100 Scariest Movie Moments: #80 Poltergeist (1982)

Preface: I accept Tobe Hooper as the director of this film. Yes, Spielberg had a very strong creative role in the production of the movie. Producers often do. That does not make him the director. Shut up with your conspiracy theories, and stop hurting Hooper's career.

Everything's that's old is new again. In my second viewing of Poltergeist, I realized that I was watching Insidious made three decades earlier, with a happy ending... and then the sequel for Insidious gave us back the happy ending. So, really, the only difference between the two is that both Insidious movies combined have a longer running time, and Poltergeist caused more property damage, because the house was destroyed at the end.

The basic set-up of this movie is that a real estate agent (Craig T Nelson) and his family (JoBeth Williams as his wife, and Dominique Dunn, Oliver Robbins, and Heather O'Rourke as his children) are living in a neighborhood in which he is trying to sell homes, and comes under assault from a presence that wants to steal their children. This basic set-up allows for a number of freaky scenes that eventually culminates with the aforementioned destruction of the house. I somewhat suspect that the ending required the house to be destroyed simply because the entity had attacked them so many times and been repelled that any other ending would have left us with serious doubt as to whether it was actually gone, rather than simply in a momentary lull.

One frequent problem I have with reviewing these movies is that I have to separate “is scary” from “scares me.” There's certainly a distinction, as many things that others find freaky don't bother me in the slightest, and vice versa. In the case of this movie, the only scene that bothered me at all was when the father had to threaten his spectrally-kidnapped daughter (O'Rourke) with a spanking. While I don't have children, somehow I did relate to the issue. The father had to acknowledge himself as being more threatening to the child than the mother, since he was charged with discipline. The alternative to this acknowledgment was the loss of his daughter.

However, there are many other scenes that I do acknowledge as “scary.” In fact, the entire film is a long montage of the spirits doing bizarre and freaky things, up to and including kidnapping children into an alternate universe between life and death. That's not a criticism. I certainly don't expect otherworldly entities to behave in a manner that humans would find rational. So, their failure to do so makes perfect sense.

The thing that keeps us grounded in the plot is the human characters. Two parents are desperately trying to defend their children. That constant is what keeps us anchored within the movie; the transition of the characters from normality, to excitement at the possibility of the supernatural, to fear, to determination.

This movie is good, but often seems to lack direction, and really drags on too long. While I see the appeal, and would definitely recommend horror fans check it out, the remake actually entertained me more, simply because it did a better job of streamlining the plot. Still, I think my opinion is clearly in the minority here, and I definitely recommend checking the movie out.