Saturday, October 1, 2016

31 Days of Horror: Poltergeist (1982)

Directed by Tobe Hooper.
1982. Rated PG, 114 minutes.
Cast:
JoBeth Williams
Craig T. Nelson
Zelda Rubinstein
Heather O'Rourke
Dominique Dunne
Oliver Robins
Richard Lawson
Beatrice Straight

The Freelings are just a regular family of five, six if you count the dog. Steven (Nelson) is a hard working real estate agent and Diane (Williams) is a stay-at-home mom who keeps things running like a well-oiled machine. Dana (Dunne) is the attitudinal teen who doesn't really like being around her family just because. Yes, that's  a complete sentence, not a typo. Finally, we have Robbie (Robins) and Carol Anne (O'Rourke) who share a bedroom. Robbie is afraid of everything even though he's the older of the two. He is especially scared of the life-sized clown doll that sits in a chair directly at the foot of his bed and faces him and old, gnarled, massive tree right outside the window next to the same bed. Carol Anne is cute as a button and all sorts of curious. Soon enough, things start going bump in the night day. Then there's a dark and stormy night. Stuff shatters, flies about and Carol Anne winds up inside the TV set. Sort of. She's in whatever dimension exists behind the screen when the television, but nothing is actually playing. The family calls in some ghostbusters experts on the paranormal and off we go.

One of the things that strikes me as add, watching it for the first time in at least twenty-five years, is the film's tone. It not so overbearingly ominous that it screams horror flick the way most haunted house movies tend to, these days. In fact, it's rather upbeat. Tobe Hooper, who helmed darker flicks such as the original The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, directs here. However, it's long been suspected super director Steven Spielberg, who plays producer on this one, exerted a good deal of control. I'm not sure how true that is, but his influence is most clearly seen in this area. It comes across more like E.T. or Goonies than The Amityville Horror, which came out a few years earlier. This makes it as much an adventure film as it is a ghost story. Scenes that would be played for maximum scares in other films function like action set pieces in Poltergeist. This helps keep it family friendly. The kiddies might get a jolt out of some intense imagery, but most will still want to watch. Between these scenes things the ghosts are doing give our heroes a sense of wonder before eventually becoming dire. This is opposed to a film like The Conjuring where everything is instantly the worst thing that ever happened. Without that ominous tone, Poltergeist maintains a level of "clean fun" uncommon for the genre.


Another of the movie's strengths is its performances. What I did not remember, if I ever knew it at all, is that JoBeth Williams received top billing. This is rather progressive for 1982 given that male co-star Craig T. Nelson had a slightly bigger name at the time. However, it's well deserved. She plays the most present character and gives the film its heart. She is also an excellent scream queen and conduit for the audience. To his credit, Neslon is good in the clueless father role. The kids are okay as a collective. As Carol Anne, Heather O'Rourke gets to say the iconic line ("They're heeeeeerrrrear!) and delivers it perfectly, but is otherwise unremarkable and often absent except for her voice faintly emanating from the snowy television screen. The person who makes the biggest impression is nearly as small as our young damsel in distress. Zelda Rubinstein completely takes over the film from the very first moment she appears about halfway through. She plays Tangina Barrons, the big gun brought in to figure out how to rescue Carol Anne. The confidence with which she strides onto the screen is not unlike the arrival of a superhero. However, she has way more swag than any of those guys. The way she commands our attention is impressive.

There are many great things going on in this film, yet its one that may fall flat to present day audiences. The special fx have aged horribly. What once may have been frightening is now downright laughable. People new to Poltergeist might be taken out of it by visuals they could have created themselves. As evidenced by the film's Academy Award nomination for Visual Effects, this was once cutting edge material. Now, it's merely a testament to how far technology has come. That's likely to prove difficult to overlook for many, especially younger viewers. They may even tune out completely because there are lots of fx in use. If you're able to look beyond the dated visuals, Poltergeist is still a very fun experience. It's overall tone makes it difficult to classify as horror. Let's call it introductory horror for youngsters, or horror with training wheels. as it delivers more thrills than frights. In any case, it delivers.

14 comments:

  1. This is a film that proves that a good, scary PG horror movie can be made.

    It's also a part of one of the greatest months of film of my youth. In June of 1982, this film was released along with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Blade Runner, and The Thing. Hell of a dandy month in science fiction and horror.

    While there were plenty of scares in this, it was the tree crashing through the window that scared me the most. I had trees outside my bedroom window, and it rained the night I saw this. I slept in the den that night.

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    1. I always forget how close those movies are in their release dates. That's an amazing stretch.

      Lol, I can definitely imagine not wanting to sleep near a window with a tree outside of it after that.

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  2. Despite having come of age in the 80s, I never saw this one. My daughter watched it a couple of years ago and HATED it, perhaps for the reasons you discussed in the last paragraph. Great review!

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    1. My daughter actually alerted me to the potential for this when she sat down for about 10 minutes with me to watch it. She left after that while mumbling how fake it looked.

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  3. The effects may have aged but the sense of dread that it manages hasn't and that's due to the performers. I think the way to combat that with younger viewers is to warn them that it's an older film so look at what the family is going through and relate to that.

    The kids are okay, I particularly like Robbie, but JoBeth Williams and Craig T. Nelson are the heart of the story. They really seem like a couple, I like that neither is shown to be necessarily the stronger of the two but that they rely on each other and LOVE how even during the height of the action they start to bicker slightly about who disciplines the children with Tangina cutting them off with a curt "Fight about it later!" Their reactions are very simple and real and Nelson without falling completely apart progressively shows signs of the strain.

    I also think the casting of Beatrice Straight was a nice stroke. She's a good actress and plays her part well but with her bright red hair and liquid blue eyes she's almost another effect and her reactions are more notable because of her distinctive appearance.

    Lastly I ADORE Zelda Rubinstein!! Talk about walking in and stealing a movie outright. Her size makes her stand out of course but it's her line readings and reactions that matter. She's just marvelous and thinking back on the film she seems to be in it more than she is.

    I watched it again recently and one of the things I liked about it the most was that I didn't feel as if I was watching a video game which is what most CGI movies have devolved to now. This has its scares but the human element is the focus. For me that's a vital piece of a film and why I don't care for much horror since they do so little to make me buy into the people that are in them...most of the time they're just another hunk of hamburger to be disposed of in a way that tries to make you sick.

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    1. That's a very fair point. I usually give such warnings to my daughters when they watch these movies with me. In this case neither started it with me. My youngest wandered in about halfway through, saw some dodgy looking effects, laughed and left. Therefore, she didn't really have a chance to become invested in the family.

      Williams and Nelson are definitely the heart of the story. No question about that. They really do seem like a couple.

      This is certainly a vital piece of film. It's still the gold standard of haunted house flicks for me.

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  4. I've actually never seen this one Dell, as you know I don't watch too many horror flicks. But that image is so iconic that I immediately recognize what film it's from. I even noticed it in Netflix's Stranger Things with all its 80s homages.

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    1. This one is fairly light in the horror department, but still very effective.

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  5. You're right about the special effects not aging well, but it's undeniably a classic. Anyone who argues it's value is silly. I just watched Creature from the Black Lagoon last night, and although that movie is severely dated, I can still appreciate it's value.

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    1. Definitely a classic. Glad to hear you can still appreciate these movies for what they were and what they mean to cinematic history.

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  6. This film is pretty much one of the finest horror films I had ever seen though it's been a fucking long time since I've seen it in its entirety.

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    1. Lol. When I watched it, it had been about 20 years since the last time I watched the whole thing.

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  7. I feel bad, but I actually kind of hated this movie. I liked the sequel where the kid's braces eat him better. I've never been able to quite put my finger on why this one bothered me so much. As a kid, the clown freaked me out, but when I watched it as an adult again I just kind of "meh'd" over it.

    It does make me a bit sad in retrospect to know that Heather O'Rourke and Dominique Dunne both died so young.

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  8. This film has definitely dated itself a bit over the years, but it's still a rather classic thriller. Good review, buddy.

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