- 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
- Collectors’ booklet featuring Peter Jackson’s 1998 introduction to the LaserDisc release, original production notes, and two 1996 articles from American Cinematographer
Peter Jackson’s extras are always the best. He’s a master storyteller and endlessly charismatic and humble, making for an absorbing director’s commentary. His short introduction explains how this American-financed picture bridged the gap between his low-budget movies and Lord of the Rings.
The 2022 feature length documentary brings together a lot of the key cast members and creatives. They speak about the “immense undertaking” involved to perfect the visuals and perform alongside them.
Jackson’s own exhaustive 4.5-hour documentary is the real highlight of the extras, however. It provides a fascinating insight into the art of modern moviemaking. Jackson’s team seem to have led the way with modern CGI on this trendsetting movie. Big CGI-fest movies seem to dominate theatres these days so it’s interesting to see how these incredible filmmakers sparked the trend. Plus, there are some fantastic interviews with Michael J Fox.
Special Features:
Arrow Video releases The Frighteners in 4K on 26 October, 2026.