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The Frighteners Recut

Neglify

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It's October! And for horror junkies that means one thing... HORROR MOVIE MARATHONS! Whoo! So if you're like me and you're gonna watch a bunch of scary flicks, why not add this to your rotation.


frighteners_front.jpg


Fanedit Name: The Frighteners Recut
Original Runtime: 123 minutes
Fanedit Runtime: 113 minutes

Brief Summary

After the tragic death of his wife, Frank Bannister discovers he can communicate with the dead. When a demonic spirit wreaks havoc on his small town, he may be the only one who can stop it.


Intention

This is the third in my “Quick Fix” series. QuickFixes are simple fanedits of films I enjoy. The primary intention is to trim the movie here and there to improve pacing, tone or characters. These aren’t edits that substantially fix a bad movie. If you don’t like the source movie you won’t care for this fanedit.


Edit Details

Main goal was to tighten up the pacing in the Director’s Cut. Overall I prefer the Theatrical Cut but the DC has some nice additions. I focused mainly on cutting unfunny humor and lame scenes.

This is my second edit in HD and for right now I’m just making a 720 MP4 and a DVD5. I doubt in the future I’ll make a BD since you can easily hook up a laptop to a TV. Hell you could probably plug your phone into your TV and it’ll still look shiny.


Cuts and Additions

Cut the cold opening between The Ghost and Patricia. Really doesn’t make any sense when you think about it and it’s just a pre-title teaser that tries to grab the audience by the boo boo.

Cut the “What’s this Shadow of Death thing…” exchange in the newspaper office.

Cut the walking chicken during the attack on Ray and Lucy. (DC Scene)

Cut Stuart throwing up.

Cut some of the ghost humor when we first meet them. Cut Cyrus’ “A-Double-A-C” rant (theatrical scene) and the ensuing DC scene of Stuart wanting to stand up to Frank.

Cut Judge’s bit about his ectoplasm drying up.

Cut the scene where Frank gets a letter from the bank and needs to get $15,000 nao and blah blah blah. (DC scene)

Cut Frank and Judge driving. (DC scene)

Cut Ray failing to open the door. (DC scene)

Cut the mummy bit in the museum fight. Cut the revolving door gag shortly after.

Cut Ray talking to Lucy in the car. (DC scene)

The second hour of the flick is pretty much the same.

Cut the epilogue scene. Sure it’s short and harmless and it’s usually good to end a movie with people happy and in love but meh whatever. I usually turn the film off right before this scene.

Release Information

DVD5
720p MP4


Cover Art
frighteners_3Dview.jpg
 
I'm very fond of this film, but I approve of most of your cuts. They're things I've sort of forgiven the film. However, I do think the last scene should be there as it ties it the end up nicely. It's a bit awkward though. Maybe it could just be made shorter? Also, the DC wasn't released on BD in Europe. Boo.
 
I love The Frighteners. I consider it an unofficial Back to the Future Part IV.

The biggest thing that always bugged me was exactly the thing you named: the opening sequence, which is fun but makes no sense in context once you see the rest of the movie. As long as you're cutting that, I'm happy! :)
 
BLASPHEMY!! :) I have not seen the Frighteners in years but I loved the film. Will eventually get around to checking this out
 
Thanks for the review Vultural! Glad you liked it. :-)
 
Frighteners is one of those Horror films I watch every couple of years. Peter Jackson’s career was ascending rapidly at this stage, having nailed a hit with Heavenly Creatures and bracing for the challenge of Lord Of The Rings.
As a genre film, Frighteners remains the uneasy mix. Part Mystery, part Thriller, all Horror, it is undermined by bad comedy. Silliness, stupidity. Several cringe sequences make the Stooges look like Woody Allen. Any improvement on that score is applauded.

Loaded this months earlier, but finally viewed and reviewed. I can confess, I won’t be watching my original any more. Neglify’s version is now my preferred Frighteners. The original never lagged for me. I saw it at the theater and it was fun. The ghost effects were excellent. In my mind, better than what was later rendered with the Dunharrow Shadow Host from Return Of The Kind.

No, my main problem was always the humour. Silly rather than clever, dull witted rather than razor sharp. Most of Jackson’s jokes are sophomoric at best. (Feebles, however, remains a brilliant exception.) Neglify excised the lame nonsense. Trims were light, but effective. Stellar job.

Easily recommended.
 
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