SECRET MOVIE CLUB presents
Part of our UNSUNG GEMS Series, Friday, April 14, 2023
LOCATION: The Secret Movie Club Theater, 1917 Bay Street, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90021
*Please note entrance/parking is actually in the back of the building. Make a right on Wilson Street, then a right behind the building. We’re the first set of black steps after the big gate.
7:30pm THE FRIGHTENERS (1996, dir. Peter Jackson, Universal, USA, 113mns, DCP)
Sometimes really amazing movies run the danger of being forgotten and left to the mercy of the wild winds, always and forever blowing just outside our reach, never to land and get noticed.
Well F’ that! Peter Jackson’s The Frighteners, his first international production, has blown long enough. It’s time to yank it down and admire it on the big screen.
Following the break-out success of Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures (which also launched the career of Kate Winslet), Jackson and his longtime partner Fran Walsh were hired by Robert Zemeckis to flesh out The Frighteners idea they had while producing Heavenly Creatures.
Zemeckis originally intended to direct but ultimately felt Jackson would be the best for the material. True to Jackson’s M.O. his entire life, Jackson was able to convince Universal to let him shoot in New Zealand as long as it doubled for the midwest United States. Michael J. Fox was game to come on as the lead and the movie was off and running.
A very funny, inventive, and subversive take on ghosts, murderers, and people sensitive to paranormal phenomena, The Frighteners follows Michael J. Fox’s Frank, half con-artist, half able to really communicate with ghosts, who soon realizes only he can see and predict a series of murders committed by an other-wordly entity known as “The Grim Reaper”.
In many ways, The Frighteners feels like the child of BOTH the director who had made Dead Alive and the director who would go on to make the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Wild, hilarious, irreverent (including a great scene of a ghost having sex with a skeleton) the movie adroitly veers into the horror-psychological realm in its disturbing third act without ever feeling like two separate movies.
Jackson shows that he’s a master of juggling tones here. On top of which, his newly formed Weta Digital pioneered many of the effects in this movie that they would later perfect in The Lord of the Rings.
A must watch for any Peter Jackson fan. And an unsung gem waiting to be re-discovered. So re-discover it!
Best always,
Craig Hammill
Secret Movie Club Founder.Programmer
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
REFUNDS:
We can offer refunds up to 24 hours before showtime. Please request a refund through Eventbrite and we will process ASAP. After that, no refunds. Sorry.
However if something last minute comes up and you can’t make the screening, for whatever reason, just write to us before showtime: community@secretmovieclub.com and we’ll offer you complimentary tickets to a future screening, good for 90 days. (Disclaimer: Future screening must have available tickets, cannot be a fundraiser, and must be comparably priced)
HELPFUL SECRET MOVIE CLUB (1917 Bay Street, 2nd Floor, LA, CA 90021) THEATER PARKING TIPS:
We recommend that you park just outside our theater. Remember our theater is actually in a beautiful street art alleyway in the back of the 1917 Bay Street building. You get to our entrance by taking a right on Wilson, then a right behind the building. We are the first set of black steps on the right after the big gate.
There is also a parking lot at the corner of Mateo and Violet Street, just 2 blocks from our theater, which costs $7 per car.
HOW CAN WE STAY ON TOP OF NEWLY ANNOUNCED 35MM SCREENINGS, EVENTS, ETC?
You can follow us on Instagram/Twitter: @secretmovieclub or Facebook: @secretmovieclub35mm
You can also subscribe to our weekly email newsletter at secretmovieclub.com or by writing to us at community@secretmovieclub.com and using the header “SUBSCRIBE ME TO NEWSLETTER”.
HOW CAN I CONTACT YOU IF I HAVE OTHER QUESTIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS:
You can always email us at community@secretmovieclub.com with any other questions, concerns, thoughts, recommendations.