After a tragic car accident that kills his wife, a man discovers he can communicate with the dead, and he uses that gift to con people. However, when a demonic spirit appears, he may be the ... Read allAfter a tragic car accident that kills his wife, a man discovers he can communicate with the dead, and he uses that gift to con people. However, when a demonic spirit appears, he may be the only one who can stop it from killing the living and the dead.After a tragic car accident that kills his wife, a man discovers he can communicate with the dead, and he uses that gift to con people. However, when a demonic spirit appears, he may be the only one who can stop it from killing the living and the dead.
- Awards
- 3 wins & 17 nominations
Dee Wallace
- Patricia Bradley
- (as Dee Wallace Stone)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaIt was during filming this on location in New Zealand that Michael J. Fox made up his mind that he'd had enough of being away from his family making movies, and decided to head back to the small screen and star in a new sitcom (Spin City (1996)). This turned out to be his last leading role in a film.
- GoofsWhen Frank goes to the Lynskey house he said it was 'spontaneous recurrent psychokinesis', but when he goes to another case he calls it 'recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis'. The fact that he can't keep his con man story straight makes the scene even funnier.
- Alternate versionsWhen Peter Jackson learned during post-production that the MPAA was going to give the movie an R-rating (despite many efforts to go for a PG-13 rating), he made Milton Dammers' death scene more gruesome by blowing up his head, instead of just having him shot in the chest and blown through the chapel doors. This caused problems with the BBFC, who cut the one continuous shot into two shots, minus the bullet blowing up the head. This censored Region 2 DVD was released throughout Europe. The U.S. television version uses the take where Dammers is blown through the chapel doors.
- SoundtracksDon't Fear The Reaper
Written by Donald Roeser
Performed by The Mutton Birds (as The Mutton Birds)
Courtesy of Virgin Records Australasia
Featured review
Kongbusters
I suppose there will be a new audience for this and other early Peter Jackson movies since his recent blockbusters.
In approaching these, you have to think of the architecture of them first. I think that's where Jackson starts and then he just fills in. The architecture of the Tolkein things was given to him and immutable, so they don't count.
But just think about the shape of "King Kong." Its a movie about a guy making a film, and he captures the writer of that film in the film, so his reality and that of his movie within fold together. The movie gets out of hand, so he sedates it. Then it is reformed into a New York stage show (more real) and similarly gets out of control. There are other folds involved, but this is why he came to the project and how he saw it.
"Heavenly Creatures" is about an obsessive relationship that switches between the reality of the characters in the movie and a sort of fantasy movieworld populated by Orson Welles figures (made of clay). All of his movies have similar folds, and so does this one.
This is a show about a guy who puts on a show with collaborative ghosts. He somehow gets the control of the larger ghostworld tied up in this so the inner show gets out of control. See how similar this is to "King King"? And why he chose to make it instead of "King Kong" because he just couldn't get the funding he wanted.
So it has a clever, clever architecture, but unfortunately is not a very good movie.
There's an interesting historical note though. In this movie, Jackson gave the New Zealand special effects company, WETA, its first real break.
You know, there are a ton of these companies now, and a flood of movies that use them. Somehow, WETA does something well that the others don't do at all. WETA somehow is able to work with directors to talk them into a flying camera that does things crane-bound cameras in the real world cannot. You won't see it here, instead look in "Kong" and "Van Helsing." But this is where they got their start, and we can be thankful for that.
Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.
In approaching these, you have to think of the architecture of them first. I think that's where Jackson starts and then he just fills in. The architecture of the Tolkein things was given to him and immutable, so they don't count.
But just think about the shape of "King Kong." Its a movie about a guy making a film, and he captures the writer of that film in the film, so his reality and that of his movie within fold together. The movie gets out of hand, so he sedates it. Then it is reformed into a New York stage show (more real) and similarly gets out of control. There are other folds involved, but this is why he came to the project and how he saw it.
"Heavenly Creatures" is about an obsessive relationship that switches between the reality of the characters in the movie and a sort of fantasy movieworld populated by Orson Welles figures (made of clay). All of his movies have similar folds, and so does this one.
This is a show about a guy who puts on a show with collaborative ghosts. He somehow gets the control of the larger ghostworld tied up in this so the inner show gets out of control. See how similar this is to "King King"? And why he chose to make it instead of "King Kong" because he just couldn't get the funding he wanted.
So it has a clever, clever architecture, but unfortunately is not a very good movie.
There's an interesting historical note though. In this movie, Jackson gave the New Zealand special effects company, WETA, its first real break.
You know, there are a ton of these companies now, and a flood of movies that use them. Somehow, WETA does something well that the others don't do at all. WETA somehow is able to work with directors to talk them into a flying camera that does things crane-bound cameras in the real world cannot. You won't see it here, instead look in "Kong" and "Van Helsing." But this is where they got their start, and we can be thankful for that.
Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.
helpful•106
- tedg
- Feb 2, 2006
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Also known as
- Robert Zemeckis Presents: The Frighteners
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $30,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $16,759,216
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $5,565,495
- Jul 21, 1996
- Gross worldwide
- $29,359,216
- Runtime1 hour 50 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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