Originally published at www.themariontheatre.org.
Craig T Nelson
JoBeth Williams
Beatrice Straight
Directed by Tobe Hooper
"It knows what scares you. It has from the very beginning. Don't give it any help, it knows too much already."
It's 1980. Steven Spielberg is shooting Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1981) and Columbia Pictures is asking for a sequel to Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1978). He really doesn't want to make one (after watching what Universal did sequel-izing Jaws (1975)) and suggests something similar instead. He develops Night Skies. The story of hostile aliens who descend on a farm and hold a family hostage as they conduct experiments on the life forms they find. One of them, slightly slow, is berated by the other aliens for being weak and befriending the family's children. The story ends with other aliens punishing the kind alien leaving him stranded and alone on Earth knowing he'll die. Spielberg told this story to Melissa Matheson, Harrison Ford's then-girlfriend moving her to tears. The idea of being punished for being kind touched her and she asked if she could write that story. Spielberg agreed.
Melissa Matheson took the idea of the stranded alien and wrote ET - The Extra-Terrestrial (1982). Spielberg took what was left; the family threatened by the otherworldly, and developed Poltergeist.
The Freelings house is so much like every other house that if the address numbers were removed you probably couldn't find it. Unlike the house that overlooks the Bates Motel (Psycho (1960)) or The Amityville Horror (1979, 2005) we've all been in this house. Some of us live in it now. There is nothing gothic about the beige stucco or drywall interior. There are no creepy windows that form an ominous face from the outside. The scariest part of the Freeling's house is that it's my house. It lulls you into a false sense of security and you like these people. The belligerent teenage daughter, the neighbor you can't stand, the dead family pet.
Then the TV People arrive, contact little Carol Anne and suck her into limbo through a television.
There is no warning as to what's in store for this family. I always thought that if Torrences looked closely at the pictures in the lobby of the Overlook Hotel in The Shining (1980), they would have got the hell out, blizzard be damned. In The Amityville Horror the Real Estate Agent actually tells them there were five murders here a few years ago and they still buy the house. I don't care of the ghost of Gary Cooper shows up every midnight and performs selections from The Wedding Singer: The Musical, keep my deposit, I'm out.
Poltergeist is smart enough to find what scares you at your root. It knows what children are scared of: Gnarled trees, closets, weird shadows, thunderstorms and being separated from their parents. And it knows what adults are scared of: losing their children.
The best horror films always involve children and Spielberg one-ups it by not using the standard creepy kid (see The Shining, The Exorcist (1973) or any Japanese horror movie that's been remade in the last five years). He gives us Carol Anne Freeling. Cherubic and adorable. Heather O'Rourke's Carol Anne Freeling is cute without begging for it (which is often the only trick child actors have). Not to cheapen his skills, there has never been a better director of children than Steven Spielberg. ET - The Extra-Terrestrial, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Doom (1984), Jurassic Park (1993), Empire Of The Sun (1987) and AI Artificial Intelligence (2001). The performances he gets from children are never contrived or forced. When they tell you to avoid working with children and animals Spielberg does it and makes it something to add to a resume.
I hate funny horror movies. I call them comedies. Real horror movies don't make jokes or set up gags. Real horror movies try to scare me. There is humor in Poltergeist but not at the expense of the horror. A lot of horror movies make the mistake of not taking themselves seriously or going so far over the top you have to laugh at them. There is a scene where the Craig T Nelson shows Carol Anne's room to the paranormal investigators and we chuckle before he opens the door but because of how calm they are and although we don't know what's on the other side of the door, we know they aren’t prepared for it. When the door opens, Beatrice Straight's reaction isn't played for laughs. She doesn't flee, arms flailing. She's horrified. This follows to the next scene where she can barely hold her hands level. She truly looks horrified and if we are laughing it's because inside we're thinking, "We told you so."
Let me rewind to my favorite scene in all of Poltergeist. It's a key scene and it's easy to forget because it isn't flashy and the only effect in it is Craig T Nelson's acting. It's the scene where he goes to get help. He's taken his son and daughter elsewhere and left his wife alone in the house with what we'll soon be referring to as "The Beast." He's a man at his edge. He tells his story, his face obstructed and when the camera pans to his expression and you see this worn, beaten, exhausted man, my heart sinks a little. You usually don't get that kind of emotion in a horror film because most horror films are about self-preservation. Spielberg knows effects aren't scary if there isn't purpose and emotion behind them.
Okay, I've said Spielberg's name about a hundred times now and those paying attention are thinking, "who's this Tobe Hooper who's name is listed as director?" Tobe Hooper is the guy listed as Director on the credits if you're one to believe credits. In the early eighties Steven Spielberg became a brand. His name was slapped on everything he produced knowing people would associate it with the films he directed. Poltergeist was one of the first of these films released under 'Steven Spielberg Presents' banner. Tobe Hooper was hired to direct. Hooper came to fame directing The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and if you watch that film and anything else he's directed you'll see very little in common with Poltergeist. Watch a handful of Spielberg films (pick whichever you like) and the only way it'd be more obvious he directed Poltergeist is if they put his name on it. I've seen several documentaries on the making of Poltergeist and laugh every time they cut to Spielberg with his 'Producer' caption as he's standing on the set with a megaphone and giving actors, what do they call that, direction. If you watch the film you see those Spielberg trademarks. The subtle humor (stacking chairs), the moments of awe (tennis balls from the ceiling) and Godlight (any time Spielberg can have shafts of light penetrating a frame, he will).
Forget they made two more of these films, each complicating a twist that was remarkably simple the first time around. Forget the baggage of The Poltergeist Curse that apparently has followed the movie and a forgettable TV series that had nothing to do with the film. Forget that Hillary Duff has been threatening me with her as an adult Carol Anne in Poltergeist IV for the past few years. Just remember when this was just a good old-fashioned haunted house movie.
Except it was my house.
FIVE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT POLTERGEIST
- Dominique Dunne (Dana Freeling) was strangled by her boyfriend. She died several days later on November 22, 1982. She was 22. Poltergeist was her only theatrical film.
- Heather O'Rourke (Carol Anne Freeling) died February 1, 1988 at age 12. It's been an urban legend she died from pneumonia from the refrigerated sets used for Poltergeist III (1988). She actual died from complications of Crohn's Disease.
- Beatrice Straight (who plays paranormal investigator Dr Lesh) has a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for Network (1976). She is in the film for five minutes and forty seconds.
- Despite being a horror film, no one ever dies.
- The line "They're here" is #69 on the American Film Institute's 100 Years, 100 Quotes. It's also the tagline for the film.
