I thought _The Frighteners_ was weird because, like _Fargo_, the audience has a hard time deciding whether or not they are watching a comedy. I saw these both in the theatre, and the audience reaction seemed the same. Scott On Thu, 26 Mar 1998, David Skreiner wrote: > I spent the last week trying to remember the title of the > film... it definitely qualifies as a Mindbender: > > The Frighteners (Peter Jackson, 1996(?)) > > Link: http://www.hollywood.com/movies/frighteners/ > > Dave's Three-Sentence-Synopsis: > "Ghostbuster sees things no-one else can see. > Is he a crazy murderer after all? Or do these > rather improbable ghosts really exist?" > > Dave's Four-Paragraph-Synopsis: > Michael J. Fox plays a "Ghostbuster" - he gained the > ability to see ghosts at a particularly nasty car accident > where something murdered his wife. He lives in an old > house, water leaking through the roof, and using some > friendly ghosts to acquirte customers. > > When several murders occur in the community, the > Sherriff's attention immediately moves onto the 'ghost > freak' - well, there had not been enough evidence to > convict him of murder after the car accident, but this > time the Sherriff knows he has his guy. Seeing ghosts? > The guy must be psycho. > > MJ Fox is captured; in prison, he goes through a period > on intense self-doubt. Are the ghosts real? Did he murder > all these people? Though there are clues as to which reality > is the 'true' one, neither he (nor, I think, the audience; though > some friends of mine disagreed, but they watched the > movie stoned) knows for certain at that point in the film... > But this girl believes in him, and he flees from prison to > destroy evil (he thinks) or go on a murder spree (the FBI version). > > Some of the scenes are explicitly connected to the question > of "Which Reality?" - in the prison, for example, when the > main character doubts his own sanity; or when the rather > (er) unconventional FBI guy confronts the Hero just before > the mission's success, and tells him that he _knows_ what is > going on in the MJF character's brain, what he's going to say, > that he's seen cases like this before... > > Hope it helps... I highly recommend this film, but I must admit > I'm a fan of Peter Jackson's (er) unconventional (cough) sense > of humour. It's _not_ a splatter movie though. > > david skreiner > > ---- > Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite > http://www.tcf.ua.edu/screensite > ---- Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite http://www.tcf.ua.edu/screensite