Greg King talks horror with Peter Jackson

New Zealand director Peter Jackson gave us such gruesome and gory yet perversely entertaining C-grade shockers as Meet The Feebles and the aptly title Bad Taste, featuring shocking, tasteless moments and plenty of splattering human flesh, all executed with devilish glee. However, with the moody and atmospheric true crime drama Heavenly Creatures he revealed another side to his talents, showing that he was also capable of producing a more subtle and restrained horror film steeped in human emotions and containing rich, complex characters.

Jackson's latest film The Frighteners is his most mainstream yet, cleverly combining the more grotesque and graphic horror elements of his earlier films with welcome touches of wry humour. However, Jackson's facile mix of gory horror and cheap laughs, mainly at the expense of the genre itself, lacks the easy assurance and winning style of Wes Craven's recent genre-bending Scream.

The Frighteners is set in Fairweather, a sleepy little Californian town that is still recovering from the psychological scars of that horrible day several years earlier when two dysfunctional young lovers erupted into a cold and calculated homicidal rage in the local hospital, eventually killing 13 people. Recent tragic events in both Port Arthur and New Zealand itself provide a rather grim and sombre counterpoint to the fictional tragedy of Fairweather, but it's the sort of unfortunate coincidence that can give a movie much unwanted publicity and knee-jerk reactions.

Given Fairweather's notorious history it's probably no wonder that houses occasionally seem haunted, with residents experiencing all kinds of psychic disturbances. So, when your furniture begins to move, who you gonna call? Self proclaimed psychic investigator and ghost buster Frank Bannister (Michael J Fox), who rids haunted houses of unwanted spectral emanations and poltergeists, that's who. Of course it is all a giant scam, as Bannister has some mysterious connection to the spiritual other world and is working in league with the mischievous ghosts to shake down gullible citizens.

The ploy works marvellously until the reincarnation of the town's infamous mass murderer Johnny Bartlett (Jake Busey) returns to finish his gruesome work. Before long Bannister becomes the main suspect as there are numerous similarities between the current atrocities and the unsolved killing of his own wife several years earlier. With the reluctant help of his spectral friends and the beautiful Lucy Lynskey (Trini Alvarado, from Little Women, etc), a recently widowed local doctor, Bannister sets out to clear his name. Not only is Bannister pursued by the ghosts of both his and the town's recent past, but Dammers, a dangerously twisted and psychotic FBI agent who's had one extraterrestrial encounter too many (played with outrageous glee by Re-animator's nutty doctor Jeffrey Coombs), is also out to get him.

It's nice to see Fox cast slightly against type here, moving away from his usual bag of tricks as the smart-arse yuppie to play a scheming character lacking self-assurance, but imbued with a rough edge and a touch of ambiguity and mystery. Some of the supporting performances are outrageously over the top, particularly Coombs' sinister FBI agent and Busey's grinning amoral psychopathic killer, which seem to perfectly capture the off beat flavour of the whole thing. Several of the ghosts seem to have been written specifically for the actors who play them; in particular, R Lee Ermey's tough marine drill sergeant who rules over the cemetery with an iron fist is eerily reminiscent of his most famous role from Full Metal Jacket.

Working under the auspices of executive producer Robert Zemeckis and with a considerably larger budget, Jackson makes great use of some elaborate computer generated special effects here, and technically the film is far more sophisticated than his earlier low budget efforts. Jackson has also shot the film in his native New Zealand, with Wellington doubling for sleepy Fairweather.

However, no amount of sophisticated computer technology can disguise one of the most obvious glitches in recent movie history! Check out the scene in which Frank and Lucy are chased through the dilapidated and deserted old hospital which has been closed for fifteen years, and note how the only thing that seems to work in the entire building is the electrically powered elevator! Such clichéd moments aside, The Frighteners is an entertaining horror comedy that does manage the occasional moment of shock that will rivet audiences to their seats.

© 1996-97 Greg King / Used With Permission