I’m a big fan of director Peter Jackson and Michael J. Fox’s 1996 horror-comedy The Frighteners, and this is a movie that hasn’t made its way to a major streaming service until now. This was the movie that got me interested in Jackson’s work and led me to discover Dead Alive, Bad Taste, Meet The Feebles, and Heavenly Creatures.
The Frighteners was Jackson’s first big Hollywood movie and after that, he made The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I seriously wish that Jackson would make more movies! He doesn’t really need to, but he’s such a talented director and makes such fun films that it’s a shame he doesn’t direct more these days.
Anyway, it’s great to see that The Frighteners is finally going to be available to stream! The film is coming to Peacock just in time for the Halloween season!
The Frighteners follows the story of Frank Bannister, a man who, after a tragic accident, develops the ability to see and communicate with ghosts. He uses this ability to scam people by having his ghostly friends haunt their homes, only for Frank to then “exorcise” them for a fee. However, when a malevolent spirit starts killing people, leaving numbers on their foreheads that count down with each death, Frank realizes he needs to use his unique skill set to stop this deadly ghost. As he delves deeper into the mystery, he discovers the spirit’s connection to a series of deaths from years prior and must confront his own past to save the town.
It was reported at one point a few years ago that a series adaptation of The Frighteners was in development, but there’s been no update on that since, so I’m pretty sure that’s not happening anymore.
