The Frighteners

How this film uses it

The film jumps between ghost comedy, murder mystery and horror, sometimes inside one scene. A joke about a fake exorcism can lead straight into a killing. That clash keeps you from knowing how to feel.

Where to see it

Lynskey house job: Frank and his ghost partners haunt a client's home so he can charge to remove them. The same story soon turns to murder.

How this film uses it

The ghosts and the hooded figure were made with computer effects, in a film that needed more digital shots than almost any movie before it. The studio doing them was young and had mostly worked with physical effects. The result is a first look at how far digital creatures could be made to feel present.

Where to see it

Reaper attack: The hooded figure kills a man marked with a number, and Frank watches it happen.

How this film uses it

The ghost scenes were shot twice, once with the human actors on set and once with the ghost actors against a blue screen. Actors had to deliver lines to empty air. When Frank talks to a ghost in a room full of people, the effect is that he looks strange to everyone but you.

Where to see it

Lynskey house job: Frank speaks to his ghost partners, who only he can see, while the living people in the room see him talking to nothing.

How this film uses it

Frank's crash and his wife's death are what let him see the dead. His gift marks him as odd, and others suspect him of murder. You never see it as a prize, because it grew out of his loss.

Where to see it

Frank's accident: After a drunken car crash, his wife Debra is found dead, and Frank soon finds he can see and speak with ghosts.

How this film uses it

The last act reveals who really carved the numbers and why. Earlier scenes, including the Frank and Debra backstory, mean something different once you know. You find yourself rebuilding the film in your head.

Where to see it

Sanatorium finale: Frank's visions show that Patricia took part in the killings in 1964 and later carved the number into Debra.