Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. Chicago Reader critic Jonathan Rosenbaum, described the film's special effects as "ugly, aggressive" and "proliferating", saying that "trying to keep interested in [the special effects] was like trying to remain interested in a loudmouth shouting in [his] ear". Edward Guthmann of the San Francisco Chronicle stated that "instead of moving the horror genre in new directions, The Frighteners simply falls apart from its barrage of visual effects and the overmixed onslaught of Danny Elfman's music score". The Austin Chronicles Joey O'Brien, said that although the screenplay was "practically loaded with wild ideas, knowingly campy dialogue and offbeat characterizations", it "switched gears" too fast and too frequently that "the audience is left struggling to catch up as [The Frighteners] twists and turns its way unmercifully towards a literally out-of-this-world finale". Accolades At the 23rd Saturn Awards, the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films honored Jackson with nominations for Best Director and Best Writing, the latter he shared with wife Fran Walsh. The Frighteners also was nominated for Best Horror Film, and for its Special Effects, Make-up (Rick Baker) and Music (Danny Elfman). Michael J. Fox and Jeffrey Combs were also nominated for their work. Home media "The Frighteners" was released on Laserdisc in 1996 in a standard release with Dolby surround on both Digital and Analog channels. In 1998 Universal Home Video as part of the Signature Series collection released a special edition. This includes the first release of the 12 minute longer "Directors Cut" plus the following extras: Feature commentary by director Peter Jackson 4 hour documentary 'The Making Of The Frighteners' directed by Peter Jackson featuring cast interviews, rehearsals, storyboarding, miniatures and special effects Deleted scenes Theatrical trailer The later DVD was a re-release of this with inferior audio. The Frighteners was first released on DVD in August 1998, but included no special features. To coincide with the release of Jackson's King Kong, Universal Studios Home Entertainment issued a double-sided director's cut DVD of the film in November 2005, which featured a version of The Frighteners that was 12 minutes longer. The other side includes a documentary prepared by Jackson and WingNut Films originally for the Laserdisc release. The theatrical and director's cut were also made available in HD DVD in 2007 and Blu-ray in 2011. See also List of ghost films The Purple Testament References External links 1996 films 1996 comedy