The Frighteners (1996)

 A LOT goes on in Peter Jackson's 1996 epic paranormal horror comedy, "The Frighteners". Jake Busy as a homicidal spree killer sent to the electric chair while his equally repulsive lunatic squeeze got away with her part in a mass murder at a hospital, grown up into a vicious seriously unbalanced Dee Wallace are villains enough for one film, not including Jake returning from hell to take up where he left off as a poltergeist dressed as a grim reaper wraith stopping hearts. You have three ghosts, one a letterman jacket pushover from the 50s, another a fiery, street tough from the 70s, the third a barely-held-together rot-jawed old west gunslinger who would have fit right in the film, "House II". Not to mention, a hot-tempered, highly emotional Peter Dobson whose white picket fence and garden gnomes are obliterated by paranormal expert played by Michael J Fox. Fox can't drive for shit, never capable of staying on the right side of the road, often seen veering down embankments and into yards. That his Volvo survived 45 minutes into the film is a minor miracle. Trini Alvarado as Dobson's wife and eventual widow makes for the perfect love interest to Fox, often a target of the scythe-wielding Busey in reaper costume and newspaper publisher Elizabeth Hawthorne, who considers him a predatory conman grifting off victims easily persuaded and duped by tragedy (or Fox and his three ghosts). If that all wasn't enough, you get Jeffrey Combs as a nerves-freyed-at-the-edges FBI paranormal psychologist with serious woman issues due to horrifying history with the Manson family and other similar cults undercover. Combs makes Fox and Alvarado's lives miserable, undercutting them when trying to stop Busey...and eventually Wallace, actually as much a part of Busey's afterlife killing spree, inspiring and encouraging him. Packing a shotgun with a flashlight, Wallace certainly looks to continue her own together body count with Busey. Boy, reacquainting myself with this film after 14 years has sure reminded me of just how much computer effects Jackson's New Zealand team included in "The Frighteners". The wraith effects, flaming number on victims' foreheads, blue-hue ghosts with ectoplasmic goo reminding them their dead even as they have issues with walls and traffic, and Busey's busy ghoul stretching from walls and carpet as he pursues folks as Fox often fails to stop him. The effects are so frequent, sometimes I feel like I'm watching an animated film. Hearts squeezed by Busey continue a hefty increase in a town's population filling up the local cemetery. Fox, because of a near-death traumatic experience, losing his wife to Busey, can see poltergeists. And talk to them. So Fox knows rules are there and how to navigate spiritual waters, even how to die and move about as a ghost himself. And he can even pull the spirit out of a living person and move towards the light. A ton of blue spirits, including Ermey as a drill sergeant just as bossy and loud dead, with Dobson trying to stay in his wife's life even after she learns he spent her hideaway money on a bad investment. So Jackson just went crazy...just as wacko as Busey and Wallace. Whole sequences with Busey, Wallace, and Combs, each their own variation on nutty, are scene stealers with Fox the conman-turned hero with trauma derived from Busey killing his wife and Alvarado trying to help him stop all the killing.

*I failed to mention a great interrogation sequence where Fox is just bombarded by skeptic Combs in a room, and Fox is shown going through some type of panic attack. It's this incredible moment that should be talked about a lot more. Combs is just an overbearing neurotic with serious social active issues.