Hacker Cinema
The Frighteners
1996 · Film · 110 min
Directed by Peter Jackson
Once an architect, Frank Bannister now passes himself off as an exorcist of evil spirits. To bolster his facade, he claims his "special" gift is the result of a car accident that killed his wife. But what he does not count on is more people dying in the small town where he lives. As he tries to piece together the supernatural mystery of these killings, he falls in love with the wife of one of the victims and deals with a crazy FBI agent.
5 positive1 neutralfrom 6 commenters
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6 comments on Hacker News
Because very very few people know of those films.
"Ooh, aren't I lucky, I got a chunky bit!"
You could also have mentioned Heavenly Creatures and The Frighteners (filmed in my home town, was a blast seeing Michael J. Fox roaming around).
I suspect they mentioned LotR because you know, well known and, fantasy.
Not really comparable to Barry and the team vs. the evil aliens, or Harvey Weinstein personified in a walrus puppet.
But I'm rather glad you're aware of Jackson's earlier works.
Some that haven’t been mentioned yet: Matinee, The First Great Train Robbery, Dave, Ghibli movies (Laputa, Mononoke, Totoro, Kiki, …), Mad Max 2, Nightmare Before Christmas, Edge of Tomorrow, Tremors, Godzilla Minus One, Watchmen, The Fly, Dark City, Passengers, Predestination, Strange Days, WarGames, Tron, Timecrimes, Sneakers, The Frighteners.
So, I mean, I know that not everyone loves The Lord of the Rings movies. But I just need everyone to remember that Peter Jackson did them. And I mean, I thought Heavenly Creatures was really interesting, and I think I'm one of the dozens of people who really liked The Frighteners (yes, I'm a hipster Frighteners fan.) But if you'd asked me, "Viking, should we trust Peter Jackson to make 11 hours and 21 minutes of The Lord of the Rings (extended editions)?" I would have said, "No," and I would have, in my humble opinion, been totally completely wrong.
I mean, I just need to remind people that great movies exist. LA Confidential. The Matrix. Hell, even the Fugitive is a lot of fun (for what it is.) Mr. Robot is simultaneously amazing and also boring as shit for huge stretches - but man, they committed to that vision, and when the big moments hit, they hit hard. True Lies. True Romance. The Abyss. The Fisher King. Good Will Hunting. Inglourious Basterds. Hell, even Hackers. And Sneakers.
I think Daemon and Freedom could be done wonderfully.
Just imagine ending the series with a nice cackle...
"I do so enjoy my vork..."
I was a huge Peter Jackson fan prior, due primarily to Meet the Feebles (still my secret guilty pleasure), and it was just so bizarre to see him move from low budget camp like MTF and Dead Alive, to a $300million dollar massive endeavor.
From my very limited experience as a DP on several friends low budget films, the organizational efforts to produce a film the size of LOTR is lightyears beyond films like MTF. Of course later films like The Frighteners or Heavenly Creatures probably helped him build up to being able to manage that.
I love using wide angle lenses, but yes, some of them have distortion that will make people look weird. You also need to know that you have to get super close to your subject to fill the frame for a traditional portrait framing.
To check out a good example for a movie, watch The Frighteners of doing traditional close ups with wide angles. This allows for normal framing of your talent while giving lots of room in the frame for the background gags.
What is wrong with The Frighteners?? That movie is awesome!