Poltergeist **** (1982, JoBeth Williams, Craig T Nelson, Heather O’Rourke, Zelda Rubinstein) – Classic Movie Review 2469

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre director Tobe Hooper’s spirited, extremely intense 1982 horror movie Poltergeist is the first and best of the three original Eighties Poltergeist ghost stories. It is co-written and co-produced by Steven Spielberg, who seems to share authorship of the movie.

Co-producer Frank Marshall said: ‘The creative force of the movie was Steven. Tobe was the director and was on the set every day. But Steven did the design for every storyboard and he was on the set every day except for three days when he was in Hawaii with George Lucas.’ An understandably hurt Hooper claims he ‘did fully half of the storyboards’.

The story is all about TV-haunting unfriendly spirits that invade the new California suburban house of a nice young middle-class couple Diane and Steve Freeling (JoBeth Williams, Craig T Nelson). At first the ghosts just move objects around the house to the family’s amusement but then they turn malevolent and start to terrorise the family, especially the younger daughter, five-year-old Carol Anne (Heather O’Rourke). Poltergeist then features O’Rourke’s famous ‘They’re here!’ scene and soon after they spirit her away.

A group of para-psychologists from UC Irvine — Dr Lesh, Ryan and Marty — come to the Freeling house to investigate and determine that the Freelings are experiencing a poltergeist intrusion. The desperate couple call in a medium called Tangina Barrons (wonderful little Zelda Rubinstein) to rid the house of the Poltergeist and bring back their daughter from the beyond.

Poltergeist is a great haunted house movie, both scary and funny, with a quick- moving, credible screenplay, amusing performances and dazzling special effects for its era. Hooper directs a long movie as fast paced as a demon.

Also in the cast are Beatrice Straight as Dr Lesh, Dominique Dunne as Dana Freeling, Oliver Robins as Robbie Freeling, Martin Casella as Marty, Richard Lawson as Ryan, James Karen and Michael McManus.

The running time is 114 minutes with original cut at 120 minutes.

E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial and Poltergeist were released a week apart in June 1982. Spielberg’s contract prevented him from directing any other film while preparing ET. Suggestions that Spielberg had directorial influence are aided by his comments: ‘Tobe isn’t a take-charge sort of guy. If a question was asked and an answer wasn’t immediately forthcoming, I’d jump in and say what we could do. Tobe would nod agreement, and that become the process of collaboration.’ He later wrote an open letter to Hooper: ‘ I enjoyed your openness in allowing me a wide berth for creative involvement.’

Poltergeist II and Poltergeist III followed in 1986 and 1988. O’Rourke and Rubinstein are in all three movies. It was remade as Poltergeist in 2015 with Sam Rockwell, Jared Harris and Rosemarie DeWitt.

O’Rourke was discovered at the age of five by Spielberg while eating lunch with her mother at the MGM commissary. She died at the age of 12 of cardiac arrest and septic shock on 1 February 1988. The Poltergeist franchise is believed by some to be cursed due to the premature deaths of several people associated with the film.

RIP Tobe Hooper, who died on 26 August 2017, aged 74. His film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) is a horror movie classic and he went on to make The Texas Chain Saw Massacre 2, Salem’s Lot, Lifeforce (1985) and The Funhouse (1981), Spontaneous Combustion and Toolbox Murders.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2469

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