I’m always torn, if it isn’t part of one of my specific watch projects, as to whether or not I should review films that are considered all time classics if all I’m gonna say is “Yep, I love it as much as you do” but I also think that my very limited audience for these blog posts might appreciate if I’m not just always writing about B and C grade slashers or TV movies.
So since I recently picked up a beat up, but still very playable, DVD copy of the entire Poltergeist trilogy, yesterday I decided to sit down and revisit the original for the first time in a few years. As the first paragraph heavily implies, I still really, really love this movie.
I often start my reviews with what I didn’t like first so that I can end on a more positive note even when the film doesn’t deserve it, but the list is very, very short here. Some of special effects have aged pretty poorly, such as the “face” scene, and it is a little uncomfortable how much effort they put in for gratuitous underwear shots of the two main of-age females in the film (I know, as a slasher fan I probably have no room to criticize such gratuity, but those films are also universally R rated.) Also, this may sound awful but the young actor who plays Robbie might be one of the most annoying children actors I have ever come across. That is about all I have to criticize.
Every adult acting performance is fantastic, from the down-to-Earth yuppie parents who are so perfectly summed up by Craig T. Nelson’s character reading a Reagan biography why they get stoned in their bedroom, playing up every one of the very wide range of emotions the script asks of them with aplomb. Zelda Rubinstein is amazing, she completely rules the screen every second she is on it, equal parts gentle and mysterious and no-nonsense, and you really hate to see her go.
The film’s horror pretty much entirely always works from its introduction to nearly the final scene, and it doesn’t take long from the discovery scene until we start getting gung-ho living nightmares straight out of every child and parent’s phobias and it only stops for moments of profound otherworldly beauty or the deeply human connections shared between even characters who are practically total strangers bonded by experiences beyond this world. This is a film where everybody who watches it will probably have a different “That was so freaky!” moment which I could spend 200 words listing but I try to keep any spoilers mild, and despite its age the vast majority of the film’s SFX look far, far better than anything in the CGI-lousy remake 30 years later with some really 80s state-of-the-art tech.
The film’s not very subtle digs at suburban development sprawl is as timely as ever, and as you’d expect from a Spielberg-associated film the central family is very realistic and the slice of life moments feels like you could be watching any loving family from the 80s. Tobe Hooper’s direction shows what a master he was in multiple kinds of genre filmmaking and was a clear argument that he should have been given a much bigger budget to work with much more often. The offensive rumor was always that Spielberg secretly directed most of Poltergeist, which is incredibly untrue from numerous sources, but quite frankly as great as Steven is I don’t think he would have had near the eye for genuine, frequent scares as Tobe did that sets this apart from so many PG/PG-13 more family oriented horror films and it is that extra spark that makes Poltergeist probably my modern favorite film in the classic 80 and early 90s Amblin era.
So yeah, watch Poltergeist if you have never seen it for some reason or you have seen it 50 times in your life, I know I always walk away from the experience feeling that special tingle in your stomach that only truly classic, nearly perfect cinema can give you
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