#84: POLTERGEIST (1982)

 

THRILL SCALE 1-10

8.5

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yep, a couple of times

BEST SEQUENCE

Going into this, I thought my answer would be the scene involving the bathroom mirror. And that part is still gory and gruesome in a very fun way, but the special effects were a lot less convincing than I remembered. Instead, I'm going with the earlier, more restrained scene in which the chairs at the kitchen table are suddenly paranormally rearranged. It's a simple effect, but it actually gave me a little bit of a shiver

BEST LINE

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

86%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"Smartly filmed, tightly scripted, and -- most importantly -- consistently frightening, Poltergeist is a modern horror classic."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"A family's home is haunted by a host of demonic ghosts."

THOUGHTS

• So! Right off the bat, Poltergeist is a bit of a milestone on this list, as it's the first appearance of Steven Spielberg. A filmmaker like Spielberg doesn't need much of an introduction, but he's the second-most represented director on this list (behind only Alfred Hitchcock) and he's responsible for some of my favourite movies of all time. Now, officially speaking, Spielberg only wrote and produced Poltergeist and Tobe Hooper directed it. And hey, even if that was all Spielberg did to make Poltergeist come to life, that's still pretty impressive! But ever since this movie came out, there have been rumours that Spielberg pretty much did the bulk of the actual directing but he couldn't be credited as the director because his other huge hit from 1982, E.T. (also coming up on this list eventually), was released a week after Poltergeist and there was a clause in Spielberg's contract preventing him from directing another movie while working on E.T. Tobe Hooper himself was a great horror director, including the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and both Hooper and Spielberg have said the rumours were false and Tobe Hooper really was the main director, but accounts from other people on set contradict this. Regardless of what the truth was, though, I think we can certainly consider this a Spielberg movie through and through
• And even if this isn't my favourite Spielberg movie, I still like it a lot! As horror movies go, this one is a lot of fun. Iconic scenes, impactful practical effects, and lasting visuals. In particular there are the bathroom mirror scene and the chair scene I mentioned above, but I also like the enormous head coming out of the closet, and any scene with that goddamn clown doll. Like seriously, what parent in their right mind would buy a clown doll that looks like that?!

• And speaking of whom, I really like Craig T. Nelson and JoBeth Williams as the parents. They're cute together and with the kids, and they're also both kinda sexy in an '80s suburbia kind of way
• There are a lot of really funny lines and visual gags which, fortunately, don't undercut the effectiveness of the scares. For example: one character, an expert on supernatural activity, says, "Well, Mrs. Freeling... the determination as to whether your home is haunted is not very easy." And immediately, with perfect comic timing, a coffee pot slides across the table, unaided by human hands. You wacky ghosts!
• The score is great. I kept thinking it must be a John Williams joint, largely because of his connection to Spielberg, but nope, it's Jerry Goldsmith. Nice work, Jerry!
• I loved the fake-out ending. Hugely effective in convincing us we've got a happy ending, only for us to realize things aren't over yet!
• Finally, I feel like I would be remiss if I didn't mention the fact that this film was rumoured to be cursed. However, I also don't want to sound too glib, because part of that comes from the untimely deaths of two of the young actors in real life. I don't want to conflate real-life tragedies with silly superstitions, so let's not spend too much time on that, but I will mention that the skeletons seen at the climax of the movie, which look very much like props, were actually real, human skeletal remains
• Oh, and one last thing. I recognized this guy! That's Dirk Blocker! He shows up briefly at the beginning of the movie, and these days you may know him better as Detective Hitchcock from Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Up Next: The Phantom of the Opera, the silent film from 1925