Michael J. Fox Kept Shouting ‘Back to the Future’ Lines in This Horror Movie
At the height of his movie career, Michael J. Fox was running back and forth between sets, filming his sitcom Family Ties during the day and acting in Back to the Future at night. So forgive the guy if he sometimes forgot which production he was filming at any given time.
That happened a few times on The Frighteners, an early Peter Jackson horror film in which Fox played an architect who gains the ability to communicate with ghosts after his wife’s murder. He even makes some spirit pals, including The Judge, the ghost of an Old West gunslinger.
It wasn’t a typical Fox comedy, but “I met Peter and I saw Heavenly Creatures, and I realized immediately that this was somebody really special and somebody I really wanted to work with,” he told the Toronto Star. “I would have done whatever he wanted to do.”
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Heavenly Creatures got trounced at the box office in the summer of 1996 by Independence Day, but got good reviews and turned into a cult classic. And it sounds like they had a good time making it, despite a Fox acting quirk. “I think one of the funniest bloopers that happened in The Frighteners — and it happened a couple of times — was when Michael forgot what film he was in,” explained Jackson.
For example, “we were doing this scene with The Judge,” remembered Fox. “And I was supposed to call out to him, and I just kept saying ‘Doc!’ from Back to the Future. It was like some weird out-of-body thing.”
See for yourself in the clips below:
At least Fox recognized the goofs in real time while filming: “I just go ‘Doc!’ It’s Judge. Shit.”
Fox flubbed it again when he filmed a scene against a blank special effects background. “Hey boys, rebound!” shouts a voice from off camera.
“Doc!” Fox yells as if the flux capacitor just went on the fritz. His face breaks into a grin. “Doc,” he says, shaking his head. “I did it again.”
Ironically, it was Back to the Future that probably led Fox to The Frighteners in the first place. Back to the Future director Bob Zemeckis was the first one to get his hands on Jackson’s script, Fox remembered. “Having worked with me on Back to the Future, he knew that there was really only one guy stupid enough to agree to do this film.”
