Peter Jackson’s The Frighteners is an underrated horror movie from the acclaimed director, but it nearly experienced a different life as the first Tales from the Crypt movie.
Peter Jackson has entered the mainstream as a filmmaker thanks to his work on The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but the director’s roots come from violent, low-budget B-horror that celebrates the madness and imperfections of the genre. Jackson spent the ‘80s and the ‘90s building up his resume with controversial splatter films like Bad Taste and Dead Alive. The movies caused a major uproar in Jackson’s native country of Australia, but they helped open doors for the up and coming director in the United States.
Tales from the Crypt was one of HBO’s signature programs during the ‘90s; the series helped popularize anthology horror storytelling for a mature crowd. Tales from the Crypt built a strong legacy for itself, but as the program was beginning to come to its close, the producers started to entertain the idea of continuing the property as a series of spin-off films. In 1995, the first Tales from the Crypt movie, Demon Knight, was released. Before this happened, the original plan was to have Peter Jackson’s Frighteners function as the series' new direction.
Robert Zemeckis, one of the many notable executive producers on Tales from the Crypt, turned to Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh to write a treatment for a horror idea that they had been developing, The Frighteners. The story deals with a mourning psychic whose ability to communicate with the dead turns him into a pivotal figure who may be uniquely qualified to save the world. Zemeckis’ intention was that he would direct Jackson and Walsh’s Frighteners script, which would function as the first Tales from the Crypt movie. After Zemeckis received the finished script, he was so impressed with it that he thought it’d be better suited to Peter Jackson’s artistic eye and thought Jackson should save it for himself, not lump it in with the Tales from the Crypt brand. Tales from the Crypt moved forward with their feature film and, despite the B-horror charm of Demon Knight, it’s not as strong as a Jackson/Zemeckis collaboration would have been.
Jackson’s The Frighteners went on to be considered a box office failure, only making $29.3 million on a budget of $26 million. The budget of Demon Knight is unknown, but it's likely even lower than that of The Frighteners, since Demon Knight was constantly fighting with attempts to make their production cheaper. Production was likely much closer to how the Tales from the Crypt TV show operates. This is why Demon Knight’s box office total of just over $21 million—which is pretty comparable to The Frighteners' numbers—could still be viewed as enough of a success to move ahead with a sequel.
Jackson blames unsuccessful marketing for the failure of The Frighteners, but it's unclear whether the movie’s association with Tales from the Crypt would have led to success The power behind the Tales from the Crypt brand could have helped the audience better understand the style and tone of Jackson’s movie, but its connection to the franchise might have led to creative compromises on the project. The Frighteners wasn’t able to become a part of the Tales from the Crypt universe, but the warmer reception that Jackson’s horror movie has gained in recent years is a bit of a silver lining. People might be less inclined to return to The Frighteners if it were lumped under the Tales from the Crypt umbrella.