This is driving me insane:
Spielberg had nothing to do with Star Wars. That was George Lucas.
Among its other merits, Poltergeist makes excellent use of the horror movie “false ending” trope, really managing to surpass itself rather than just feeling gratuitous. I remember seeing the movie in the theater, catching my breath with the rest of the audience as the family settled down to bed after the house was pronounced “clean”, happening to notice the reel change spot flash in the upper corner of the screen, and thinking “Uh oh…”
IMHO, dunno, but I’d say it’s too intense a film for a six-year-old. I saw it in college and still found it scary, even though I was seeing it with some rowdy friends and knew intellectually it was just a movie. A very good one, though! Haven’t seen it since then (not out of any sense of dread).
My dad taught my sisters and me a good “scary movie survival lesson” when we were still pretty young and begged to be allowed to watch a vampire movie late one night: remind yourself that those are actors and actresses just doing their jobs. Maybe they’ll break for lunch right after filming this scene, or maybe one of them farts at just the wrong moment and after a good laugh they have to shoot the scene again. That advice is always helpful when a movie gets a little too heavy.
One of those things is not like the others. I don’t think Spileberg had anything to do with Star Wars (officially). Of course, he didn’t have much to do (officially) with Poltergeist, either, so maybe that’s why you included it?
We rented this on Netflix a few months back (to show to our teenage niece), and I agree: it holds up remarkably well. As noted, most of the special effects are still effect-ive. I’d give anything to be able to watch scenes like that remarkable chairs-on-the-table sequence again without the knowledge that there’s something much darker at work in the house.
I’ll always remember watching *Poltergeist *for the first time at 8 AM on a bright, sunny morning – HBO or Cinemax premiered it in the morning on the first day of the month. Still scared the bejeezus out of me.
Hypno-Toad: I’d never noticed that the clown scene (which is up there with the scariest scenes of any movie, IMHO) includes the monster-under-the-bed meme – that’s gotta be why it’s so effective.
Speaking of holding up remarkably well: I’m watching season two of Showtime’s Dexter on Netflix now – JoBeth Williams appears as the mother of Dexter’s girlfriend. She has aged wonderfully – I didn’t know it was her until the end credits rolled. I hadn’t seen her in anything since Wyatt Earp (1994).
My oldest brother introduced my to horror movies with the same analytical approach – of course, back in the sixties, we were watching old Godzilla movies where you could see the string on his jaw if you watched closely. But I kept that attitude from then on – can you see how they did the special effects, or where they don’t match? My kids were brought up the same – it keeps kids from being overwhelmed by movies, I think. Of course, I’ve been directing high school theater all their lives, so they’re used to critiqueing (sp?) what they see.
I really like the part after the chairs on the table scene, where the mom is doing experiments in the kitchen to see just what the chairs will do. I like to think that if something freaky happened in my house I’d investigate it in the same way. Of course, it didn’t work out all that well, did it?
Spielberg didn’t direct Poltergeist, Tobe Hooper did, but Spielberg co-produced it and co-wrote the script. I’d say that he had quite a lot to do with the film officially, as much as on any film associated with his name.
In fact, according to this Wikipedia article, Spielberg may have had more to do with the movie than is commonly known, despite a clause which prevented him from directing another movie while preparing for E.T.
When I was about seven or eight, this was on TV, and I begged my parents to let me watch it. I’d already seen some light horror movies, so they sat down and watched the preview the next time it came on before they decided that it was way too much for a kid my age.
What happened? I had nightmares about the preview.
Saw the last half of the movie on TCM the other day. Still holds up pretty well; Tobe Hooper did a good job. Of course, it’s got that horrible John Williams incidental music.
Some problems with the script. I think it was one of the movies at the beginning of a trend that’s become a cliche for thrillers – to have a false climax about ten or twenty minutes before the real climax. Actually, I think it was already becoming a cliche by 1982.
My favorite effect in the movie was a very simple one – a raw steak inching along the countertop like a living thing, contracting and lengthening. And it did a great job of showing the world of fear a little kid can live in if he’s imaginative – taking a running jump into bed so nothing can grab your ankles from under the bed. And that clown doll – I’d never actually give something that horrible to a child.
This is one of those movies that I still quote today and many friends give me a blank stare and think I’m crazy. A scant few catch on immediately.
If I’m stuck in a downpour with someone I’ll look them in the face and start shouting “You son of a bitch. You moved the cemetery, but you left the bodies, didn’t you? You son of a bitch, you left the bodies and you only moved the head stones. You only moved the head stones. Why? Why?”
Or from the little seen Poltergeist II “Let meh en” and if they don’t immediately comply “You are gonna dieeeeee!!”
They are the same person, it’s just that Spielberg does everything that is good and Lucas does everything that is bad. So when history re-examines film 200 years down the road, they will see Spielberg was responsible for ‘Jaws’ and Lucas actually took the helm for ‘Jurassic Park 2’.
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. Halfway through his drinks, he notices the producers of the film two tables over, looking stunned and horrified. That’s when he found out that they had taken out a life insurance policy on him for (at the time) the huge sum of 1 million dollars.
A horror classic, one of the best movies of all time, and one of the first DVD’s I bought when I first bought a DVD player many years ago.
I think it holds up well in that the story was mostly straightforward and didn’t rely on special FX.
You’ve expounded nicely on my “not much (officially)” comment re: Poltergeist. He still didn’t “do” Star Wars, which was my original point.
A couple of random observations made after a recent viewing:
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Where in the world did the dog’s name, E-Buzz, come from?
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Has anyone ever remarked on the fact that Craig Nelson appears to have gotten his wife
pregnant when she was 16-years-old? Unless the oldest daughter is from a previous
relationship, that is. Also, I seem to recall a few vague hints that the daughter, too, may
pregnant at 16; she comments about “remembering” the motel the family is going to, and,
correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t she eat a pickle with some ice cream early in the film?
Yeah! I love how giddy she is, dragging her husband into the kitchen to show him how the chair with Carol Anne on it slides across the floor, and how funny it is that by then Carol Anne is so tired and bored with it. I just love watching JoBeth Williams. This is my 2nd favorite performance of hers, after the breezily delightful American Dreamer.
That’s close to what I did with my son. I told him that if things got too scary, to imagine standing there in the scene, then walk backwards. He’ll walk past the guy holding the microphone, then the cameraman, then the director in his chair, then all the hairy grips, then just look around and he’ll see he’s in a big drafty warehouse. I don’t know if it worked, but I think it helped. Basically, get into the movie, but if it gets to be too much, they’re just filming a scene, that’s all.
Or Carol Anne sliding across the floor sans chair.
“Mommy, that one burned.”
What?
Spielberg directed Poltergeist. 
Here’s a direct cite, where Zelda Rubinstein says:
I thought this in 1982, I’ve seen nothing to disagree with me now. It looks, feels, and sounds like a Spielberg movie of that era (think CE3K meets The Haunting) and there’s nothing Tobe Hooper has done before or after that is remotely similar to this movie in look, feel, or sound.
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.