Poltergeist (1982) Review

“They’re here”

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

Normalcy ain’t guaranteed to stay intact when life gets going. If you don’t think so, look at Poltergeist.


PLOT


The 1982 film follows the Freeling family who live in the planned community of Cuesta Verde. The family includes: Patriarch Steve who is a real estate agent, his wife Diane who looks after their three children, 16 year old Dana, 8 year old Robbie, and 5 year old Carol Anne. Settling in would go out because one night, the latter would be seen inexplicably talking to something in the television static. When she does it again the following night, a ghost emerges from the screen that would be followed by an earthquake. When the family wakes up from it, the child replies something is here. A phenomena officially occurs by morning due to furniture moving around, silverware getting bent and a glass cup getting spontaneously broken. Things would officially sinister by the next night because by then, a thunderstorm occurs and when a backyard tree attacks Robbie, Carol Anne gets pulled into a portal from her closet. After Robbie gets saved by the rest of his family, they hear Carol Anne's voice in the same tv. This leads to Steve reaching out to parapsychologist Martha Lesh to investigate alongside her partners Marty & Ryan (Martin Casella & Richard Lawson). They see firsthand that this is an intrusion of multiple ghosts responsible. As Robbie & Dana get sent away for their safety, Steve finds out from his boss Lewis Teague that the neighborhood, including their home, was built on a former cemetery that was relocated to a nearby location. Lesh then contacts a spiritual medium named Tangina Barons, who senses that all the spirits are attracted to Carol Anne's life force because they're not at rest and beastly one is trying to restrain & manipulate her life force,w which'll prevent the other spirits from crossing over. As they deduce the exit for the other dimension to come from the living room ceiling, while the entrance is at the kids' bedroom closet, Diane secures a rope and enters the portal to save her daughter. When falling through the exit, her daughter is deemed unharmed despite being covered in ectoplasm and Tangina senses the house to be clean. Once Robbie & Dana return home, the family plans to move out for their own good. Leaving doesn't go smooth either because the Beast spirit makes one last simultaneous attack towards the Freelings for the last night. When trying to kidnap Robbie & Carol Anne, Diane gets driven to the backyard and is swarm by skeletons floating up the swimming pool excavation. As she gets out to save her kids, Steve returns home to realize only the gravestones were moved and the house was right above graves Teague abandoned. Once collecting their kids, the family drives away as the house implodes in front of the neighborhood that leaves everyone in shock. The film ends with the Freelings checking into a hotel, but Steve cautiously removes the tv for the night.


THOUGHTS


Steven Spielberg knew he had a spooky story to share and it’s so big of a coincidence he’d write one around the same time he released his masterpiece, ET. With the assist of cowriters Michael Grais & Mark Victor and Director Tobe Hooper, it all turned out as shockingly great you’d expect. This is the kinda story where you’re gonna be feeling trembled because the concept of ghosts has been so captivating of a subject, you could believe them to be real. Poltergeist is the With an eery Jerry Goldsmith score and bombastic cinematography by Matthew F Leonetti, you’re in for something so crazy of an experience. Part of it really goes to the setting of a suburb because that is always looked at as the safest place to live until this came out. Simple visual effects of a ghost reaching out is impressive, but the main practical stuff is where this movie shines best. When seeing the physique of the Beast’s head, the mask used for the face tear hallucination on Marty, the knobs used to move the tree around, and the gall to use real skeletons that actually smelled for the climax is authentic filmmaking you gotta expect and appreciate from the 80s. Hell, even the toy clown is nightmare fuel because you don’t think it’s gonna make a move until it’s too late. Putting aside these details, I think this movie is up there as one of the best haunted stories because depicts accurate paranoia of what happens when ignoring deep problems and the gift of confronting it. This is the whole deal that the Freeling go through whether they like it or not and if they continue to have tv in their lives, they’ll remember what made them strong enough to move forward. If you ask me, the biggest victim is gonna be Carol Anne and the young Heather O’Rourke sold all the innocence we saw from her. From the first second we see her talking to the tv, paranoia already kicks in because you just want to assume she’s getting too imaginative instead of talking to ghosts. Her voice is so soft, all you can do is pray for her safety and it’s a miracle she wasn’t harmed. If I’m gonna gonna go from youngest age order, I can definitely say Robbie is behind her in terms of trauma because Oliver Robbins made him ideally upbeat until his suspicions kicked in over the toy clown and after surviving the tree, he proved to be protective of a brother since he was more concerned of his sister. As for Dana, Dominique Dunne portrayed her as the most rebellious wince she acted in denial of the terror that was going on. She chose to think it was all a dream by being away. Sadly, that wasn’t really enough to deal with it. At the time though, it did make sense for her to be away because there wasn’t really anything for her and Robbie to do, and it’d be too dangerous to risk getting their sister back. Enter JoBeth Williams who owned it in making a devoted mother out of Diane since she wasn’t hesitating in looking into the problem before it all blew up. Yet despite all the fear she was coping with, she used whatever knowledge came her way to take action like any parent would. At the same time, Craig T Nelson made a great dad out of Steve because he puts in an effort to be focused as well after spending so long as a workaholic prior. He knew his priorities and stood by his family until the problem was solved. He also was brave to admit his boss fucked up in basically desecrating the cemetery by not moving the coffins when he. respectfully should’ve. Had James Karen made an excusable reason for Teague to do what he did, he would’ve not been looked at as a villain similarly to Mayor Vaughn from Jaws. What makes this whole ordeal somewhat of a sweet relief is that they had all the help they can get to be whole again. I always look back moved when seeing Lesh onscreen because Beatrice Straight is able to be this first batch of content in the complication because she’s studied enough to know most of the ghosts don’t intend to be irate, they just want to go where they’re meant to be. Transition this to Zelda Rubinstein who makes Tangina more than a Deus ex machina, she is otherworldly wise because she senses everything around her and knows exactly how to solve the problem before any mistake can happen. Had she not been reached out, there’s no telling if Carol Anne would still have any chance to come home. With her being big help the first time around, it makes sense for her to continue doing so in the sequels. Thanks to her, the family is still able to have moments of peace before anything can worse and those are the friends to forever be grateful for. This movie holds well on its own, but there are still a few things that don’t make much sense upon re-watching. For starters, how does one ultrasonic remote work for two different houses? If Steve can afford the house he’s living in, he should’ve avoided living with a neighbor that has that kind of remote. And was there really a point for the pet bird to be buried in the backyard if construction was gonna be in the way the following day. It’s even weird how Steve doesn’t close the drapes when Robbie sleeps in his bed, which is messed up since the tree outside is what was scaring him. And why do the ghosts focus on haunting Carol Anne’s room after taking her? They were haunting the kitchen before, so I don’t see a reason for them to stop since they later attack Diane in the climax. It’s even weird Leah assumed Carol Anne was playing when she got taken because it feels like Steve or Diane should’ve told her she was taken while they were trying to save Robbie from the tree. If I gotta get into continuity errors, I’d gotta point out how there are different disinfectant spray bottles during Marty’s hallucination scene, 409 and Fantastik. The same can be said on how fast the dog E Buzz goes from the backseat to the front between takes as Robbie says goodbye. Hell, even the coffee mug and flask get swapped during a kitchen conversation between Leah & Diane. Then I ask, how come Steve’s house is the only one to be haunted if it’s part of an old burial ground? The cemetery didn’t look that small as shown. Also, Robbie could’ve tried again throwing a jacket to  cover the toy clown even if he didn’t know it was gonna work. Lastly, no matter how funny it was, Steve didn’t have to move the motel tv outside when it definitely wasn’t the problem. Other than that, Poltergeist is a timeless horror film for knowing exactly how to scare generations of families all at once. If you are looking to be spooked and impressed, see this now.