Review: The Frighteners (Director's Cut) DVD

I felt compelled to pick this up because the theatrical cut of The Frighteners always seemed to be missing something, and after the Director's Cut of Leon: The Professional blew me away with its extra 15 minutes I figured Peter Jackson wouldn't let me down. He kinda did because the film is still a confused mess - one I see maybe once a year because I love Dead Alive beyond human measure.

The making-of documentary is four hours long. This edition provides the first Peter Jackson commentary, and once the deluxe Dead Alive dvd comes out with all deleted footage, a making of, commentary and a hat with this guy on top, I'll crap my pants and cry like Mrs. Alito.

On the plus side, the cast is great, especially Jeffrey Combs, whose extra few scenes should never have been cut. Jackson is great at filming action and he knows just how far or close to shoot a scene. The interplay of live and "ghost" actors looks great considering the sheer complexity of making it work.

On the downside the script veers away from sense and some of the CGI shots don't work. After seeing this and Hellboy (ten times) I'm convinced CGI should mix with by never replace live actors in scenes with live actors. In an obvious sizing error The Reaper goes from taller than normal human size to what must be twenty feet tall and wide. Frighteners has a scene where the police shoot wildly in a crowded room, which they'd never do. The worst script error is the scene where three babies fly around the room and when Michael J. Fox comes in to save the day he's exposed as a con artist in a newspaper article. But what about the freaking flying babies!??!!*&%^#!!

I like this movie but they shouldn't have written it as it was being filmed, ya know what I'm sayin'?