The Frighteners (1996) – WTF Happened to This Horror Movie?

It’s time for a new episode in our WTF Happened to This Horror Movie? video series, and in this one we’re taking a look back at director Peter Jackson‘s 1996 movie The Frighteners (watch it HERE), the last horror movie he made before entering the Hobbit and King Kong era of his career. To find out what happened behind the scenes of this one, check out the video embedded above!

Written by Jackson and Fran Walsh, The Frighteners has the following synopsis:

Once an architect, Frank Bannister now passes himself off as an exorcist of evil spirits. To bolster his facade, he claims his “special” gift is the result of a car accident that killed his wife. But what he does not count on is more people dying in the small town where he lives. As he tries to piece together the supernatural mystery of these killings, he falls in love with the wife of one of the victims and deals with a crazy FBI agent.

The film stars Michael J. Fox, Trini Alvarado, Jeffrey Combs, Peter Dobson, John Astin, Dee Wallace, Jake Busey, Chi McBride, Jim Fyfe, Troy Evans, and R. Lee Ermey.

This is what the WTF Happened to This Horror Movie series is all about:

Hollywood has had its fair share of historically troubled productions. Whether it was casting changes, actor deaths, fired directors, in-production rewrites, constant delays, budget cuts or studio edits, these films had every intention to be a blockbuster, but were beset with unforeseen disasters. Sometimes huge hits, sometimes box office bombs. Either way, we have to ask: WTF Happened To This Horror Movie?

The episode of WTF Happened to This Horror Movie on The Frighteners was Written by Bryan Wolford, Narrated by Jason Hewlett, Edited by Adam Walton, Produced by Lance Vlcek and John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

A few of the previous episodes of the show can be seen below. To see more, head over to our JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!