Editorials
[We Love ’90s Horror] Peter Jackson’s ‘The Frighteners’ Blended Horror and Comedy to Perfection
The ‘90s often get a bad rap with horror fans. After the numerous successful slashers and creature effects films of ‘80s, the ‘90s offered a different variety of horror fare. Though there were plenty of hits, hidden gems, and misunderstood classics, the ‘90s usually don’t get the kind of love that other decades get when it comes to horror. It’s time to change that.
Before he went and made the greatest fantasy epics of all time, Peter Jackson made his name with over-the-top gonzo fare like Bad Taste, Meet the Feebles, and Dead Alive a.k.a. Braindead. After he switched gears to the grounded psychological drama Heavenly Creatures, Hollywood began to take notice of the New Zealand filmmaker. Famed director/producer Robert Zemeckis swooped up Jackson and his partner Fran Walsh in the hopes that they would write a script for a film that would act as a spin-off to the highly successful Tales from the Crypt television show. After reading the script, Zemeckis handed off directing duties to Jackson.
That film would end up being 1996’s The Frighteners.
The story revolves around Frank Bannister (Michael J. Fox in his to-date last lead on-screen performance in a feature film), a washed-up architect who has gained the ability to see ghosts after a tragic accident that claimed the life of his wife. He parlays this power into setting up hauntings that he then exorcises for a hefty fee. Unfortunately, it turns out that a real malevolent spirit is stalking around town and killing people, and Frank ends up running afoul of this spectral serial killer.
After all that factual preamble, it’s time for me to let out a big sigh and start gushing about The Frighteners. Because this is a gushworthy flick. Jackson takes all of the kinetic filmmaking he honed from his previous projects and pumps into a movie that is bursting with fun and smarts in every moment. The script by Jackson and Walsh is superb with its world-building and mythology. We get a confident pacing when it comes to introducing us to how this fantasy works and what it’s like for these characters to live in this world. For a movie that has to take a familiar concept — ghosts — and give us new rules about them, The Frighteners is a masterclass in getting an audience to buy into your high concept.
It should also be noted that The Frighteners is overflowing with a phenomenal cast. This will probably cause a flurry of comments, but Fox’s performance as Frank Bannister rivals and in some ways tops his iconic role of Marty McFly. Frank is a funny scoundrel that ends up having a truly dark and painful past, and Fox plays the character with just the right balance of humanity and cartoon charm. Not to mention ridiculously entertaining turns from Jeffrey Combs, Dee Wallace Stone, John Astin, and Jake Busey. This is a dream team of genre actors and they are let loose with the kind of abandon we don’t see a lot in mainstream horror offerings. It really is a treasure trove of performances.
Plus, The Frighteners is steeped in the kind of spook-a-blast shenanigans that would make Sam Raimi proud. The movie deftly walks the line between horror and comedy, never tumbling over too far into one genre or the other like most genre hybrids. It’s astounding to see how broadly appealing the film’s tone is without ever coming off as pandering or neutered. Watching The Frighteners today feels like you’re watching a movie that should have been a blockbuster hit.
Sadly, that wasn’t the case. Though, The Frighteners has shored up a healthy cult following in recent years. Some of that is thanks to the director’s cut of the film being released on home video. The current Blu-ray release features both the director’s cut and the theatrical version. My advice: if you’re watching The Frighteners for the first time, go with the theatrical version. The director’s cut adds 12 minutes of additional character beats that are fun and functional, but those beats work best for people who are already on board with the movie and want a little something extra.
Regardless of what version you see, you should see The Frighteners. It’s the kind of crowdpleaser that should be a part of anyone’s Halloween viewing schedule. It’s an infectiously delightful film that delivers horror, comedy, and even some affecting drama in equal parts. When it comes to ‘90s horror, The Frighteners should be regarded as one of the decade’s absolute best.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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