Isn't it funny how things work out - now he's admired for bringing The Lord of the Rings to the screen in such style, people often speak about Peter Jackson's previous movies and say "it was always obvious how good he was" etc - which contrasts pretty well with what the same people said about them at the time!  His last film before The Fellowship of the Ring was The Frighteners, a comic horror film starring Michael J. Fox as a "psychic detective" investigating a series of murders; it's good fun, if unsubstantial, but made little impression either at the box office (taking $16m compared with a $30m budget) or with critics (Roger Ebert said "Last year, I reviewed a nine-hour documentary about the lives of Mongolian yak herdsmen, and I would rather see it again than sit through `The Frighteners").

Danny Elfman was an inspired choice of composer, with his sense of black humour having been amply demonstrated in various Tim Burton (and other) projects over most of his career.  His music here is entirely predictable, which in its way is both a good and a bad thing.  It's good because Elfman doing his thing on a film like this is a lot of fun to hear, but bad because there is always the feeling that you've heard it all before.  All the familiar ingredients are here: the "la la la" chorus, the explosive, shrill brass, the string runs, and everything works wonderfully, so I guess you can forgive the sense of familiarity.

The main theme is, as usual for the composer, very fluid and allows him to quote it in a variety of guises, often building it in subtly into various cues.  It ranges from a very creepy performance by female choir in "Patty's Place" to blasting brass variations elsewhere, and is the score's best feature.  Other highlights include the wonderful atmosphere created by some of Elfman's spooky orchestrations, particularly his use of harpsichord throughout the score.  The best cue is probably "Doom", full of gothic horror.  Sometimes though, things are just a bit too frenetic and a bit of a reduction in pace wouldn't be a bad thing (it is very similar in that and other respects to Beetlejuice).  That said, overall this is a very entertaining score which, while not quite up there with the composer's best, still makes compelling listening for his fans.