Back in 1996, who figured it would take Peter Jackson five years to produce another film after that year’s The Frighteners? And who figured his next flick would be a huge hit after Frighteners tanked at the box office?

But that’s what happened, as 2001’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring made $897 million worldwide. That accounted for roughly $868 million more than the sad $29 million gross of Frighteners.

What makes New Line’s $300 million gamble on Jackson more remarkable is that Frighteners was easily the biggest money-grabber of the director’s career through 1996. He made a name critically with 1994’s Heavenly Creatures, but it didn’t earn much money.

At least that inexpensive effort may have turned a profit. On the other hand, Frighteners couldn’t even recoup its $30 million budget.

So chalk one up for the visionaries at New Line, as they clearly saw something in Jackson not backed up by his track record. Don’t take all of this talk as an indication that Frighteners is an artistic failure, however. While not a consistently satisfying flick, it has its moments and proves more than watchable.

A low-rent ghostbuster, Frank Bannister (Michael J. Fox) uses a stable of spooks to help him con folks out of money. Frank finds himself confronted with a real threat when a rash of sudden deaths occur in his small town of Fairwater.

Decades earlier, psychotic hospital orderly Johnny Charles Bartlett (Jake Busey) embarked on a mass murder spree, one that led to his execution. A ghostly Johnny returns and creates havoc that only Frank seems like he might be able to stop.

When I saw Frighteners theatrically, I found it to be eminently forgettable. Perhaps expectations had something to do with this.

I recall the movie being touted as more of a comedy than it actually was, as Frighteners much more strongly embraces the horror genre than the Ghostbusters side of things. Sure, it easily qualifies as a dark comedy, but the tone remains creepy and violent much of the time.

I didn’t see Frighteners again until I watched the “Director’s Cut” on a laserdisc that arrived in late 1998. At that time, I found the movie to be much more satisfying.

That’s partly because the extra 12 minutes found in the “Director’s Cut” flesh out the story, but I think it’s also because I knew better what to expect. When taken on its own terms, Frighteners can be reasonably satisfying.

However, I don’t want to go nuts here and acclaim Frighteners as some neglected classic. In no way can I consider it anything great, or even especially good.

The main issue stems from the fractured narrative and jagged storytelling. Particularly in the first half of the movie, it feels like something of a mess.

While Jackson proved able to balance a mix of threads well in the Rings films, here he encounters troubles. All those lines battle for prominence and don’t mesh together terribly well.

This leaves us somewhat confused about where the film plans to go. We can become unsure what to care about and what to discard.

And this was even worse in the theatrical edition, as at least the “Director’s Cut” makes matters more coherent. I still think the first half meanders too much and feels unsteady, but Jackson firms up matters much better in the second half.

That occurs partly because he more clearly embraces the horror. The half-assed Ghostbusters bit goes out the window as the movie turns into a battle against an extremely powerful dark agent.

The occasionally goofy moment still pops up in the second hour. Nonetheless, Jackson appears more comfortable when he strictly goes after the scares and action.

I’ve now seen Frighteners multiple times and it feels like each time I check it out, I change my opinion of it. My feelings bounce up and down from mildly negative to moderately pleased to very positive.

Right now, I’d count The Frighteners as flawed but intriguing. It can’t tell its story very well, and at times it doesn’t seem sure where it wants to go, but it packs in enough good elements to make it enjoyable.

That opinion might change next time I watch it. However, currently I still like the flick.

The Frighteners appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Despite some inherent drawbacks, the image looked positive.

The movie’s slew of visual effects created the only “concerns”, as they meant some mild softness at times. Still, the majority of the movie brought good delineation,

No issues with jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and I saw no edge haloes. Grain felt appropriate and I saw no print flaws.

I can’t say I anticipated a bright palette from a ghost story, but Frighteners managed to present a surprisingly broad color template. And it did so well, as the hues looked pretty dynamic and lively.

Blacks came across as dark and tight, while shadows were smooth and concise. The “issues” formed by visual effects kept the presentation from “A”-level consideration but I thought it worked well.

Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, the film’s Dolby Atmos soundtrack proved more than satisfactory. Overall audio quality was solid.

Speech always sounded distinctive and natural, with no edginess or other concerns. Effects were accurate and firm, with strong low-end, and music felt vivid and full.

Frighteners presented a fairly active soundfield. While it didn’t go nuts, the many ghost-related moments gave it room to expand.

Those elements zipped and zoomed around the room to create a good sense of the settings. The mix remained more subdued during moments without spirits, but since so many of those occurred, the track came to life quite frequently.

Add to that good stereo imaging for the music and this was a satisfying soundfield. The audio suited the film and helped make it exciting.

How did this 2026 Arrow Blu-ray compare to the original BD from 2011? The Director’s Cut offered a new Atmos remix, though fans of the theatrical version will “only” find DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio.

The new Atmos track offered a soundscape a bit more engulfing than the old BD’s 5.1, but more importantly, it tamed the overwhelming bass from that release. This made the Atmos version much more listenable.

Visuals showed a good upgrade, as the Arrow BD lacked the print flaws and digital tampering of the 2011 disc. This turned into an obvious step up in terms of both audio and picture.

This Arrow set packs old and new extras, and we find both the movie’s 1996 theatrical version (1:50:02) and its 1998 Director’s Cut (2:02:35) on the same disc. I already discussed my feelings about theatrical vs. Director’s Cut in the body of my review, so I won’t belabor the point. Suffice it to say I think the longer version becomes the more satisfying of the pair.

For the Director’s Cut, we find an introduction from director Peter Jackson. In this two-minute, 41-second clip, Jackson talks about the film’s influence on Lord of the Rings, its connection to the rest of his career, and changes made for the Director’s Cut. Jackson provides a nice little lead-in for the film.

Alongside the Director’s Cut, we hear more from Jackson in his running, screen-specific audio commentary. At the start, the director expresses some anxiety about the prospect of chatting for two hours.

He needn’t have worried, as he fills the time well. Jackson covers all the expected issues.

He talks about changes made for the “Director’s Cut”, working with the actors, locations and sets, visual effects, story and character points, the movie’s tone and original rating, various trivia and challenges along the way. Jackson proves amiable and informative as he gives us a good look at the production.

Disc One completes with a trailer and then we move to Disc Two where we find an open matte version of the film. As implied, this expands the film’s aspect ratio to 1.78:1.

This means added information at the top and bottom of the screen. Left unanswered: what purpose this serves.

Did Jackson really want the movie to go in this ratio but became forced to crop it to 2.35:1? Ya got me.

This makes the open matte Frighteners a curiosity but not a necessary one. The movie works just fine in its original 2.35:1 dimensions.

Note that the “open matte” platter comes with the same specs as the OAR one. We get both cuts of the movie along with the commentary, the intro and the trailer.

From there we go to Disc Three and the majority of the set’s extras. The Making of The Frighteners runs four hours, 31 minutes, 31 seconds, and opens with a one-minute, 57-second intro from Jackson, as he lets us know about the LD history of the documentary.

From there the show uses the standard format, as we get movie snippets, behind the scenes footage, and interviews. We hear from Jackson, executive producer Robert Zemeckis, creature effects designer Richard Taylor, Weta systems administrator Jon Labrie, CG supervisor Matt Aitken, CG supervisor John Sheils, visual effects supervisor Wes Takahashi, CG supervisors Wayne Stables and Gray Horsfield, character animators Christian Rivers and Kyle Balda, composer Danny Elfman, technical director Stephen Regelous, digital effects producer Charlie McClellan, and actors Jim Fyfe, Trini Alvarado, Michael J. Fox, Chi McBride, John Astin, Jake Busey, Jeffrey Combs, and Dee Wallace.

The show goes through the creation of the script and the development of the project, casting and characters, rehearsals, improvisation and additional changes to the screenplay. From there we move through New Zealand locations and making the area look like the US, practical and CG effects and issues related to those areas, ghost and Reaper design, acting challenges and Jackson’s cameo.

The program continues with the actors’ stunts and injuries, deleted scenes and characters, miniatures, time pressures due to a release date change, the movie’s score and sound design, the film’s theatrical rating, and final thoughts.

Back in its day, LD fans regarded this as a groundbreaking documentary. Now that we’re in this day, it still looks pretty amazing. It certainly qualifies as one of the longest documentaries made to supplement a movie.

But size isn’t everything, so it becomes important that “Making” delivers the goods. That it does. We get a terrific feel for the production and receive a great deal of information about all the appropriate areas. We also see many fine shots from the set, elements that come to the spotlight during one 26-minute montage of those pieces.

Even the bloopers are pretty good, such as when Fox forgets he’s not making another Back to the Future movie. Combined with the storyboards, this becomes an exhaustive and still very entertaining and engaging piece.

The Arrow BD version of the documentary spans much longer than its Universal Blu-ray predecessor. That occurs because the Arrow “Making” includes a 45-minute, 36-second collection of storyboards that existed in a separate domain on the Universal BD.

The 1998 laserdisc plopped this section of boards inside the documentary so it never made sense to me the Uni BD extracted them. Anyway, they now reside where they always belonged.

After an intro from Jackson, we see all of the storyboards created for the film. These cover the first two-thirds or so of the flick and they end when Frank battles the Reaper in the cemetery. (As Jackson tells us, they didn’t have time to finish the boarding process.)

Jackson offers commentary along with the drawings, so we learn about changes made for the final product and the reasons for the variations. I like the fact we get all of the boards.

While I’m not a big storyboard fan, it’s cool to be able to see every one they created. The inclusion of boards not filmed and Jackson’s commentary makes this a particularly valuable component, though, and means it becomes a very worthwhile element.

Shot in 2022, No Way to Make a Living occupies one hour, 34 minutes, 51 seconds. It involves Taylor, Takahashi, Wallace, Busey, director of photography John Blick, production designer Grant Major, and editor Jamie Selkirk.

“Make” looks into how some of the participants became involved with Peter Jackson, the development of Frighteners, and a wide mix of production notes. Most of these evolve via anecdotes.

After a commentary and a four-hour documentary, there might not seem to be many stones left to unturn related to Frighteners. Happily, “Make” proves this incorrect.

Of course, we get some inevitable repetition, but not a whole lot. “Make” manages to bring a lot of new details to the table and it turns into an engaging program.

Also from 2022, we get a Conversation With Richard Taylor. This one takes up 41 minutes, 21 seconds.

Taylor looks at the founding and growth of Weta Workshop as well as the work on Frighteners. We find plenty more good info here.

Disc Three concludes with an Image Gallery that includes 58 stills. We get shots from the movie, elements from the set, and some publicity. This becomes an underwhelming finish to the package.

The Frighteners provides an erratic flick but a generally entertaining one. While it doesn’t compare to Jackson’s better-known efforts, it has more than enough good moments to make it enjoyable. The Blu-ray offers very good picture and audio along with an excellent set of extras. This becomes a stellar release for an interesting film.