The Making of 'The Frighteners'

Robert Lee Zemeckis (born May 14, 1951) is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Zemeckis first came to public attention in the 1980s as the director of the comedic time-travel Back to the Future film series, as well as the Academy Award-winning live-action/animation epic Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), though in the 1990s he diversified into more dramatic fare, including 1994's Forrest Gump, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Director. His films are characterized by an interest in state-of-the-art special effects, including the early use of match moving in Back to the Future Part II (1989) and the pioneering performance capture techniques seen in The Polar Express (2004), Beowulf (2007) and A Christmas Carol (2009). Though Zemeckis has often been pigeonholed as a director interested only in effects, his work has been defended by several critics, including David Thomson, who wrote that "No other contemporary director has used special effects to more dramatic and narrative purpose."

Trinidad "Trini" Alvarado  (born January 10, 1967) is an American actress best known for her performances as Margaret "Meg" March in the 1994 film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's novel Little Women and Lucy Lynskey in the comedy/horror film The Frighteners. She also has had notable stage performances and singing roles in musicals. Description above from the Wikipedia article Trini Alvarado, licensed under CC-BY-SA,full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Sir Peter Robert Jackson, (born 31 October 1961) is a New Zealand film director, producer, actor, and screenwriter, known for his Lord of the Rings film trilogy, adapted from the novel by J. R. R. Tolkien. He is also known for his 2005 remake of King Kong and as the producer of District 9. He won international attention early in his career with his "splatstick" horror comedies, before coming to mainstream prominence with Heavenly Creatures, for which he shared an Academy Award Best Screenplay nomination with his wife, Fran Walsh. Jackson has been awarded three Academy Awards in his career, including the award for Best Director in 2003. Description above from the Wikipedia article Peter Jackson, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia

Michael Andrew Fox OC (born June 9, 1961), known professionally as Michael J. Fox, is a retired Canadian-American actor. Beginning his career in the 1970s, he rose to prominence portraying Alex P. Keaton on the NBC sitcom Family Ties (1982–1989). Fox is famous for his role as protagonist Marty McFly in the Back to the Future film trilogy (1985–1990), a critical and commercial success. He went on to headline several films throughout the 1980s and 1990s, including Teen Wolf (1985), The Secret of My Success (1987), Casualties of War (1989), Doc Hollywood (1991), and The Frighteners (1996). Fox returned to television on the ABC sitcom Spin City in the lead role of Mike Flaherty from 1996 to 2000. In 1998, Fox disclosed his 1991 diagnosis of Parkinson's disease. He subsequently became an advocate for finding a cure and founded the Michael J. Fox Foundation in 2000 to help fund research. Worsening symptoms forced Fox to reduce his activities and led to his return to television in Spin City when he was still a major movie star. He continued to make guest appearances on television, including recurring roles on the FX comedy-drama Rescue Me (2009) and the CBS legal drama The Good Wife (2010–2016) that garnered him critical acclaim. He voiced the lead roles in the Stuart Little films (1999–2005) and the animated film Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001). His final major role was on the NBC sitcom The Michael J. Fox Show (2013–2014). Fox retired in 2020 due to his declining health. Fox won five Primetime Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and a Grammy Award. He was also appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2010, along with being inducted to Canada's Walk of Fame in 2000 and the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2002. For his advocacy of a cure for Parkinson's disease, he received an honorary doctorate in 2010 from the Karolinska Institute and an honorary Oscar in 2022.

Kenneth "Chi" (pronounced "shy") McBride (born September 23, 1961) is an American actor. He starred as Emerson Cod on the ABC series Pushing Daisies, and on Fox's drama Human Target. Description above from the Wikipedia article Chi McBride, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Dark haired, usually mustachioed US actor with a cheeky grin who achieved pop culture status through his portrayal of the kooky patriarch "Gomez Addams" in the hit TV series The Addams Family (1964). John Astin standing at a height of 5' 11" (1.8 m) was born March 30, 1930 (Aries), in Baltimore, MD as John Allen Astin to Allen V. Astin and Margaret Astin with a brother Alexander Astin. He is an American actor, voice actor and director. He attended Washington, Jefferson College and Johns Hopkins University where he studied mathematics. However he discovered a passion for the theater and began performing in minor plays and doing voice-over work for commercials. Married Suzanne Hahn on March 26, 1956, had 3 sons: David Aston (born 1953), Allen J. Astin (born March 23, 1961) and Thomas E. Astin (born March 19, 1965), then divorced June 14, 1972. He first got noticed in a small role in West Side Story (1961), then appeared in several other films, That Touch of Mink (1962), Move Over Darling (1963), before being cast as "Gomez Addams". While "The Addams Family (1964–1966)" was initially a huge hit, its popularity petered out after two years, and Astin moved on to other work including the offbeat Bunny O'Hare (1971), playing a grizzled but not particularly bright gunfighter in the western spoof Evil Roy Slade (1972), an appearance in the Disney comedy Freaky Friday (1976), reprising the role in the television film Halloween with the New Addams Family (1977) and dual roles in National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985), Teen Wolf Too (1987) and The Frighteners (1996). Married Patty Duke on August 5, 1972, had 2 sons: Mackenzie Astin (born May 12, 1973) and adopted Sean Astin (born February 25, 1971), when he was 3 years old, then divorced November 3, 1985. Roughly four years later, he married Valerie Ann Sandobal on March 19, 1989 and is still presently married. He has since lent his comedic talents to numerous appearances as "Dr. Gangreen" in several corny "Killer Tomato" movies, and has contributed his voice to recreate "Gomez Addams" in the animated series The Addams Family (1992), and then played "Grandpa Addams" in the short-lived TV series The New Addams Family (1998). In addition, Astin has contributed voices to several animated shows, and is still active (1957-present) regularly appearing in films. Currently resides in Baltimore, Maryland with current wife. Astin was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for his directorial debut, the comedic short Prelude (1968).

Richard Taylor is a New Zealand filmmaker born on February 8, 1965 in England. He is the founder, creative director and head of New Zealand film prop and special effects company Wētā Workshop.

Visual Effects Supervisor Matt Aitken supervised Wētā FX's work on Transformers: Rise of the Beasts and has helmed projects including Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, Eternals, District 9, The Adventures of Tintin, Peter Jackson’s King Kong 360 3-D attraction at Universal Studios Hollywood, Iron Man 3, and all three films in The Hobbit trilogy.  He was Digital Models Supervisor on The Lord of the Rings trilogy, pre-production/RR&D Supervisor for King Kong, and CG Supervisor for Avatar. Aitken has twice been nominated for the Academy Award® for Best Achievement in Visual Effects and the BAFTA Film Award for Best Special Visual Effects for Avengers: Endgame and District 9.  He has won five Visual Effects Society Awards, including Outstanding Visual Effects, for his work on Avengers: Infinity War.  Aitken has a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Victoria University of Wellington and a Master of Science in Computer Graphics from Middlesex University, London.  He has had technical papers published by Eurographics and Graphite and has given presentations on Wētā FX’s work at many conferences and festivals, including SIGGRAPH, FMX, the Australian Effects and Animation Festival, Imagina, the London Effects and Animation Festival, and AnimfxNZ.  Aitken is an active member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences®, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and the Visual Effects Society. Information above via their homepage.

William Jacob "Jake" Busey (born June 15, 1971) is an American actor, musician and film producer. He is sometimes credited as "Jacob Busey" or "William Busey". He is the son of actor Gary Busey. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Kyle Balda (born March 9, 1971) is an American animator and film director, best known for co-directing the Illumination films The Lorax (2012), with Chris Renaud; Minions (2015) and Despicable Me 3 (2017), with Pierre Coffin; and Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022), with Brad Ableson and Jonathan del Val. He previously worked as an animator for Industrial Light & Magic before moving to Pixar, where he worked on three of their films. Balda was born in Tucson, Arizona, to a Maltese mother. He studied at the California Institute of the Arts in the early 1990s and dropped out after two years for a job he was offered. During his time at CalArts, Balda was hired by LucasArts as an intern to create the animated opening credit sequence for the graphic adventure game Day of the Tentacle. He started his career as an animator by working at Industrial Light & Magic, in films including The Mask as graphics animator, Jumanji as animation supervisor, and Mars Attacks! as character animator. He also worked at Weta Digital once in New Zealand, on the 1996 film The Frighteners, animating the character of the Grim Reaper for the film. Later Balda started working at Pixar, where he was credited as an additional animator in A Bug's Life, as directing animator in Toy Story 2, and as an animator in Monsters, Inc. In 2010, he joined Illumination Entertainment in Paris and worked on Despicable Me as the head of layout. Balda has also directed several short films and lectured at different animation schools. In 2012, Balda made his directorial debut at Illumination as co-director of The Lorax, along with Chris Renaud. The film was released domestically on March 2, 2012, by Universal Pictures and grossed over $348 million with a budget of $70 million. In 2015, Balda directed another Illumination animated film, Minions, this time alongside Pierre Coffin. The film was released domestically on July 10, 2015, by Universal and has grossed over $1.1 billion. In 2017, Balda co-directed Despicable Me 3. In his role as co-director, he pushed for the film to have a more vibrant colour palette than its predecessors. On June 7, 2024, it was announced Balda would make his live-action directorial debut with Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Movie, a film adaptation of Leonie Swann's book of the same name, set to be produced by Amazon MGM Studios. Balda currently resides on the Oregon coast. Description above from the Wikipedia article Kyle Balda, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Jeffrey Alan Combs (born September 9, 1954) is an American actor known for his horror film roles and his appearances playing a number of characters in the Star Trek franchise. ​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dee Wallace (born 14 December 1948) is an American actress and comedienne. She is perhaps best known for her roles in several popular films. These include the starring role as Elliot's mother in the Steven Spielberg film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), her most widely seen role. She also played key roles in popular cult films The Hills Have Eyes (1977) and The Howling (1981) and appeared in The Stepford Wives in 1975 and 10 (1979). In total, Wallace has appeared in more than 85 films.

Daniel Robert Elfman (born May 29, 1953) is an American film composer, singer, songwriter, and musician. He came to prominence as the lead vocalist and primary songwriter for the new wave band Oingo Boingo in the early 1980s. Since scoring his first studio film in 1985, Elfman has garnered international recognition for composing over 100 feature film scores, as well as compositions for television, stage productions, and the concert hall. Elfman has frequently worked with directors Tim Burton, Sam Raimi, and Gus Van Sant, contributing music to nearly 20 Burton projects, including Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Batman Returns, Mars Attacks!, Sleepy Hollow, Big Fish, and Alice in Wonderland, as well as scoring Raimi's Darkman, A Simple Plan, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, Oz the Great and Powerful, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Van Sant's Academy Award-winning films Good Will Hunting and Milk. He wrote music for all of the Men in Black and Fifty Shades of Grey franchise films, the songs and score for Henry Selick's animated musical The Nightmare Before Christmas, and the themes for the popular television series Desperate Housewives and The Simpsons. Among his honours are four Oscar nominations, three Emmy Awards, a Grammy, seven Saturn Awards for Best Music, the 2002 Richard Kirk Award, the 2015 Disney Legend Award, the Max Steiner Film Music Achievement Award in 2017, and the Society of Composers & Lyricists Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022. Description above from the Wikipedia article Danny Elfman, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.