Episode 58 - The Frightners

12/13/21 • 85 min

13 Listeners

This week we're learning how to make Wellington look like a Small Town in Hondoures, What Ectoplasm really is and why it's important to wear a crash helmet when you are on your Motorcycle!

The Frighteners is a 1996 supernatural comedy horror film directed by Peter Jackson and co-written with Fran Walsh. The film stars Michael J. Fox, Trini Alvarado, Peter Dobson, John Astin, Dee Wallace Stone, Jeffrey Combs, R. Lee Ermey and Jake Busey. The Frighteners tells the story of Frank Bannister (Fox), an architect who practices necromancy, developing psychic abilities allowing him to see, hear, and communicate with ghosts after his wife's murder. He initially uses his new abilities to befriend ghosts, whom he sends to haunt people so that he can charge them handsome fees for "exorcising" the ghosts. However, the spirit of a mass murderer appears able to attack the living and the dead, posing as the ghost of the Grim Reaper, prompting Frank to investigate the supernatural presence.

Jackson and Walsh conceived the idea for The Frighteners during the script-writing phase of Heavenly Creatures. Executive producer Robert Zemeckis hired the duo to write the script, with the original intention of Zemeckis directing The Frighteners as a spin-off film of the television series, Tales from the Crypt. With Jackson and Walsh's first draft submitted in January 1994, Zemeckis believed the film would be better off directed by Jackson, produced by Zemeckis and funded/distributed by Universal Studios. The visual effects were created by Jackson's Weta Digital, which had only been in existence for three years. This, plus the fact that The Frighteners required more digital effects shots than almost any movie made until that time, resulted in the eighteen-month period for effects work by Weta Digital being largely stressed.

Despite a rushed post-production schedule, Universal was so impressed with Jackson's rough cut on The Frighteners, the studio moved the theatrical release date up by three months. The film was not a box office success, but received generally positive reviews from critics.

This week we're learning how to make Wellington look like a Small Town in Hondoures, What Ectoplasm really is and why it's important to wear a crash helmet when you are on your Motorcycle!

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Episode 57 - Final Destination

9 Recommendations

This week join the boys as they learn about Eminem's Stan Video, The first Homosexual Kiss on US TV and Ali Larter's really badly named Holiday Cook Book!

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From Wikipedia:

Final Destination is a 2000 American supernatural horror film directed by James Wong, with a screenplay written by James Wong, Glen Morgan, and Jeffrey Reddick, based on a story by Reddick. It is the first installment in the Final Destination film series and stars Devon Sawa, Ali Larter, Kerr Smith, and Tony Todd. Sawa portrays a teenager who cheats death after having a premonition of a catastrophic plane explosion. He and several of his classmates leave the plane before the explosion occurs, but Death later takes the lives of those who were meant to die on the plane.

The film began as a spec script written by Reddick for an episode of The X-Files, in order for Reddick to get a TV agent. A colleague at New Line Cinema persuaded Reddick to write it as a feature-length film. Later, Wong and Morgan, The X-Files writing partners, became interested in the script and agreed to rewrite and direct the film, marking Wong's film directing debut.[4][5][6][7] Filming took place in New York City and Vancouver, with additional scenes filmed in Toronto and San Francisco. It was released on March 17, 2000, and became a financial success, making $10 million on its opening weekend.[3] The DVD release of the film, released on September 26, 2000, in the United States and Canada,[8] includes commentaries, deleted scenes, and documentaries.[5][9][10]

The film received mixed reviews from critics. Positive reviews praised the film for "generating a respectable amount of suspense", "playful and energized enough to keep an audience guessing", "an unexpectedly alert teen-scream disaster chiller", and Sawa's performance, while negative reviews described the film as "dramatically flat" and "aimed at the teen dating crowd".[11][12] It received the Saturn Award for Best Horror Film and Best Performance by a Younger Actor for Sawa's performance.[13][14] The film's success spawned a media franchise, encompassing four additional installments, as well as a series of novels and comic books. The first sequel, Final Destination 2, was released on January 31, 2003.

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Episode 59 - Scrooged

3 Recommendations

This week we are getting festive with the spooks and talking Scrooged.

Learn with us alternate casting, How Much Charles Dickens would be worth in 2021 money and what happened to Tab Clear!

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Scrooged is a 1988 American Christmas fantasy comedy directed by Richard Donner and written by Mitch Glazer and Michael O'Donoghue. Based on the 1843 novella A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Scrooged is a modern retelling that follows Bill Murray as Frank Cross, a cynical and selfish television executive, who is visited by a succession of ghosts on Christmas Eve intent on helping him regain his Christmas spirit. The film also stars Karen Allen, John Forsythe, Bobcat Goldthwait, Carol Kane, Robert Mitchum, Michael J. Pollard, and Alfre Woodard.

Scrooged was filmed on a $32 million budget over three months in New York City and Hollywood. Murray returned to acting for the film after taking a four-year hiatus following the success of Ghostbusters, which he found overwhelming. Murray worked with Glazer and O'Donoghue on reworking the script before agreeing to join the project. The production was tumultuous, as Murray and Donner had different visions for the film. Murray described his time on the film as "misery", while Donner called Murray "superbly creative but occasionally difficult". Along with Murray's three brothers, Brian, John, and Joel, Scrooged features numerous celebrity cameos.

The film's marketing capitalized on Murray's Ghostbusters role, referencing his encounters with ghosts in both films. Scrooged was released on November 23, 1988, and grossed over $100 million worldwide. The film received a positive response from test audiences, but was met with a mixed response upon its release from critics who found the film too mean spirited or too sentimental. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Makeup, but lost to the fantasy-comedy film Beetlejuice.

In the years since its release, Scrooged has become a regular television Christmastime feature, with some critics calling it an alternative to traditional Christmas films, and others arguing that Scrooged was ahead of its time, making it relevant in the modern day. It has appeared on various lists of the best Christmas films.