#peter jackson

The Lovely Bones (2009)

The Lovely Bones (2009)

You are talking to the person who has like an extended, multi-paragraph long explanation of the film Braindead in three different books you know that right?

King Kong mid

The Frighteners not a Peter Jackson movie it's a Zemeckis movie that Zemeckis didn't feel like directing so he got the newbie New Zealander director to do it for him

Stylistically, Peter Jackson’s THE FRIGHTENERS (1996, Shudder, AMC+) is a kinder, gentler version of his early films like BAD TASTE (1987) and BRAINDEAD (1992). I’m not sure the world really needs a kinder, gentler version of those films, particularly the delightfully offensive and destructive BRAINDEAD. In place of gross-out effects, the picture substitutes a few too many plot twists, making it feel overlong. But it has its charms. As a frenetic comedy it benefits from good special effects, a strong leading performance by Michael J. Fox and an intriguing premise.

Fox is a semi-bogus psychic detective. He has the ability to interact with ghosts and has convinced three who aren’t ready to pass over to help him by staging hauntings he can then dispel for a high fee. That in itself is a solid premise for a film, and the three ghosts (Chi McBride, Jim Fyfe and especially John Astin) have distinctive characters and good comic chops. But his small town is also inflicted with a series of killings by a spirit looking like the grim reaper. With his gifts, Fox can see a number on the forehead of each impending victim. That’s upsetting enough, but it gets worse when he sees the next number on the widowed doctor (Trini Alvarado) he’s fallen for.

There’s a lot going on in this film — the local newspaper editor out to sell papers by exposing Fox as a fake, an elderly woman (Julianna McCarthy) whose daughter (Dee Wallace Stone) was involved with a serial killer (Jake Busey), an FBI agent (Jeffrey Combs) out to get Fox for his own twisted reasons. You almost need a scorecard to keep up with the action. And like so many films dealing with the supernatural, THE FRIGHTENERS tends to write its rules as it goes along. Things happen not out of any clearly established logic, but simply to move the plot in Jackson and co-writer Fran Walsh’s desired direction. There are also places Jackson lets things get a little too cute. Fox’s broken-down Volvo gets involved in too many comic car chases.  They start feeling like a substitute for creativity. And Danny Elfman’s score contains some cues that are a little too bouncy. They keep yelling, “Isn’t this fun,” when we should be able to figure that out for ourselves. Jackson and Walsh also err in stating that the grim reaper can eat souls. When it starts taking out ghosts we’ve come to care about, it tends to kill the comedy.

But a lot of the picture works. The young Fox was a whiz at physical comedy. He may not be at the level of a Buster Keaton or a Harold Lloyd, but he can generate laughs just navigating the uneven grounds at the local cemetery or taking pratfalls while coping with recalcitrant ghosts. And he connects well with other people. It’s easy to root for him and Alvarado, a gifted actor in her own right. The standout supporting performances come from Combs and Stone, cast against type. His manic craziness at times feels inspired, and she manages to pivot from repressed, sheltered girl to conniving killer in a heartbeat.

Braindead / Dead Alive (1992)