Directed by: Peter Jackson
Starring: Michael J. Fox, Dee Wallace, Jake Busey, John Astin, Trini Alvarado, Peter Dobson
A psychic private detective named Frank Bannister (Michael J. Fox) who consorts with deceased souls becomes engaged in a mystery as members of the town community begin dying mysteriously. While investigating, he is aided by a friendly doctor named Lucy (Trini Alvarado) who believes in his psychic abilities and is hindered by a crazed G-Man named Milton Dammers (Jeffrey Combs), a woman (Dee Wallace-Stone) involved in an old serial killing, and what may be the spirit of Death itself.
Continuity mistake: When Mrs. Waterhouse walks into the livingroom and greets her three babies, there is a large area rug in front of the coffee table. However, as the babies fly towards her in the wide shot facing her, that area rug is gone! (00:22:55 - 00:23:50)
Old Lady Bradley: The wicked will be punished.
Trivia: When Frank comes out of the newspaper building, he walks into a guy with piercings and t-shirt with the Grim Reaper on it, this is the Director, Peter Jackson, he does a Hitchcock in all his films. (00:25:30)
Question: How did the people behind the film achieve the effect of making the actors look like ghosts. I truly have no idea.
Chosen answer: For the most part, the actors playing the ghosts were shot separately on blue-screens, and then comped into the scenes. (By removing the blue background through a process called "color keying", and placing them over the scenes) They were simply given a blueish glow and made semi-translucent to complete the effect. It was pretty cutting edge back in the 90's, but nowadays, it'd be very easy to make the exact same effect using a simple program like Adobe After Effects.
TedStixon