The Frighteners is a 1996 English-language Comedy Fantasy motion picture written by Fran Walsh and Peter Jackson. The movie is directed by Peter Jackson and produced by Peter Jackson and Jamie Selkirk under the banner of WingNut Films. After a car accident in which his wife, Debra, was killed and he was injured, Frank Bannister develops psychic abilities allowing him to , hear, and communicate with ghosts. After losing his wife, he then gave up his job as an architect, letting his unfinished dream house sit incomplete for years, and put these skills to use by befriending a few ghosts and getting them to haunt houses in the area to drum up work for his ghostbusting business; Then Frank proceeds to exorcise the houses for a fee. But when he discovers that an entity resembling the Grim Reaper is killing people, marking numbers on their forehead beforehand, Frank tries to help the people whom the Reaper is after! Written by Anthony Pereyra. The frighteners stars Michael J. Fox in the lead role along with an ensemble cast including Trini Alvarado, Peter Dobson, John Astin, Dee Wallace Stone, Jeffrey Combs and Jake Busey. The music was composed by Danny Elfman. Cinematography was done by John Blick and Alun Bollinger and editing by Jamie Selkirk. The film has a running time of 110 minutes. It was released on 19th July 1996. The Frighteners was made on a budget of $26 million and it was a hit at box office gross of $29 million. Distribution rights for the movie were acquired by Universal Pictures.