Back when The Frighteners wrapped, Guest Ed Peter Jackson looked at his 35 new computers and bumper visual effects team and, to stop them going to waste, thought, "I need to make another fantasy film." And so the seeds of The Lord Of The Rings were sown...

Bathed as it is in the afterglow of Middle-earth, The Frighteners holds up surprisingly well. True, it's creaky at times - Michael J Fox's conman ghostbuster tackling a demonic serial killer in a peculiar mixture of slapstick, high-jinks and dark drama - while the FX have dated over the last decade. But there's plenty left to love: the wild abandon of the action sequences, innovative scares (especially the proto-Ringwraith Reaper), an energetic script and cracking performances... Who else but the kooky writing team of Jackson and Fran Walsh could invent a Special Agent (Jeffrey Coombs) who throws up when talking to women? Genius.

This Special Edition DVD contains a Director's Cut with 12 minutes of extra footage and a brand-new Jackson intro which, unfortunately, only highlights the fact that the featurettes were originally recorded for the laserdisc. How to tell? The old Jackson is plump; the new Jackson is slim. It also doesn't help that interviewees keep saying "laserdisc"... Oops. Still, all the docs are interesting and other extras add value - especially the ghost asking for a blowjob in the bloopers.

DVD Extras:

New introduction by Peter Jackson
Commentary by Peter Jackson
Bloopers
Deleted scenes
Script development
Ghost Stories - Jackson and actor Jim Fyfe tell ghost stories
Behind the scenes rehearsal
FX and miniatures docs
Weta tour