POLTERGEIST (1982) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

poltergeist (1982) movie

Genre              |   Horror Thriller

Classification   |   M

Running time   |   114 minutes

Released         |   4 June 1982 

cast

JoBeth Williams ... Diane Freeling (as Jobeth Williams)
Craig T. Nelson ... Steve Freeling
Heather O'Rourke ... Carol Anne Freeling
Zelda Rubinstein ... Tangina
Beatrice Straight ... Dr. Lesh
Dominique Dunne ... Dana Freeling
​Oliver Robins ... Robbie Freeling

director

Tobe Hooper

writer

Steven Spielberg ... (screenplay) &
Michael Grais ... (screenplay) &
Mark Victor ... (screenplay)
 
Steven Spielberg ... (story)

cinematographer

Matthew F. Leonetti ... director of photography

music

​Jerry Goldsmith

film editor

Michael Kahn

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box office result

Worldwide             $​​​​​​​76,606,280

Australia                 $​​​​​ not available

North America       $​​​​​​​76,606,280

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movie minutiae

​Heather O'Rourke was chosen for the film when she was eating lunch with her mother and sister at an MGM commissary. Producer Steven Spielberg came up to them and wanted O'Rourke for the part of Carol Anne. She initially failed the screen-test because she kept laughing her way through the audition, even when she was supposed to be afraid. Spielberg thought she was too young to take the part seriously, but he still recognized something special in her, so he asked her to come back for another audition, and this time, bring a scary storybook with her. He also asked her to scream, so she screamed and screamed until she started crying. This audition got her cast as Carol Anne.

​Steven Spielberg worked on this film and E.T. THE EXTRA TERRESTRIAL (1982) literally back to back. Principal photography on Poltergeist ended in August of 1981, then Spielberg took a few weeks off and began work on E.T., while Tobe Hooper spent 10 weeks in the editing room completing his initial cut. Spielberg did supervise the visual effects for both films simultaneously (which were produced at Industrial Light & Magic under the supervision of Richard Edlund and Dennis Muren). Once post production work on Poltergeist began in early 1982, Spielberg was in total control. He was responsible for the final edit of the film (Spielberg's usual editor Michael Kahn edited this film while Carol Littleton edited E.T), the final sound mixes and loops, the supervision of the visual effects, and the selection of Jerry Goldsmith as the composer of the score. Poltergeist and E.T opened to theaters nationwide only a week between each other during the summer of 1982, Poltergeist on June 4th and E.T. one week later on June 11th. Spielberg later said "If E.T. was a whisper, Poltergeist was a scream".

​Many people believe there is a curse on the "Poltergeist" franchise, which may have been caused by the use of real skeletons on-set, e.g. several actors in the franchise have died, and this became the focus of the E! True Hollywood Story: Curse of the Poltergeist (2002).

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related movies

POLTERGEIST II:
THE OTHER SIDE
​(1986)

POLTERGEIST (1982) MOVIE IMAGES

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POLTERGEIST (1982) STORY SYNOPSIS

POLTERGEIST was, for its time, a big-budget horror film that was directed by Tobe Hooper, the film-maker who had brought the cult classic horror movie THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE to cinemas in the mid-1970s. The movie was produced by Steven Spielberg, the most successful film-maker of his generation, who was coming off the critical and box office success of RAIDERS OT THE LOST ARK.

The movie told the story of the Freeling family, whose home is over-run by malevolent ghosts that have the ability to take on supernatural forms. The Freelings worst nightmare occurs when their youngest daughter, Carol Anne, is dragged into an alternative dimension by the Beast; the main Poltergeist.

The movie was released on June 4, 1982 and made nearly $7 million in its opening weekend. It went on to make over $76 million in North America and was hugely popular overseas. However, there's more to POLTERGEIST than meets the eye...

POLTREGEIST (1982) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 4 June 2015

​​Pop Movee Rating

1982 was a wonderful year for the science fiction, fantasy and horror film genres. BLADE RUNNER, MAD MAX II: THE ROAD WARRIOR, CONAN THE BARBARIAN, STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN, ET: THE EXTRA TERRESTRIAL, THE THING, TRON, CAT PEOPLE and THE DARK CRYSTAL are all seminal movies that, in most cases, have transcended their form and become touchstones in the development of popular entertainment since their release. The most heart-felt of these movies is Steven Spielberg’s ET, the sci-fi tear-jerker about a lost alien and the boy who befriends him. It’s hard to believe that in the same year, from the same film-maker, emerged a film that is the anti-ET where malevolent supernatural forces sought to inflict far more “bad” than ET did “good”. That film is POLTERGEIST.

The film-making context from which Poltergeist emerged is not difficult to trace. The supernatural thriller had experienced a high level of critical attention and commercial success not previously enjoyed by the genre. Movies such as THE EXORCIST (1973), THE OMEN (1976) and CARRIE (1976) were mainstream studio releases featuring high-regarded actors such as Ellen Burstyn, Max Von Sydow, Gregory Peck, Lee Remick & Piper Laurie being directed by talented directors like William Friedkin, Richard Donner & Brian De Palma. During this period, Steven Spielberg had emerged as an extremely talented movie-maker capable of delivering crowd-pleasing blockbusters such as JAWS (1975) and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977). The commercial success of Spielberg’s mid-to-late 1970s films meant that, by the start of the 1980s, the cinematic wunderkind had the clout to champion any project into production. RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK's  box office success in 1981 cemented Spielberg’s stature and any feature thereafter was burdened with the weight of critical and commercial expectation. 

The genesis for the movie came from Spielberg, who had the idea for the story. Tobe Hooper, the film’s director, is also reported to have worked closely with Spielberg at the beginning of the project, but there has been doubt cast upon his level of involvement with the story. Spielberg handed screenplay duties over to the writing-producing team of Michael Grais & Mark Victor. Grais & Victor had written the Charles Bronson-Lee Marvin thriller DEARH HUNT (1981) the previous year and had spent the better part of the 1970s working on police procedural shows like KOJAK and STARSKY & HUTCH. It’s been reported that a team of ghost writers re-wrote the Grais & Victor screenplay because Spielberg was unhappy with their version. It has been reported that their version included the death of Carol Anne, a supernatural “rape” of Diane Freeling, Dana Freeling gets immersed in a bath-tub full of blood and that Ben Tuthill met a grisly end at the film’s conclusion as he is crushed to death by a car. There’s little doubt, had these scenes remained in the screenplay, the film would have had to have been released with an audience-limiting “R” rating.

The Writer’s Guild awarded Spielberg final writing credit, along with Grais & Victor, but it would seem POLTERGEIST had a number of uncredited contributors, which would account for a number of the story choices made. Another tale that refuses to die about the film’s development involved a made-for-TV movie that had been made by MGM, the studio financing and distributing POLTERGEIST. The TV movie was a supernatural thriller and, has been claimed, that many of the set-pieces from it were written into the POLTERGEIST screenplay.

To this day, the TV movie has never been screened.

The speculation about the movie’s screenplay is nothing compared to the question about who directed Poltergeist. Spielberg approached Tobe Hooper, who had released the cult horror classic THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE in 1974, to direct the film. Spielberg said that Hooper had impressed him the MASSACRE’s visceral impact. Whatever reason Spielberg had for selecting him, there’s plenty of evidence to demonstrate that Hooper was not wholly in command of the Poltergeist set. Hooper had been removed as director from two productions in the lead-up to his involvement with the film. Many of the actors and production crew have been unprepared to come right out and say that Spielberg took over the film’s direction. He had already been announced as ET’s Director and the Director’s Guild precluded someone from directing two films simultaneously.

In his defence, Hooper had never worked on a project anywhere near as big as Poltergeist. By 1982 standards, it was complex, with over 100 special visual effects and significant physical effects that had be executed on-set and captured in-camera. Frank Marshall, the film’s Producer, provided an insight into the level of Spielberg’s involvement in the film when conducting media interviews to promote its release. He let it be known that it was Spielberg – not Hooper – who had fought with American censors to get the film re-rated from R to PG.

Frank Marshall recounts...

In our first encounter with the rating board we received an “R”. Not for any specific scene, but rather for the cumulative intensity of the movie as a whole. However, Steven, who has never made an “R” movie in his life, was very passionate in his belief that Poltergeist was not an “R” movie and that it should not be off-limits to teenagers. From its very conception we had made the movie with the intention of it being a “PG” rated film. So Steven, with the backing of the studio, went back to New York and appealed the “R” rating before the Appeals Board. And we won the “PG” rating without having to cut anything. There is no graphic violence, there is no sex, there is no profanity, and these are the criteria that traditionally determine the “R” rating.

Marshall’s illumination of Spielberg’s involvement in the production process highlights the extent of his personal involvement, but it also confirms that the finished product was what he wanted to audiences to see; not Hooper’s. The fact that Spielberg was able to talk the film classification Board down to a “PG” serves to illustrate the fundamental flaw of POLTERGEIST...

It’s not a scary film.

POLTERGEIST succeeds in its attempt to capture the idea of a parent’s worst nightmare – the loss of a child. In this case, it’s an unexplained loss; making it even more acute for the parents. Regardless of who was actually directing POLTERGEIST, it’s the performances of JoBeth Williams and Craig T. Nelson, as wife & husband Diane & Steve Freeling, who share the pain, bewilderment and frustration of this loss. The Freelings are a young couple with three children who are trying to make the best of their suburban life in a new housing development; Steve is the building company’s best salesman. Their kids – Carol Anne (Heather O’Rourke), Robbie (Oliver Robbins) and Dana (Dominique Dunn) – are all nice kids, but they are all really just a means-to-an-end as far as the screenplay is concerned. Carol Anne and Robbie are both used as not much more than plot devices that allow the supernatural forces to escape from their nether-world domain and terrorise the Freeling household.

POLTERGEIST is also as random as it’s not scary. There is no apparent logic as to how these supernatural manifestations appear or how capable they are of exercising control over the living. At one point in the story, the Freelings turn to a team of paranormal investigators to help them. One of the team – Marty (Marty Casello) – experiences a hallucination where he tears through the flesh on his face with his own fingers. The scene is let-down by technical problems and poor story logic. The make-up looks completely ridiculous and the subsequent effect is unconvincing, with Casello’s latex head popping and bubbling for way too long as the suspension of disbelief is completely shattered.

(A better version of the effect had been achieved in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK’s final moments, as the Ark “melts” the faces of Belloq and his Nazi collaborators.)

Aside from the poor technical execution, the scene also suggests that the Poltergeists (or at least one version of them) have the ability to create hallucinations in their efforts to control the living. Given the scene with Marty takes place about half way through the film, why didn’t the Poltergeists just get in everyone’s heads? More than likely it would have cleared the house out in no time and the spectral tormentors could have had Carol Anne to themselves. The movie would have gone in a completely different direction and would have been over a hell of a look quicker … 

The randomness of the Poltergeists continues all the way through to the final reel. An assortment of ghosts, ghouls and spectral lights bombard the Diane & Steve throughout the course film in an effort to thwart them from saving Carol Anne.

The story receives a welcome boost with the introduction of Zelda Rubenstein’s Tangina, a pint-sized paranormal investigator who injects the film’s second half with an endearing mix of spunk, humour and sincerity. Her appearance shines the spotlight on the weaker performances from the other supporting cast members, especially Beatrice Straight’s Dr.Lesh. Straight’s low-key performance drains the film of energy and her drawn-out monologues bring the action to a shuddering stop. Sadly, Spielberg’s decision to go for the double-dip finale takes both Rubenstein and Craig T. Nelson out of the picture, leaving JoBeth Williams to mount a last stand against the extremely needy ghosts in order to save her family. The over-acting on display in the final moments, just prior to the entire Freeling clan escaping Cuesta Verde, also robs the film of dramatic intensity. The audience know the Freelings are safe, but it feels anti-climactic because everyone’s performance falls to pieces as Hooper-Spielberg jettison drama in favour of spectacle and have their ensemble craving for a piece of the action.

POLTERGEIST is at its most successful when it’s focussed on the depiction of the middle, suburban America that had just begun to emerge with the election of Ronald Reagan to the US Presidency in 1980. The sense of change that ushered in the former actor’s ascension to the most powerful political position in the Western world is depicted by way of the unbridled optimism of growth and change; best exemplified in Poltergeist by the off-hand manner in which Steve Freeling’s property developer boss is dismissive of displacing the dead in favour of making more money. This hubris of change sees the dead completely disrespected and is the catalyst for the Poltergeists. The visual style in which the inhabitants of Cuesta Verde are presented helps to confirm that Spielberg played a very active role in the film’s direction. Many of the scenes within the Freeling home resemble those from ET, a film that Spielberg started filming five weeks after filming wrapped on Poltergeist. The question of who really wrote it and who really directed it will never be resolved because it would trash reputations and dredge up old memories that are better left alone; much like the corpses buried under the Freeling’s home. One thing is clear, it’s fortunate that Spielberg was there and took such an active role, as the domestic warmth of the Freeling clan is able to engender in the film’s quieter moments goes part of the way to save Poltergeist from its special effects excesses and ill-conceived supernatural shenanigans.​

POLTERGEIST (1982) USEFUL LINKS

Poltergeist (1982 film) - Wikipedia
Poltergeist (1982) - IMDb
Poltergeist (1982) - Rotten Tomatoes

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