OK, so there’s the scene where the creepy little Medium woman from Sixteen Candles has them preparing the rope and tennis balls to go get Carrie Anne. At one point, consumed by something or another, she says “Cross over Children. All are welcome, All welcome. Go into the light. There is peace and serenity in the light.”
Seeing it again recently, my wife had an interesting question. Who is possessing her when she says that? Is it God? Surely the Devil, or whichever one of his minions was in charge there wouldn’t have wanted that outcome, as it implies going into Heaven. So…God, right?
I never thought she was possessed of anything. She was just telling those confused souls that they needed to go through that door over there. I’m not even sure if I think it’s a door to Heaven, it could just be another waiting room for all I know. Hopefully there’s a desk with a sign-in sheet or something.
Carrie Ann needed to stay away from the light because she was coming back.
I don’t think Tangina was “possessed”, she was simply telling the lost souls that the light that had finally come for them had arrived. That’s just the way she talks.
As a kid, I read the book based on the movie, so bearing in mind that was like 20 years ago so my memory may be faulty, this is what I remember of the extra background info:
Most of the ghosts were being lead astray by an evil entity called Ghala, I think in the movie he is called The Beast, and when they made Poltergeist II and III I think this was the character that became the evil preacher, Kane (they sort of retconned the first movie). Anyway, the ghosts are not bad people (or weren’t in life) They are stuck between dimensions because Ghala/Beast/Kane won’t let them go. If they cross into the light, the Beast will lose his dominion over them.
So Tangina isn’t possessed, she is honestly trying to free the trapped souls by telling them to go into the light. The family freaks out though because Carol Anne isn’t dead, but if she crosses over she will be. It’s unclear (or maybe I can’t remember) whether Tangina is willfully intending to sacrifice Carol Anne in order to save all the others or if she was confident the family could haul Carol Anne back.
The Medium was trying to rescue the souls who were trapped inter-dimensionally and jeopardized Carol Anne because the lost souls were more likely to follow her into the light.
I distinctly remember her as being possessed. The idea was that there was an evil presence that had trapped a bunch of lost souls. Carol Anne was a special child who could have eventually led the lost souls away from the evil presence. To prevent this, the evil presence possessed the short lady in an effort to convince Carol Anne to go into the light. If Carol Anne went into the light she would be dead/forever lost, meaning she would no longer be a threat to free his captive souls.
No, that’s not it (I’ve just re-watched that scene): the evil presence wants to hold Carol Anne in that limbo-place. The lost souls are strongly attracted to her life-force – as long as the evil presence controls Carol Anne, it has control of the souls. The last thing it wants is Carol Anne anywhere near the light, because the lost souls will follow her and escape its influence.
I can’t see that there’s any indication at all that Tangina’s possessed by anything – she’s simply trying to coax the souls into the light to exorcise the house. Steve thinks she means Diane and Carol Anne to go into the light too, and panics, but she doesn’t seem to be addressing them, only the souls. There’s no point where she seems anything other than herself, following the plan they’d worked out.
Just the dreamy way she said that line sounds like she’s being controlled. Plus, if Carol Anne goes into the light, they won’t get her back, which was the whole point of their getup with the gooey tennis balls and ropes and stuff.
I can see it that way now, but there’s something about the delivery, lighting, music etc that made us think she was possessed while saying it.
She does change her tone of voice, yeah, but I think the “dreamy” quality is just her trying to coax a group of confused spirits on to “the other side”. Getting to lost souls into the light seems like a logical part of the plan, if they want to cleanse the house as well as get Carol Anne back. And remember, originally it was Tangina who was planning on going through on the end of the rope – presumably she’d intended to usher the spirits into the light from there.
I think the only one who thought she meant for Carol Anne to go into the light was Steve – perhaps he wasn’t paying proper attention when they were planning this stunt. To be fair, though, he had been through a bit of a rough time just lately – and the way that Diane and Tangina switch places at the last minute suggests that the whole thing could have done with a little more thought before they started lobbing sporting goods at the forces of darkness.
I can’t definitely prove that the film-makers didn’t intend for Tangina to be possessed at that point, but if they did, she did nothing that she might not reasonably have done unpossessed, neither she nor anyone else seemed to realise that it had happened, and nothing came of it other than Steve having an apparently ineffective panic.
Well, this is my point: she’s taking full credit for it. It’s not “The house is clean? How did that happen?” She says it with pride – it’s obviously something she intended to accomplish. Just rescuing Carol Anne isn’t enough – the house would still be haunted. They had to get those souls into the light.
This is why Morbo and his wife aren’t sure if she’s possessed by God or the Devil: if she’s possessed, it’s by something that makes her do what she would have done anyway, but in a slightly different voice.
Ah, but my point was, the house was NOT clean; otherwise, the movie would’ve ended right there. If you’re arguing for possession, that might be a point in favor; she was possessed into saying something that was patently untrue.
It wasn’t patently untrue, though, was it? The house seemed clean, the other characters quite clearly thought so too, and we – the audience – are meant to think it is as well, setting up the big surprise horror climax.
Yes, we can go on retroactively assigning possible readings of events – and there’s nothing wrong with that – but I’m looking at it from a straightforward narrative point of view.
If the writers and director had intended for us to understand Tangina as being possessed, and if anything about the story depends on that realisation, then they did a very poor job of it. There’s no set-up to the idea; there’s no clear beginning or end to the possession; she never obviously acts out of character; and there’s no pay-off.
Ultimately, it simply isn’t necessary to the story, and it raises more questions than it answers (hence the OP). No, there’s no direct evidence against the idea, but the only evidence for it is that in the midst of a full-on ILM son et lumière psychic FX shitstorm, an odd-looking eccentric with a funny voice adopted a different tone when addressing disembodied spirits on another plane of existence.
Again from memory, the evil presence does not control Carol Anne, but it does control the lost souls. The only control over Carol Anne it had was blocking her from returning home.
It’s been a couple decades, though, so I welcome evidence either way from your fresh memory.
Well, I suspect it may well be available on a popular video sharing site (and if it were, I have a spooky intuition that Part 8 might be the relevant section) – but failing that:
In a scene before the rescue, Tangina has a long speech, explaining that the souls of the dead don’t realise they’ve passed on, aren’t even conscious as we understand it, and are strongly attracted to the light of Carol Anne’s life force, which is blinding them to the true light that has finally come for them – inside this light is salvation. And then she says:
I just thought of something, watching those clips again.
We’re all assuming* that it would be a bad thing for Carol Anne to go into the light – but would it? Tangina never says so – she tells us what waits for the trapped souls, but not what would happen to a living, corporeal little girl.
What I noticed is in the scene in the bedroom, just before Diane goes through. Tangina says “She’s at the mouth of the corridor! Tell her to stop! Tell her not to go into the light!” Diane does, and then the next thing Tangina says** is “Hurry with the rope! Throw it into the light!” Hold on – they’ve got a light right there in the bedroom closet!
I’d sort of been assuming that they were two separate lights, but Tangina doesn’t make any differentiation between them – they’re both just “the light” throughout the scene.
So now I’m thinking that they’re both the same light – both doors onto one dimensional corridor that can lead to many different places. Maybe Carol Anne had to go into the light because it’s the only way home – and just as the souls of the dead find their loved ones within, ready to guide them on to the next plane of existence, Carol Anne finds her mother, who can bring her back to our earthly realm because she’s tied to a piece of rope.
Any takers?
Including Diane and Steve in the movie, I think.
** Okay, yells. Did I mention the full-on ILM son et lumière psychic FX shitstorm?
