My general distaste for horror movies growing up means, yes, I hadn’t seen Poltergeist before. As I’ve frequently said, I was a jumpy kid who spooked easily, and what little I saw in various scenes from ads suggested that, nope, this movie was not for me. But, again, I’m older now and I want to fill in my blanks, so to speak.
Besides, Poltergeist was on Netflix, and that’s an easy enough way to catch up on stuff I skipped in the past.
The Freeling family have a very standard cinematic suburban existence. Real estate salesman Steve (Craig T. Nelson) sells houses in the development that includes their own home, and housewife Diane (JoBeth Williams) takes care of their three kids, Dana, Robbie, and Carol Anne (Dominique Dunne, Oliver Robbins, and Heather O’Rourke). But this is a horror movie, and weird stuff starts happening right away, mostly in the form of Carol Anne talking to someone through the TV set. From there, things escalate to bent silverwear, stacked chairs, things sliding across the kitchen floor, and then the tree outside attacks Robbie and Carol Anne disappears through a vortex in her closet. From there, Steve and Diane struggle to rescue their youngest, keep the rest of the family safe, and try to figure out what powerful spirits are messing up their house and lives.
I really liked this one, and while many suspect producer Steven Spielberg might have been the real director of this movie, the scares are good and seem more like the work of director Tobe Hooper. This may be a far cry from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t scary. Giant screaming skulls popping out of closets while vaporous hands reach through the TV aren’t the stuff of pleasant dreams. And that’s not getting into the more memorable things about the episode, namely the tree and the clown doll.
Side note on clowns: as I heard once on, I believe, a Simpsons commentary, who are clowns for? Kids are scared of them and adults don’t think they’re funny.
But there is a Spielberg element to it. While the scares are legitimate, they are also aimed at a younger audience, and the movie does have a sense of awe and wonder to it that seems more like Spielberg than any other director from that era I could possibly name. The Hooper elements probably come from the fact the paranormal investigators Steve calls in are pretty quick to realize they themselves have never seen anything like that before either. Even the formidable Zelda (Tangina Barrons) is pretty quick to admit she’s never done something like the rescue of Carol Anne before.
You know, I don’t think movies get made much like this one anymore. And no, that doesn’t mean I am going out to see any of the sequels or the 2015 remake.
Grade: A
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