One of the highlights of the year for movie fans: horror insert tip from the ‘Lord of the Rings’ creators now in home theaters

There are always films that appear with better picture and sound quality or in a new version, editions with a lot of bonus material or noble collector’s items that become real eye-catchers on the shelf of every film lover. The Ultimate Edition of “The Frighteners” is an absolute exception that combines all of that.

From December 2, 2022, Peter Jackson’s “The Frighteners” will be available worldwide on 4K Blu-ray for the first time – as a six-disc Ultimate Edition that leaves nothing to be desired and even fulfills what fans of the iconic geyser horror of the 90s probably no longer dared to dream of.

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Exclusively at the distributor’s store Turbine, you can now get the scary fun in Ultra HD for the first time, in two strictly limited editions – 3,333 (New Artwork) and 4,444 pieces (Classic Artwork) – as well as numbered collector’s editions. Fans of the iconic original artwork for the film will be presented with the classic version, while everyone else can look forward to a piece of jewelry in a brand new design. And we took a closer look at exactly that problem for the launch of the home theater.

“The Frighteners” shines in a whole new light

First things first: the supernatural adventures of ghost hunter Frank Bannister (Michael J. Fox), who deals with dark forces in the small town of Fairwater, California, sounds and looks like never before: The 4K Blu-ray of “The Frighteners” makes the impossible possible in terms of picture and sound quality.

The screenshots of the film published on the Turbine website* already suggested that a lot has happened here – compared to the previously released four-disc special edition on DVD and the standard Blu-ray of the theatrical version. The image is much sharper, revealing new details in virtually every shot that “drown” on the older releases and is much, much more vibrant thanks to stronger contrasts and – most importantly – remains natural.

The care with which a new master has been made (and personally approved by director Peter Jackson) is mainly reflected in the fact that scenes and shots have been individually optimized. Where other 4K transfers seem like the brightness and contrast of the entire movie have just been cranked up, here highlights and darks, close-ups and long shots have been fine-tuned to get the most out of each – without compromising the natural quality. losses. look of the film, which appears to be “digitized” here and there on the old Blu-ray. The Frighteners has never looked so good. And to be honest, we can’t imagine he ever will will look better.

By the way, the situation is similar to the soundtrack. In recent years, Turbine has built up a certain reputation not only with large collector’s editions, but more recently with new editions of visually demanding films such as “Twister”*, “Daylight”* or “Dragonheart”*, recording them with a Dolby Atmos soundtrack small home theater sound wonders. This is exactly what happened to Peter Jackson’s last film before the “Lord of the Rings” mastermind took on the Middle-earth saga.

The audio track doesn’t even have to hide from the latest mega blockbusters and gives the movie an incredible power it’s never had before, at least in the home theater. But even though R. Lee Ermey, as the ghost caricature of his “Full Metal Jacket” role, doesn’t let his ghost weapons crack, what is striking is how three-dimensional the Atmos soundtrack is – for example, when ghosts fly towards the camera . Highs and lows are incredibly balanced, dialogue clearer than ever.

Of course, one of the highlights of the Ultimate Edition of “The Frighteners” is that in addition to the theatrical version, the Director’s Cut is also available as a fully German dubbed version for the first time. This was only released on DVD in the original English version (with German subtitles), so that the eleven-minute longer version was usually seen in Germany only as an accessory to the theatrical version, but not as the widely preferred version of the film. That could now change, however, as with the 4K premiere of “The Frighteners”, the two cut versions now meet at “eye level” for the first time.

Incidentally, it is no coincidence that the dubbed scenes fit perfectly into the old dubbed version: finally, every effort was made to get the (still living) original speakers back in front of the microphone for new recordings.

Extras, extras, extras!

Physical media is still very popular as it still has a few points ahead of streaming. Particularly big selling points for discs are bonus material and neat presentation for the shelf – and Turbine delivers on both counts with “The Frighteners”.

The 6-disc set is bursting with exciting extras – in addition to two 4K Blu-rays and two Blu-rays (each featuring theatrical version and director’s cut of the movie), discs four and five are filled with various bonus content. On board is not only the well-known four-hour making of “The Frighteners”, but also a brand new interview documentary in which the cast and crew – from Dee Wallace and Jake Busey to the effects specialists behind the film – talk about a quarter of a century later, the cult classic and how it came about.

Fans of tactile extras can also look forward to art cards, two posters, a replica business card of ghost hunter Frank Bannister and the 196 (!!) page book “The World of Peter Jackson’s THE FRIGHTENERS” packed with exciting background information about the film.

All this packed in a lovingly designed box (the New Artwork Edition comes in a stylish glossy look). an Ultimate Edition that undoubtedly deserves its name.

Conclusion: a must for fans

Anyone who can only sleep peacefully at night if he has found at least one hair in the soup can only be disturbed by one point, which, however, can hardly be avoided: so that the two posters can be part of the set, they were folded and in the box – which prevented one or the other film fan from hanging it on the wall. However, we are talking about an almost ridiculous trifle here, especially considering the attributes for which there are hardly enough superlatives.

The 4K premiere of “The Frighteners” is one of the big home theater highlights of 2022 and comes as a real revelation to anyone who has been hoping for a worthy release of the oft-underrated Jackson classic since the dawn of the DVD era. It doesn’t get any better.