Poltergeist (1982) MGM/Horror RT: 114 minutes Rated PG (language, violent and frightening images, scenes of intense terror, drug use, children in peril) Director: Tobe Hooper Screenplay: Steven Spielberg, Michael Grais and Mark Victor Music: Jerry Goldsmith Cinematography: Matthew F. Leonetti Release date: June 4, 1982 (US) Cast: JoBeth Williams, Craig T. Nelson, Dominique Dunne, Oliver Robbins, Heather O’Rourke, Beatrice Straight, Richard Lawson, Martin Casella, Zelda Rubinstein, James Karen. Box Office: $76.6M (US)
Rating: ****
Poltergeist is one of the scariest, scream-out-loud horror movies of the 80s, no question about it! It’s a wild roller coaster ride of terror and thrills as a typical suburban family, the Freelings, find themselves facing supernatural forces in their own home. It’s a simple premise, but it’s handled intelligently and stylishly.
Steve (Nelson, Action Jackson) and Diane (Williams, The Big Chill) live a quiet life in a California suburb called Cuesta Verde, one of those planned suburban communities where the children ride their bikes up and down the street and the men gather to watch football on Sunday afternoon. The Freelings have three children: sarcastic teenage daughter Dana (Dunne), 8YO Robbie (Robbins) who’s afraid of the gnarly tree right outside his bedroom window, and 5YO Carol Anne (O’Rourke, Happy Days).
One night, Steve falls asleep in the living room with the TV on. Following the station sign-off (remember those, when the TV station would cease programming around midnight, play the National Anthem and only static or “snow” would transmit until programming resumed around 6am?), Carol Anne wakes up, goes downstairs and starts talking to “the TV people”. Naturally, she’s the only one who can hear them.
After that, strange things start to happen around the house. Furniture moves around by itself, silverware gets twisted out of shape and the family dog, E. Buzz, starts behaving strangely. Diane finds this exciting while Steve doesn’t quite know how to react. He’s somewhat skeptical and is sure there’s some sort of rational explanation. The next night, a huge storm hits the neighborhood. The gnarled, old tree comes to life and snatches Robbie. While his parents are outside trying to rescue him, the closet door opens (of its own accord) and a light emanates from it. Carol Anne is sucked into the closet and disappears. Her freaked-out family can only hear her voice through the TV.
Steve calls in a group of parapsychologists from UC Irvine (University of California, Irvine) to investigate the strange occurrences. Headed by Dr. Lesh (Straight, Network), the team concludes they’re experiencing a poltergeist intrusion. For those who don’t know, poltergeist is a German word, “geist” meaning ghost and “polter” meaning noisy, so a poltergeist is a noisy ghost or spirit. It seems to be focused on Carol Anne and is keeping her on “the other side” for some unknown reason. Determined it’s not a hoax, Lesh calls in spiritual medium Tangina (Rubinstein, Anguish) to help find Carol Anne and bring her back home.
Poltergeist is a brilliant horror movie on many levels. It succeeds mainly because there’s an intelligent explanation for the spiritual phenomena. The makers wisely resist dumbing down the story. Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) is credited as the director, but I have a sneaky suspicion that co-writer Steven Spielberg had a big hand in directing this movie. It contains several of his trademark flourishes, like the suburban setting and a child being the central character. There’s also a haunting score by Jerry Goldsmith. The music that plays over the closing credits sends a chill up and down the spine. The special effects are amazing. There’s one scene where one of the parapsychologists tears his own face off, dropping bloody chunks into the bathroom sink. I’m surprised that this movie got a PG rating; it’s so much more intense than most R-rated horror flicks.
The performances are first-rate all around. Nelson and Williams do a great job as the young-ish parents who don’t think twice about sharing a marijuana joint in their bedroom after the kids have gone to bed. O’ Rourke is astonishing as young Carol Anne who puts the audience ill at ease with two simple words: “They’re here!” Rubinstein does a great job as the eccentric (and somewhat egotistical) medium who helps the Freelings with their supernatural ordeal.
Poltergeist makes it easy to believe ghosts do exist and not all of them are malevolent. Dr. Lesh explains it best when she compares spirits to kids at school, some of them are nice and some of them are mean. What is the explanation for the spiritual disturbances in the house? All I’ll say is that it may or may not have something to do with an old cemetery located near the Cuesta Verde development. What evil thing is keeping Carol Anne restrained in the other dimension? It’s some sort of evil beast that knows what scares people, but it’s never made any clearer than that. That’s one of the many wonderful attributes of Poltergeist. There are certain things that can’t be explained. The supernatural world is a mysterious one and nobody really knows anything for sure. The movie is willing to admit this fact and leave that aspect of the story with only a vague answer.
That being said, the finale of Poltergeist is really something else. I am not going to ruin it for you (just in case you’ve never seen it), but it’s one of the coolest and scariest sequences I’ve ever seen in a horror movie. Ultimately, that’s the most important thing about Poltergeist. It is a genuinely scary and unsettling film that doesn’t make the mistake of confusing mass murder with true horror. This is the real deal, my friends, and it’s still pretty damn frightening after all these years.
I wrote these following words in 2011: “I really hope nobody tries to remake this movie; it would be a grievous error. They already made two terrible sequels to this movie, why add insult to injury?” It looks like nobody listened to me. There is a remake. It came out in 2015 and while it’s not awful, there’s nothing to recommend about it.
