By Kimberly Ricketts
It's a film that I can't watch alone yet if I see that it's on TV I have to watch. I can't seem to make myself change the channel and I will have nightmares for at least two days after I watch it. I'm damn near 36 years old now and this movie still does this to me! This film made me believe in the paranormal, gave me a phobia of clowns, and had me steering far far away from fuzzy TV channels. My number one pick is the 1982 film written by Steven Spielberg and directed by Tobe Hooper, Poltergeist.
Don't let the PG rating of this film fool you. This movie is frightening on so many levels. While it may no be heavy on the gore, save a scene in the bathroom where an investigator rips his entire face off, and there are no on screen deaths to speak of, Poltergeist will scare you on a deeper, more psychological level. Like my number two pick, Poltergeist does not rely heavily on CGI use for its scares. Rotating rooms, stationary cameras, mechanical trees, top notch makeup, and the use of real life human skeletons serve up the scares n this paranormal flick. The special effects team was even nominated for an Academy Award in 1982, ultimately losing to another Spielberg film, E.T.
The Freeling's are your typical suburban family, husband Steve (Craig T. Nelson) sells real estate in the expanding subdivision the family lives in. Mom Diane (JoBeth Williams) stays home and takes care of their three kids, teenage daughter Dana (Dominique Dunne) son Robbie (Oliver Robins) and 5 year old daughter Carol Anne (Heather O'Rourke). Strange things begin to happen in the house after what the family thinks is an earthquake to which they awake to fine Carol Anne near the TV which is all fuzzy and she says, "They're Here." Cupboard doors open on their own, furniture rearranges itself, chairs and even little Carole Anne go sliding across the kitchen floor seemingly being pulled by an unknown force. According to Carol Anne this is all happening because of the TV people as she calls them. Although it is a little odd and Steven seems to be a bit freaked out by it all Diane seems to be thrilled with the new excitement in the house.
The whimsical fun soon becomes deadly serious when after Robbie is nearly eaten by a tree during a tornado Carol Anne seems to have gone missing. The family frantically searches the entire house and grounds with no luck until Robbie, alone in the living room hears her voice. Carol Anne is calling for her mommy. The whole family rushes in to a frantic Robbie who explains Carol Anne's voice is coming from the fuzzy TV set. She has disappeared into another realm, one where she can only communicate with her family through this fuzzy TV channel.
The strange only gets stranger as it appears there is some sort of portal in the closet of Carol Anne and Robbie's room and the ghostly action kicks into high gear. Things move constantly, banging, flashes, and the children's room is off limits. A team of paranormal investigators lead by Dr . Lesh (Beatrice Straight) moves into the house to see if they can help. What they discover is something they've never faced before and were not prepared to handle in any ay. The forces that have taken Carol Anne are evil and powerful and they do not want to give her back. She is pure and she can lead them into the "light" where they can cross over. But if Carol Anne goes into the light she too crosses over for good.
Dr. Lesh calls on someone she knows who has indeed dealt with this sort of evil before to see if thy can get Carol Anne back. Tangina (Zelda Rubenstein) has dealt with these sorts of evils before and if anyone can get the Freeling's their little girl back it's her. The Beast who has her does not want to let her go and its an emotional, scary, and hard fought battle to get little Carol Anne back into the land of the living. Once she is back though she doesn't seem to remember too much about being gone but the rest of her family does. They decided they are moving asap.
As the family prepares for one last night in their home Steven goes into work to tie some things up and Diane and the younger kids settle in for the night. As Carol Anne and Robbie lay in bed and Diane is getting out of a bath the closet door in the kid's room opens and begins to pull them in. The Beast hasn't gone away after all he still wants Carol Ann and he's come back for her. Diane is able to wrestle back control of her kids amidst all of these corpse rising from the ground. Steven returns with his boss who then reveals that in order to build the subdivision they did not move the cemetery as they said, they left the bodies and just moved the stones. The Freeling's were living on a paranormal hotbed. As they get in their car and speed away they watch their house implode into nothing and they believe it is all over. The film wraps up with the family arriving at a motel for the night and promptly placing the TV set out the door.
Poltergeist spawned two sequels and just like the first they all scare me to death. Some people as me why. They seem like alright films but what is it about them that literally scares me to death? Well as a young girl I had the exact same long blonde hair cut the exact same way as Heather O'Rourke did in the film. I had the same bright eyes, dimples, and smile. I even also wore those same red footie pajamas with the zipper up the front. Stranger yet we had the same birthday, December 27. So my older sister thought it would be a fun party trick to get time to come down when all of her friends were around and say "They're Here!!" Of course they all got a kick out of it but after Poltergeist 2 came out and we were introduced to the man behind wanting Carol Anne, the evil Preacher Kane (Julian Beck) and his hymns, I became terrified. I thought all the similarities were too much and that Kane was going to confuse me with her and come after me instead. I kid you not it terrifies me to this day. On a trip to California with my sister we visited Heather's grave and it was one of the most emotional things I experienced on that whole trip. We also drove out to Simi Valley to see the house and I was too terrified to look t it for more than a few seconds at a time.
A movie with not a ton of gore but a ton of scares, Poltergeist is a must see for anyone this Halloween season. Just don't watch it alone or in the dark. I'm not one to easily scare but this one gets me to the heart of my tortured soul each and every time I watch it.
Rate 5/5 Skulls
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