OVP: Poltergeist (1982)

Film: Poltergeist (1982)

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

Director: Tobe Hooper

Oscar History: 3 nominations (Best Original Score, Sound Effects Editing, & Visual Effects)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

All October long, The Many Rantings of John is running a marathon dedicated to the Horror classics of the 1960's-90's that I'm seeing for the first time this month.  If you want to take a look at past titles from previous horror marathons (both this and other seasons) check out the links at the bottom of this article.

I didn't realize this until I just started writing this article, but we have already visited director Tobe Hooper this month, with the 1974 slasher film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, the movie (spoiler alert) I liked the least of the 15 films we are profiling.  In proof of how the decade started to see horror as a genuinely profitable, even mainstream, way to make money again after the 1950's & 60's had relegated this genre to largely B-film or independent status, by 1982 Hooper went from working on a shoestring, no-name budget to working on a major Hollywood film.  Poltergeist was made by MGM, had a proper $10 million budget, and was produced by Steven Spielberg, who in 1982 was already one of the biggest names in movies, and indeed was making one of the biggest films of all-time that year in ET: The Extra-Terrestrial.  Poltergeist paid off-it was a huge hit (albeit, not as big as ET) and the two share some similarities in the way that they look at the suburban dream, with the outsider force in ET being a sweet, benevolent alien...while in Poltergeist, it's something far more sinister.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is about the Freeling family, who live in a cookie cutter neighborhood where husband Steve (Nelson) is a real estate developer while wife Diane (Williams) raises their three children, the youngest of which is five-year-old Carol Anne (O'Rourke).  Carol Anne converses with the television late at night when programming is done & it's just static (this used to be a thing for younger people out there that are unaware, where they would play the national anthem at the end of the day & then the feed on the major networks would all cut out).  After a giant earthquake, Carol Anne proclaims "they're here" (the film's most iconic line), and suddenly ghost-like phenomena starts to happen all throughout the house, with the tree coming alive and furniture moving on its own.  Eventually it becomes too much when the TV sucks Carol Anne into it, and so they hire parapsychologist Martha Lesh (Straight), who then brings on Tangina Barrons (Rubinstein), a spiritual medium, both of whom try, eventually somewhat successfully to get Carol Anne back (success) and rid the house of "the Beast" (unsuccessful).  In a final showdown, they realize that the housing complex was built on the graves of an ancient Indian burial ground, and this is the ghosts coming back for revenge.  The house implodes in the end, and the family is forced in the final scenes to flee to a Holiday Inn, where Steve comically removes the TV from their room as a last second sight gag to end the picture.

Poltergeist is a superb indictment of the Reagan Era.  While in ET, the government is trying to destroy a sweet, lovable alien, in Poltergeist, it is more conspicuous consumption that is tearing apart a stereotypical American family.  The Freelings are living the American dream-wealthy, suburban, sprawling house...they are the "typical white upper-middle class family" that the Reagan Era preached toward as the "ideal."  But lurking literally underneath this facade is the people who sacrificed to build this world, and they are ignoring their sacrifice, as well as the sacrifices of the people that these wealthy people squeezed for profit to get to where they are.  It's a great script, and honestly a really excellent movie-one of my favorites we got to this month.

Part of that is the women in the film.  Rubinstein is the most famous character in this film (give or take O'Rourke's young Carol Anne), with her characterization of Tangina initially meant to feel like comic relief, and then played totally straight, to perfect effect.  Rubinstein would have a surprisingly long history in horror films after this, never getting a lot of mainstream success after Poltergeist, but when you think of an actor in this movie, you think of her.  However, everyone's solid here.  JoBeth Williams is fabulous as a mother trying to understand what's happening to her family, but is also oddly excited to be a part of the solution rather than just the "window dressing wife" (think of the glee she gets when she starts to understand the paranormal activity in the house before anyone else-it's solid underscoring of her character's boredom).  Williams is an Oscar nominee (for Best Live Action Short), but despite being a regular player in film & TV in the 1980's, is virtually forgotten as an actress today & so it's fun to see what she was capable of in her prime.  Rounding out the solid cast is Oscar Winner Beatrice Straight, who I think plays her character as a con-woman who is slightly over-her-head, but excited on some level to have the chance to see if she can actually handle these spirits after basically pretending to for her career.

The film received three Oscar nominations, all of which it lost to ET.  The best of the bunch might be the Sound Editing, with the film's soundscape within the TV world, and the "cleaning" of the house late in the film being a cacophony of static & whirling that allows you to still hear the actors' dialogue without abandoning the overwhelming noise.  The visual effects are also impressive, including the "how did they do that?" scene with floating items all around one of the bedrooms, and the early use of computer-generated images that this film employed.  The score I was less thrilled with, to be honest.  It's not that Jerry Goldsmith's music it's bad (it's not, it's Jerry Goldsmith, come on now), but it's too much.  It overpowers the movie, especially the first half of the film & kind of feels like it's overcompensating to bring you into this world.  It's not like you don't remember it (it's iconic), but it has a Philip Glass effect where it becomes the only thing you notice.

Past Horror Month Reviews (Listed Chronologically): The Golem, The Phantom of the Opera, Dracula, Frankenstein, Freaks, The Mummy, The Old Dark House, The Invisible Man, The Black Cat, The Bride of Frankenstein, Mad Love, The Raven, Werewolf of London, Dracula's Daughter, Son of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man Returns, The Mummy's Hand, The Invisible Woman, The Wolf Man, Cat People, The Ghost of Frankenstein, Invisible Agent, The Mummy's Curse, The Mummy's Tomb, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, Phantom of the Opera, Son of Dracula, The House of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man's Revenge, The Mummy's Ghost, The Uninvited, House of Dracula, She-Wolf of London, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man, It Came from Outer Space, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy, Revenge of the Creature, The Creature Walks Among Us, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Attack of the 50-Foot Woman, The Blob, Village of the Damned, The Innocents, The Masque of the Red Death, Night of the Living Dead, The Wicker Man, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Carrie, Dawn of the Dead, Halloween, The Amityville Horror, When a Stranger Calls, Friday the 13th, The Evil Dead