The room was full. Almost everybody had filled their white styrofoam cups with black coffee and had taken their seats. When I finally got the nerve to stand I felt so self-conscious I wanted to crawl under my chair. "My name is Charley DeRiemer," I finally said, "and...I...uh...I'm a fan of...uh...The Frighteners."
But I'm disappointed in a lot of it, too. This horror-comedy has too much humor and wit and not enough cheese to qualify as a cult flick. All the film's Computer Generated Flatulence, for me, eventually loses impact. The CGF so clutters up the story-line, which already is complicated, that I think Peter Jackson, the director, must have fallen in love with his computer toys and forgotten there was a story to tell. It doesn't help that while most of the movie is over-the-top funny, the last part sinks into to an old-fashioned scare-um gore-fest without cleverness, just Jake Busey grinning with a lot of teeth and people jumping out with big knives in their hands. So why is this movie so likable?
First, most of the time the script is funny and clever. Second, several of the sequences manage to create a great blend of humor, raunchiness, special effects and drama (the funeral and cemetery, the museum party in the Egyptian wing) or a real jolt of dread and foreboding (Lucy in the mansion with Patricia Ann, the beginning of the psychiatric hospital scene). Third, the movie has some fine, grotesque acting that is weird and unsettling (Jeffrey Coombs, Dee Wallace, Jake Busey) or weird and funny (John Astin, Chi McBride, Peter Dobson). Fourth, you can't beat a love story that reaches beyond death into eternal devotion. For Patricia (Dee Wallace) and Johnny (Jake Busey), love is forever and means never having to say you're sorry. Fifth, and to my mind most importantly, it has Michael J. Fox as Frank Bannister. Fox has the personality and star firepower to be able to turn a typical nice-guy character into a man we really like. Fox has been a master in portraying flawed, vulnerable nice guys we almost instantly sympathize with. It's a rare talent. For me, he manages most of the time to overcome the continual show-off intrusion of all that Computer Generated Overkill. The exception is when he's involved with a massive tube to heaven that looks like a Slinky on steroids. When he's on screen, even when he's enmeshed with silly blue-screen aerobics, he makes the film human and grounded. It's a shame Jackson had all that money and all those computers to play with. He didn't really need them. Just watch how he builds dread when Lucy arrives at the creepy old mansion to whisk Patricia away to safety. It's one of the best, most skillful scenes in the movie, and there's hardly a computer effect to be seen until the last of it...when the dread and suspense are swept out and the "wow" stuff is swept in.
There's a lot of great stuff in this comedy about serial killers, demonic possession and a scamming psychic investigator who brings along his own ghosts. There's a lot to be frustrated by, too. For the most part, I just use my fast-forward button now and them. I do like the movie even with its faults. Now if only someone would make, "Johnny and Patricia versus Mommy and Daddy," featuring the knife-wielding Mommy and leather-suited Daddy from The People Under the Stairs. That would make a tag-team match worth watching.
But I'm disappointed in a lot of it, too. This horror-comedy has too much humor and wit and not enough cheese to qualify as a cult flick. All the film's Computer Generated Flatulence, for me, eventually loses impact. The CGF so clutters up the story-line, which already is complicated, that I think Peter Jackson, the director, must have fallen in love with his computer toys and forgotten there was a story to tell. It doesn't help that while most of the movie is over-the-top funny, the last part sinks into to an old-fashioned scare-um gore-fest without cleverness, just Jake Busey grinning with a lot of teeth and people jumping out with big knives in their hands. So why is this movie so likable?
First, most of the time the script is funny and clever. Second, several of the sequences manage to create a great blend of humor, raunchiness, special effects and drama (the funeral and cemetery, the museum party in the Egyptian wing) or a real jolt of dread and foreboding (Lucy in the mansion with Patricia Ann, the beginning of the psychiatric hospital scene). Third, the movie has some fine, grotesque acting that is weird and unsettling (Jeffrey Coombs, Dee Wallace, Jake Busey) or weird and funny (John Astin, Chi McBride, Peter Dobson). Fourth, you can't beat a love story that reaches beyond death into eternal devotion. For Patricia (Dee Wallace) and Johnny (Jake Busey), love is forever and means never having to say you're sorry. Fifth, and to my mind most importantly, it has Michael J. Fox as Frank Bannister. Fox has the personality and star firepower to be able to turn a typical nice-guy character into a man we really like. Fox has been a master in portraying flawed, vulnerable nice guys we almost instantly sympathize with. It's a rare talent. For me, he manages most of the time to overcome the continual show-off intrusion of all that Computer Generated Overkill. The exception is when he's involved with a massive tube to heaven that looks like a Slinky on steroids. When he's on screen, even when he's enmeshed with silly blue-screen aerobics, he makes the film human and grounded. It's a shame Jackson had all that money and all those computers to play with. He didn't really need them. Just watch how he builds dread when Lucy arrives at the creepy old mansion to whisk Patricia away to safety. It's one of the best, most skillful scenes in the movie, and there's hardly a computer effect to be seen until the last of it...when the dread and suspense are swept out and the "wow" stuff is swept in.
There's a lot of great stuff in this comedy about serial killers, demonic possession and a scamming psychic investigator who brings along his own ghosts. There's a lot to be frustrated by, too. For the most part, I just use my fast-forward button now and them. I do like the movie even with its faults. Now if only someone would make, "Johnny and Patricia versus Mommy and Daddy," featuring the knife-wielding Mommy and leather-suited Daddy from The People Under the Stairs. That would make a tag-team match worth watching.