Who could forget the tagline “They’re Here” from the film Poltergeist, directed by the late, great Toby Hooper? Steven Spielberg wrote and produced the story but could not direct it himself as he was under contract to exclusively direct “ET The Extraterrestrial.” The team up of two masters of cinema left us with one of the most powerfully fresh movies in horror history.
Before”Poltergeist” was made, moviegoers had a standard idea of a haunted house. In American Cinema, a haunted house invariably had to be up in New England. It was an old family estate with a rich, sordid history as intricate as the cobwebs in the basement. Poltergeist took the premise of the haunted house and gave it a much needed modern twist.
Poltergeist subverted the haunted house trope by setting the story in sunny California. Housing developments like Cuesta Verde were springing up like mushrooms all over, especially in upscale Orange County. These homes were brand spanking new with all of the modern conveniences and amenities. In a clean, gated community there is little to worry about except high taxes. Who would expect there to be ghosts?
This rather normal family didn’t summon the spirits through an Ouija board or find a portal to hell in their basement–the spirits came through the TV set! Which from a paranormal viewpoint makes more sense considering the energy that flows through a TV. Before 24-hour cable, stations used to sign off and then there would just be fuzzy static until the morning. That still photo of a little girl with her hands on the TV set is part of horror history forever.
After “Poltergeist”, more ghost hunters started listening to TV white noise and radios tuned between stations to pick up otherworldly sounds. The movie permeated our unconscious and piqued our curiosity. Sadly, two of the stars of “Poltergeist” died young, Heather O’ Rourke who played Carol Anne died from a heart ailment and Dominique Dunne who played the oldest daughter Dana was murdered. This gave rise to the “Poltergeist Curse” urban legends that were widely circulated and helped the original and sequel films to maintain a cult following to this day.
What made this movie different was that it was believable. Dad Steven was in real estate and mom Diane wore denim shorts and tees and the kids seemed like your average family. Only Carol Anne, the youngest, knew about the spirits at first but soon the whole family is stunned by the strange energy in the house. Robbie played by Oliver Robins really looked scared half to death in his scenes. The family dynamics were spot on perfect due to excellent casting. Craig T. Nelson and JoBeth Williams were the quintessential yuppie parents living the suburban lifestyle until paranormal activity sets life on a tilt. Their child’s abduction to the otherworld forces them to open up their house and their minds to new ideas and experiments brought courtesy of wacky people, who are the only ones who can help them. The gorgeously directed swimming pool scene where Diana is fending off corpses makes us rethink the security of the upscale lifestyle.
In the 1980s ‘greed was good” so the idea that the development company moved the headstones but not the bodies is quite easy for the audience to believe. Real Estate was like the Wild West back in the 80s and rogue companies were building literally everywhere to keep up with demand. We all could relate to the helpless upset dad, the courageous mom, the terrified boy, and the oldest daughter who just wanted things to be normal again. Carol Anne is the precious “gifted” child who has one foot in each world and we will never forget her, as we sometimes see a child like her in our own families–the one who gets those “messages” from grandma.
“Poltergeist” paved the way for more films about the ghostly occupation of our modern world, like M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Sixth Sense”, complete with a child who can “see dead people”. Most of all, it taught us that we don’t have to go looking for an old, crumbling mansion to see a ghost–your brand new luxury home might be sitting on someone’s grave.
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