Poltergeist (1982)

First and foremost I think this movie is lost some of its impact because a lot of the scares and the plot points of the story were parodied in a really good episode of Family Guy. In that episode they basically parody the entire movie point for point. I never realized that they were parodying so much of the film until I watched it and the similarities were a little jarring. However, there are still a lot of points to mention about this film and just because I watched the parody episode first, doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy the film.

Poltergeist is a self-contained horror film that takes place in the house of the Freeling family. The father Steven (played by Craig T Nelson) is a sales representative of the housing company that populated the newly developed neighborhood that they live in. He, his wife Diane (played by JoBeth Williams), his oldest daughter Dana (played by Dominique Dunne), his son Robbie (played by Oliver Robbins) and his youngest daughter Carol Anne (played by Heather O’Rourke) live happily in the suburban lifestyle. However, one night Carol Anne starts acting strange and talking to the TV when the broadcast finished and there is only static. That starts a series of unexplainable events that the Freelings start to witness in their house. At first they see the paranormal experiences as harmless and almost fun. But then the house starts to become a creepy place and Carol Anne is sucked into a portal leading to a bright light and just like that she vanishes.

Desperate to find their daughter, the Freelings hire a team of paranormal ghost hunters led by Dr. Lesh (played by Beatrice Straight). They start to record and try to study the ghostly apparitions in an attempt to find Carol Anne and bring her back to the land of the living.

There are a lot of things in this movie that explain the reason why the movie is considered a classic and why some of the scenes and effects are celebrated by the horror film community. And yeah, the scene where the little girl looks at her parents and creepily says, “They’re here!” is incredibly spooky and iconic. It's stuff like that scene that makes me really enjoy this film. And the truth is, there is a lot to really enjoy about this film. 

However, there are a lot of story elements and effects that definitely do not hold up. In comparison with the horror films of today (not saying this is a good or bad thing out right), Poltergeist is a pretty tame horror movie. If you’re worried about jump scares, you really don’t need to. Yes a lot of scenes are a little spooky and there is a reason why the film continues to be a classic ghost story, but the fact that it was released in 1982 does bring some drawbacks to the film.

First off the effects do not totally hold up. I’m sure for the time the effects, especially the ones where the ghost is animated and floating around the house, looked cool. But thirty-five years later, special effects have made leaps and bounds and make some of the effects look really cheap.

Now that being said, there are a couple of scenes where things or even people are being thrown around different parts of the room. While there are clearly strings throwing them around, it still looks awesome. There’s a part near the end that a woman is in a room that totally defies gravity for about 2 minutes. She’s being tossed up a wall, crawling around on the ceiling, and tossed to the ground. This had to have been one of the best practical movie effects I’ve seen in recent history for a while. Thirty-five years later and there are parts that definitely still hold up. Furthermore, I think Poltergeist set an example that we’re even seeing today. The budget for this film was actually pretty low compared to the normal budgets of major motion pictures but it was still able to not only provide a creepy atmosphere and scare audiences, but it also made a good deal of money at the box office when it was released.

As far as story goes, Poltergeist is a little bit more of a cautionary experience rather than a story. The main characters are pretty thin in their motivations and especially in the beginning it focuses more on the creepy factors of the house rather than discovering who these characters are.

The other aspect about the film that is kind of strange is the character’s reactions to creepy stuff happening in the house. That iconic line, “They’re here!” is the last line from that scene. The little girl freaks the audience out and we don’t really see the parents react or how they respond to this weird experience unfolding in front of them.

The movie seems a little bit more concerned with showing the creepy stuff in the house rather than how this stuff is affecting the family. I mean it’s obvious that they are freaked out by it, but they don’t show how they deal with that fear. One scene something will happen, they’ll scream, the next scene some time has passed and they’re just dealing with the paranormal being in the house like its normal.

Now not every movie needs to be Schindler’s list in showing the emotions and thoughts that go into these characters, but I don’t think people recognize this movie for the storytelling as much as they recognize it for the creepy haunting that the house presents. This movie is almost like spending a week in a haunted house. Weird effects are happening around you and eventually you figure out why, but I never felt really invested with the characters. I couldn’t really tell you much about Craig T Nelson’s character besides the fact that he’s a father and he wants to keep his family safe from whatever is haunting his house. Now that’s not a bad motivation and it works for the film, but it’s not exactly strong or compelling.

The movie also is a product of the times and you can tell by the cautionary message it’s trying to convey. The television set was not a new phenomenon in the 80s but it was becoming more and more popular throughout the 70s and people started to think it was melting our brains. So it made sense that the television was at the focal point of where this ghost was coming from to haunt the Freeling family.

Overall, from a technical and historical standpoint, I do understand why this movie was such a classic from the get go. When you have Steven Spielberg as a writer and producer in the 80s, a lot of good stuff is going to come out of it. But I will say that the film does not hold up story-wise as much as I think I expected it to be. I think the film has been heralded as a classic for good reasons. There is a lot to love about it and thinking about it now, I do understand why Family Guy would dedicate almost an entire episode to recreating it with the Griffin Family. It’s a movie I think might be a little bit overhyped, but I understand it and can appreciate the work done on it and the love people have for it.

But what do you think? I know there are greater horror fans out there than I am so I want to hear from them what this movie means to them and how I’m probably wrong. Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts via Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. So apparently this movie spawned two sequels. I am not going to watch those. There also was a remake back in 2015. I don't think it was very good but hey maybe I'll be checking it out soon, personally the trailer actually doesn't look that bad, any recommendations? Enjoy!