Poltergeist (1982)

Tagline: “They’re here!”
UK Running Time: 114 minutes

Film Quality: 4/5
Gore Content: 2/5
Entertainment Value: 5/5
Originality: 4/5

Introduction

Written and produced by Steven Spielberg, he handed directorial reigns over to Tobe ‘Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ Hooper for what was envisaged as a supernatural horror film for teenagers. What emerged was a tremendously entertaining fright flick and one of the greatest debates about ownership of a movie in film history, one that Hooper never really recovered from. Released a week after ‘E.T.’ it can almost be seen as a companion piece to Spielberg’s classic, the flip side of the same coin.

In a nutshell

The Freelings are experiencing strange goings on in their idyllic suburban home but things take a dark turn when their daughter disappears during a storm, apparently to another dimension. Can they discover what has happened to their daughter and get her back before the dark forces that have taken her grow too strong?

So what’s good about it?

Setting the story in a cheery, modern suburb within a good, stable family home provides the film with an unusual grounding in the genre. This is no creaky abandoned house, there are no dark secrets within the family and no murderous past to haunt the local schoolkids. This is an everyman family who happen to find themselves the centre of unusual supernatural occurrences. Spielberg has historically chosen broken families as the centre of his movies so it’s an unusual quirk that for his only straight up horror movie he chooses a solid, virtuous family to terrorise and break apart.

The acting is excellent, particularly Craig T. Nelson as the initially sceptical Dad who is forced to confront his own doubts about the supernatural to get his daughter back. Jobeth Williams as well is wonderful in her role as the protective mother who is willing to try anything to get her daughter back whilst doing her best to protect her other two children, the underused Dominique Dunne (who was tragically murdered by her boyfriend just months after the film was released) and the adorably innocent Oliver Robbins as Robbie who is as intrigued by the whole thing as he is frightened. But it’s the wonderfully named Zelda Rubinstein who steals the show as Tangina (left) with some brilliant dialogued, wittily delivered in a highly theatrical style that surely pokes fun at the over the top, stylised nature of many medium’s actions.

The effects are suitably fantastic and, at times, nightmarish. The ghost that we see coming down the stairs midway through the film (right) is beautifully rendered and shows that not all ghosts can evoke feelings of dread but can also take your breath away with wonder. Compare that with the gory scene where one of the parapsychologists rips off his own face and you see the, at times, conflicting elements of the film that surely came about as the result of the supposed on-set confusion which I’ll deal with later. It also has some utterly nightmarish concepts, not least the clown doll.

We all remember a toy that used to scare us at night…mine was a money box shaped like a crow and I distinctly remember calling my Dad in the middle of the night once and asking him to move it out of sight. It’s moments like that that make this film a relatable to most of us, an aspect missing from other horror films and it’s peppered throughout the film. Whether it’s the overwhelming urge to protect your kids, the fear of thunderstorms, projecting our fears onto inanimate objects (in this case an old tree) or that nightmarish reverse zoom as Diane tries to run down a corridor without seeming to get anywhere, it’s all relatable.

But for me this works as a terrific ‘my first horror movie’ without selling itself as a spoof, comedy, parody or completely without frightful thrills. There’s enough tension and scares for the adults without overdoing it for the kids and, though it’s certainly not for younger kids, I remember seeing it as a 12 year old and loving the thrill of experiencing some non-threatening scares without feeling like I was watching a children’s film. As an introduction to horror films you could do a lot worse than start your kids off with this one!

And what about the bad?

There has been a lot of ugly talk about who directed this and it leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Steven Spielberg wrote and produced it but part of the contract for directing ‘E.T.’ was that he was forbidden from directing another film whilst that movie was still in production. Keen to get the movie out he brought in Tobe Hooper as a director for hire due to his incredible work making ‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’. What followed can be likened to a big brother letting his little brother play with his favourite toy but telling him exactly what game to play and eventuallytaking the toy back from him and playing with it himself.

It looks like a Spielberg film, feels like a Spielberg film and some of the stark contrast in tone of the scenes do suggest two directors at work. We have the beauty of the stairway ghost, wonder of the old watches falling from the ceiling and the childhood fear of scary toys coming to life contrasted with the ugly face ripping (left), corpses being flung at the family and one of the kids being almost eaten alive by a giant tree.

The actors seem divided about who directed the film with some saying Spielberg was the controlling influence and others saying Hooper called the shots when he was on set but one thing’s for sure and that is that Spielberg’s creative involvement was above and beyond the role of producer. The production was investigated by The Directors’ Guild of America and Spielberg felt compelled to write a public letter of apology to Hooper over the rumours that he didn’t direct the film. Hooper didn’t direct another film for three years, returning with the ridiculously entertaining ‘Lifeforce’ whilst Spielberg went on to bigger and better films as we all know. A very ugly footnote to what I’ve always regarded as a part of the development of my love for horror films.

Any themes?

I genuinely find it interesting that the film is set in an idyllic, sleepy suburb and Spielberg has a history of setting his stories in such areas and showing that what’s on the outside doesn’t reflect what’s going on in the inside. Here we’re presented with a seemingly perfect family but what’s going on behind closed doors, presumably without the knowledge of any of their neighbours, is truly nightmarish. In fact there is a brief scene where the neighbours do come out and they simply don’t want to know. Turning a blind eye. The only time we see the neighbours round is for a bit of self-indulgent fun in front of the football game, when they really need help they bury their heads in the sand.

He also takes a swipe at American history and the fact that today’s society is built on the death and destruction of others. Here that is done literally with the suburban housing estate that so very often represents the ideal of American living, being built on a cemetery where they only moved the tombstones and not the bodies. Just like in certain sections of American history where the dead are remembered and acknowledged but not commemorated or celebrated.

Release history

The film has never suffered censorship as a consequence of violent or offensive content, other than for early showings on TV. However there is one interesting ‘edit’. When you watch the film there is a terrible slice between the scene where Diane and Carol-Anne show Steve the poltergeist activity in the kitchen and when they go and talk to their neighbours. Apparently there were a few lines of dialogue that berated one of the major pizza outlets that resulted in a threat to sue following preview screenings. Rather than risk a lawsuit over a couple of lines of throwaway dialogue, the scene was hastily and sloppily re-edited to the one present in all current versions.

Cultural Impact

It was a reasonable hit at the time and one of the highest grossing horror films up to that point, largely down to the fact that the distributors successfully campaigned for a ‘PG’ rating after initially being rated ‘R’. It spawned two sequels and an unrelated, in name only TV series. James Wan’s incredibly creepy ‘Insidious’ initially started out as a remake of ‘Poltergeist’ and you can see the common themes of haunted child, suburban setting, parapsychologists investigation and a journey into ‘the 4th dimension’. However, they decided against that and wisely gave the film its own identity. A literal sequel was made in 2015 which, though not the disaster many made it out to be, is far from a classic in its own right!

Bizarrely it started the career of Drew Barrymore despite her not featuring in the film. She auditioned for the role of Carol-Anne but didn’t get the part as Hooper and Spielberg wanted someone a little more angelic. However Spielberg remembered her, subsequently cast her as Gertie in ‘E.T.’ and a star was born!

Final Thoughts…

Low on scares, in fact you could argue that Spielberg’s own first two Indiana Jones movies feature more moments of genuine horror, but high on fantasy and entertainment it serves as a pretty good family film were it not for a few gross out moments to please the horror crowd. I would imagine that, like me, a lot of adults of a certain age’s first experience of horror films was this one, ‘House’ or ‘Piranha’ and for that I will always love this film.

Memorable quotes

Carol-Anne: “They’re here…”

Tangina: “I am addressing the living.”

Tangina: “Go into the light, there is peace and tranquillity in the light."

Diane: "Steven...don't let go."

Tangina: “This house is clean”

You’ll like this if you enjoyed…

‘House’, ‘Insidious’, ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’