Poltergeist

Poltergeist (1982)

Runtime: 114 minutes

Directed by: Tobe Hooper... and Steven Spielberg, so the rumors say

Starring: Craig T. Nelson, JoBeth Williams, Beatrice Straight, Heather O'Rourke, Dominique Dunne

From: MGM

I am a little late with this, but oh well. This is still very good; a lot of legend surrounds the film, and you shouldn't let that overwhelm the movie's qualities on its own:

This movie was shown on Turner Classic Movies (on Halloween) and it seemed like a fitting way to end this Halloween season of watching scary, spooky movies. Of course I had seen this before (including once at a revival screening) but the last viewing was before I joined this site in early 2013 so I had never rated/reviewed the film until now.

I won't rehash the story as I will assume most are familiar with it. Thus, I'll say this is still a very good film. It wasn't something I really watched as a kid so I don't have the “nostalgic feels” like some do. I can say it's a lot of fun as an adult. You get to know the average suburban Southern California family before things go terribly wrong. The parents are hippies from the late 60's so them smoking some pot in their middle-aged years isn't too surprising... except it's something you don't see in these sorts of movies in “modern times”, as things have changed. The handymen harassing the teenage daughter that is underage and the mom laughs as they interact with each other and she gives them a vulgar gesture... that seems odder now, and that's not even factoring in how it's REALLY creepy now in this current climate with how there have been so many in Hollywood who have been accused of heinous acts...

But anyhow, the special effects still work 35 years later (for the most part. Even if the “face in the bathroom” thing may not have aged well, it continues to be pretty gross) so that's why I say the film has remained an effective thrill ride which has both scary moments (I presume it's one of the reason why many are skeeved out by clowns) and exciting ones. I'll mention two last things. The first is “The Poltergeist Curse.” It is disturbing how real skeleton were used in the climax; I am not one for curses... but I of course feel bad for the cast members who passed away due to cancer or at too young an age. It is sad for a young woman to be strangled to death by an ex and a child to pass away due to something that was not diagnosed correctly. Then there's who actually directed the movie... I have no idea what to think as people have different stories over how much Spielberg actually directed instead of Hooper. I don't want to disrespect Tobe (especially considering he only passed away a few months ago) and even if he may have had “personal demons” at the time, I know this is a hotly debated topic and some have skillfully written how you can see some of Hooper's fingerprints all over the film so he did have an impact on how it turned out.


Point is, there is plenty of legend surrounding the movie. If you can forget all that and just focus on the ordeal the Freeling family went through, the film still works.