# Poltergeist (Yes, the 1982 movie) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 7, 2009, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poltergeist-yes-the-1982-movie/480208 "2009-01-07T09:34:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poltergeist-yes-the-1982-movie/480208/41 "2009-01-07T21:18:50Z")
> [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](#): > > Excellent and creative parenting, as far as I’m concerned! I worry that his son will be woefully unprepared for the coming zombiepocalypse. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poltergeist-yes-the-1982-movie/480208/42 "2009-01-07T21:28:16Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > Or Carol Anne sliding across the floor sans chair. > “Mommy, that one burned.” :smack: I forgot about that! It’s been so long since I’ve seen the movie I was picturing her sitting on the chair, but now I can visualize that scene. I need to watch this again. ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poltergeist-yes-the-1982-movie/480208/43 "2009-01-07T21:34:32Z")
> [@EJsGirl](#): > > Which is a miracle, considering how fucked up Craig Nelson was throughout the shoot. He talks about having his cocaine-induced heart attack during filming, then leaving the hospital AMA & getting his 16 year old son to drive him to the nearest bar, still in his hospital gown… Mr. Incredible did cocaine? I didn’t know that! ---
**Author:** ![Pashnish\_Ewing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8797f3/32.png) [@Pashnish\_Ewing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pashnish_Ewing)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poltergeist-yes-the-1982-movie/480208/44 "2009-01-07T21:45:49Z")
When I first saw the movie I didn’t really think anything of it (I was about 12), but now the early scene where the parents bring out their stash after the kids go to bed really stands out. Im sure that scene would have never made it to filming if the movie were shot today. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poltergeist-yes-the-1982-movie/480208/45 "2009-01-07T21:58:47Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Whenever I spend any large chunk of time doing housework, I complete my duties by proclaiming, “This ha-ouse is _clean_.” 🙂 This made me laugh for a solid minute. ---
**Author:** ![Umbriel2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/4af34b/32.png) [@Umbriel2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Umbriel2)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poltergeist-yes-the-1982-movie/480208/46 "2009-01-07T22:04:01Z")
> [@Stephe96](#): > > A couple of random observations made after a recent viewing: > > 1. Where in the world did the dog’s name, E-Buzz, come from? What I assumed at the time I first saw it (and I’ve never heard a better explanation) was that it was a really obscure Saturday Night Live reference. [E. Buzz Miller was a lounge lizardy character played by Dan Ackroyd](http://video.aol.com/video-detail/e-buzz-millers-art-classics/3261811418) in a couple of “public access cable show” sketches. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poltergeist-yes-the-1982-movie/480208/47 "2009-01-07T22:22:02Z")
> [@Umbriel2](#): > > What I assumed at the time I first saw it (and I’ve never heard a better explanation) was that it was a really obscure Saturday Night Live reference. [E. Buzz Miller was a lounge lizardy character played by Dan Ackroyd](http://video.aol.com/video-detail/e-buzz-millers-art-classics/3261811418) in a couple of “public access cable show” sketches. That’s totally correct. In fact, I thought the dog was called by the full name “E. Buzz Miller”. The cat “Leonard Pinth-Garnell” was cut out in editing. ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poltergeist-yes-the-1982-movie/480208/48 "2009-01-07T23:08:46Z")
> [@SaharaTea](#): > > I don’t recall any hinting that the eldest daughter (Dana?) was pregnant. I always assumed they had Dana when they were pretty young, like 18 or 19. But I suppose it’s possible she was his daughter from a previous relationship. I think there’s a scene where he is giving his family’s ages: he says his wife is 32 and their eldest daughter is 16. Math was never my strong suit, but wouldn’t that mean his wife was 16 when she gave birth? ---
**Author:** ![PhiloVance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e19adc/32.png) [@PhiloVance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhiloVance)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poltergeist-yes-the-1982-movie/480208/49 "2009-01-08T00:36:26Z")
I’ve never actually watched the whole movie, but I did like what I saw. I am not a horror movie fanatic. However, I have a daughter who saw this move like when she was 8 years old and can recite most of the dialog. She LURVES this movie. 😉 I myself am fascinated with the beginning of it. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poltergeist-yes-the-1982-movie/480208/50 "2009-01-08T02:38:22Z")
I saw it when I was 12 and loved it. Perhaps I was old enough to take it, but I’ve always had a sick sense of humor. I remember giggling at the scene in Jaws when what’s-his-name gets eaten along with the back end of the boat. I think I was 8, and my 8-year-old friend was yelling in terror while I just looked between her and the screen and giggled. How scary something is really depends on the individual, and it seems that age isn’t always a factor. In Poltergeist, I still remember the steak crawling across the counter and then rupturing like a cyst. One of my favorite parts. I wonder how it will do in another 10-20 years, though, when we have to start explaining to kids about the “snow” on the TV - which will cease to exist in February? ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poltergeist-yes-the-1982-movie/480208/51 "2009-01-08T03:12:08Z")
Yeah, Dana knows the motel- pretty sly, that. And yeah, you probably wouldn’t see the parents toking up nowadays… Oh yes, Mr. Incredible had incredible substance abuse problems. Sober now, though. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poltergeist-yes-the-1982-movie/480208/52 "2009-01-08T03:38:01Z")
> [@a35362](#): > > Mr. Incredible did cocaine? I didn’t know that! How do you think he flew without a cape? ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poltergeist-yes-the-1982-movie/480208/53 "2009-01-08T03:44:42Z")
I forgot to mention- that scene where the tree tries to eat the kid scared the shit out of me, even more than that damned clown under the bed. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poltergeist-yes-the-1982-movie/480208/54 "2009-01-08T04:53:32Z")
The clown scene was scary, but I remember it as being empowering as well. The kid literally beats the stuffing out of the clown. Take that childhood fears! Of course then there’s the trouble with the tree … Just a quick shout out to Marty Casella (aka the guy who pulled his face off). He was a co-worker of my stepmother’s and that was his first acting role. (According to IMDB, it springboarded him into a fabulous string of six more. :p) ---
**Author:** ![Winnie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e480ec/32.png) [@Winnie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winnie)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poltergeist-yes-the-1982-movie/480208/55 "2009-01-08T15:05:51Z")
Just a note about Zelda Rubinstein… she also played the organist in Sixteen Candles, and now is a narrator for one of those Ghost Chaser shows or Haunting Live or one of those other shows that I’m really and truly not afraid to watch no sir not at all… ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poltergeist-yes-the-1982-movie/480208/56 "2009-01-08T15:09:15Z")
> [@EJsGirl](#): > > Yeah, Dana knows the motel- pretty sly, that. And yeah, you probably wouldn’t see the parents toking up nowadays… Yeah; in the late '70s and the 80s you had more of that kind of realism in movies. What happened? I guess the Baby Boomers got old and started pretending they didn’t do that stuff. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poltergeist-yes-the-1982-movie/480208/57 "2009-01-08T15:24:39Z")
> [@Baldwin](#): > > Yeah; in the late '70s and the 80s you had more of that kind of realism in movies. What happened? I guess the Baby Boomers got old and started pretending they didn’t do that stuff. Well, their kids started getting old enough to go see those movies! Adulthood[sup]TM[/sup]: When you get old enough to stop hiding your weed from your parents and start hiding it from your kids. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poltergeist-yes-the-1982-movie/480208/58 "2009-01-08T15:39:28Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > …The cat “Leonard Pinth-Garnell” was cut out in editing. Bless you; I thought I was the only one who remembered the delightfully unctuous Leonard Pinth-Garnell. “Welcome to Bad Cabaret for Children…” 😛 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poltergeist-yes-the-1982-movie/480208.md?page=2)