Continuing the tradition of shepherding eager up-and-coming filmmakers into a world of opportunity, after reading a treatment from the creative power duo, Peter Jackson & Fran Walsh (which they wrote while making HEAVENLY CREATURES), Robert Zemeckis hired them to pen the screenplay for him to direct, originally planned as an off-shoot of TALES FROM THE CRYPT. Upon reading the first draft he was so impressed that he decided Jackson should direct it, and convinced Universal to foot the bill with the agreement that he'd stay on as Executive Producer and make sure all went off without a hitch. Thus, THE FRIGHTENERS came to be, with Zemeckis securing Michael J. Fox in the starring role as Frank Bannister, a failed architect turned necromancing-scam-artist who uses his ability to communicate with the dead, in order to con folks into hiring him to perform exorcisms after his ghoulish buddies haunt their homes. However,  when a notorious serial killer begins dropping victims left and right, Bannister and his otherworldly friends must band together to defeat true evil. An absolutely raucous and astringent horror-comedy reminiscent of the devil may care tastelessness, and chaotic energy of Zemeckis’ early outings, THE FRIGHTENERS keeps its horror elements firmly rooted in the macabre-stylings of DEATH BECOMES HER. With scene stealing turns from Jeffrey Combs as a woman-fearing outrageously idiosyncratic FBI stooge, John Astin as the old west gunslinger ghost who can't control himself with guns or mummies, Dee Wallace and Jake Busey as the mass murdering pair of cracked lovers, and some uncouth hilarity from side characters Chi McBride and R. Lee Ermy, THE FRIGHTENERS remains a blast from start to finish. It comes as no surprise that Zemeckis was so taken with this filmmaking pair and their ridiculous story, that he decided to inadvertently usher in two artists who would dominate the blockbuster for the next decade and beyond.