The Making of 'The Frighteners'

If it weren’t so long, The Making of ‘The Frighteners’ would be just another of the many films about film. The unnarrated shots from filming are entirely needless, the creation of digital effects, which is understandably given the most space, has advanced significantly since the time of the film’s release, and the poorly executed shots aren’t among the funniest. More than the detailed description of the production process, I was interested in Jackson’s ability to simultaneously hold the position of film fan and filmmaker. As he mentions in the introduction to this monster documentary, he is well aware of the attractiveness of behind-the-scenes material for viewers and he took a large amount of video material during and even before production (the later video blogs from King Kong and The Hobbit allowed us to feel that we were there, participating in the filming). Having learned from the bonus materials on other discs, he further tries to avoid any possible unpleasantness for BD/DVD users (which he directly mentions in the Storyboards chapter included on the BD as a separate bonus feature). By creating the impression that he is on the side of those who are enthusiastic about every new technology and pop-culture allusion, he gains the sympathy of nerds while also creating an alibi in case the film is rejected by critics, who – unlike the knowledgeable fans – didn’t know what the filmmaker wanted to achieve. A smooth move. 70% (09/16/2012)