Peter Jackson’s The Frighteners is on Starz

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Peter Jackson’s 1996 paranormal horror comedy The Frighteners is streamed on Starz and 25 years after it was first released it is an absolute joy to see.

Despite a meager box office and mixed reviews, The Frighteners has survived as a cult classic. Its 25th anniversary last month was received with a lot of love. And it deserves it. The Frighteners is a gem and a real glimpse into Peter Jackson’s career, which has moved from outrageous B-movies to Oscar-winning epics.

If you’re looking for something to stream on Starz it’s well worth it.

I never saw The Frighteners as a kid. And yet, every time I’ve seen it as an adult, I’ve felt something like nostalgia. It was perhaps overshadowed by its peers like Scream and Mars Attacks in 1996. But it builds on films that have appeared before, like Ghostbusters, The Adams Family, and Cemetery Man. And it certainly influenced the movies and television that came after that, like Pushing Daisies and What We Do in the Shadows.

Like the Ghostbusters before him, Jake Bannister (Michael J. Fox) has a knack for dealing with ghosts. Armed with business cards, he roams the local cemetery in search of new leads to his psychological investigation – who do you want to call? Frank Bannister.

The problem is, Frank is a crook.

He can communicate with the dead – that part is true. After his wife was killed in a car accident, he developed his sixth sense. But ghosts are mostly harmless and hang around their graves while mustering up the courage to walk into the light. How does Frank earn his money? He asks a few ghosts for help to kill the time. A house is haunted and he rushes inside for a fee to save the day.

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But Frank catches an angel of death guy who snatches the inhabitants of his small town. So he works with Lucy, a local woman who recently lost her husband to this mysterious reaper. Then things get complicated when decades of serial murders are linked to the new deaths and Frank has to come to terms with how his wife actually died.

The cynical tone and wacky humor of The Frighteners make it look fresh and fun, but it has some real horrors too. It plays the horror comedy game without ever sacrificing one genre for another.

Peter Jackson grows up

If you’ve ever wondered how Peter Jackson of the R-rated Muppets came about with his record-breaking and award-winning trilogy The Lord of the Rings, The Frighteners is a great movie to watch again.

As Damn disgusting‘s Meagan Navaro pointed out that Jackson and his staff – especially special effects legends Rick Baker and Richard Taylor – create a seamless viewing experience with lifelike miniatures and haunting creature effects. The miniatures in particular are completely inconspicuous and, despite Jackson’s preferred filming locations in New Zealand, create a credible vision of the American Midwest.

Jackson’s next films, his massive Lord of the Rings trilogy, would continue to use miniatures. This time to create an immersive Middle-earth.

Peter Jackson has had a wild career. He made iconic hits like his early low-budget outings Bad Taste, Dead Alive, Meet the Feebles (the aforementioned R-rated Muppets), and Heavenly Creatures. And he made blockbuster juggernauts like The Lord of the Rings and King Kong.

But The Frighteners came in the middle. It showed the director’s diverse abilities perhaps better than any other title in its filmography. It balances crude jokes, great visual effects, and an intimate, human story about grief and coming to an end in the face of unimaginable loss.

The Frighteners is a horror comedy classic

The Frighteners deserve better than their Blink-and-You-Miss-You release (maybe the Independence Day contest knocked them out from the start).

It has some of the morbid creative qualities that made Tim Burton a household name, but it somehow feels more and less noticeable than Burton’s oeuvre. And that’s the best.

cash: The best films on Starz

Produced by Robert Zemeckis, whose Back to the Future starred Fox, The Frighteners is also an actor’s film. Dee Wallace Stone, Chi McBride and Jake Busey all shine.

But then there is Jeffrey Combs. The cult star gives a hilarious performance. He plays a detective with experience in the paranormal, who comes from his traumatic undercover time with various cults. His undercover work completely upset him (and fear of women raising their voices). It’s an over the top role that’s as fun as it’s seen. Combs’ background in films like Re-Animator also instantly links The Frighteners to a rich array of horror comedies.

Like many classics before it, The Frighteners deserves more love than it initially got. But it’s sitting there on Starz, waiting to be streamed by generations who can rediscover it and finally appreciate what it always had to offer.