☆ ☆ ☆ ½
Poltergeist (1982) – T. Hooper
Better than I expected (after all these years) but still an uneasy mix of
Spielberg’s childlike wonder and fantasy and Hooper’s dread. Fortunately, the dread comes through despite
the attempts to smother it with schmaltz.
And surely this is streets ahead of other films in this horror sub-genre
(The Amityville Horror, Paranormal Activity, etc.). JoBeth Williams and Craig T. Nelson live in a
new-ish suburban development with their three kids. About 30 minutes into the film, one of them
(5-year-old Carol Anne) is sucked into some sort of void (bi-location) inside
the house and the rest of the film is about how to get her back. They can communicate through the TV (but only
when it is showing white noise). A group
of paranormal investigators is brought in and they begin to discover the nature
of the problem (which is fairly ridiculous, almost a MacGuffin). A highlight is a visit by psychic Tangina
(Zelda Rubinstein), spooky enough in her own right. Of course, the special effects are over-the-top
and pretty good for 1982. But I couldn’t
help thinking that if you dialled back the “over-production” by a few notches,
this could have been a really scary and downright creepy affair (rather than a
blockbuster, I suppose). Worth
revisiting.
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