They’re here
The Freeling’s are a typical American family in 80s. They have a dog, a house and three kids. What more could you ask for? Well, they didn’t ask for more, but they got more. Inside their home is more than just furniture and a single-click remote control for their gigantic wood panel television. Regretfully, they find out there are ghosts living within their homes. Humored at first, they soon realize that the innocence with the ghosts truly is a planned terror event when a poltergeist enters the scene and kidnaps their youngest child, Carol Anne, into their world which lies between heaven and hell. The Freeling’s now have to find out who has stolen their daughter and what they need to do to get her back.
Sweet jesus! This movie still bothers me, in a good way. The story that was put together from Steven Spielberg was probably the last great ‘scary’ movie that he did in some way. Thankfully, it was the pinnacle of his tension-filled scripts. What makes this movie all too real for the audience is the normalcy that the Freeling family brings to the film; It makes the film believable and treats it more like a documentary than a fictional movie. I firmly believe that this movie caused more nightmares for folks than Jaws. The fact that a serious movie with ghosts as the main subject starts out with humor and ends with a break of sweat has to be something special. Spielberg developed such a story, added a lot of innocence to it thanks to his main character, Carol Anne, sprinkled a terrifying amount of plot points across his script through haunting happenings and concluded it with uncertainty. He put together one horrifying thrill-ride that will stick with you just like the ghosts at the end of the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland. In other words, you won’t soon forget it.
As for the actors, Heather O’Rourke’s Carol Anne was perfect. O’Rourke, who regretfully passed away far too early in her life, convinced the world that she was the Freeling’s daughter. She sold the audience to the fact she was five years old and just talking to people who were asking questions. The first scene with her in the movie, the very first scene of the movie itself, where she goes down to talk to the television is probably the creepiest moment of the film. It defines the situation and her connection with the ‘other’ side. When she’s answering those questions that the people on the other side of the screen have for her, it’s done with amazing and believable tact. She sold the character on this scene, everything after that was just purely a bonus. A perfect pick for Carol Anne. As for the rest of the cast, Craig T. Nelson’s role as Steve Freeling is great, as well as the JoBeth Williams’ Diane Freeling. They play a great set of parents who really want to do everything right with their family and morally right with their unique ghost situation. Again, they are believable as the parents and I couldn’t see anyone else in those roles. Who would I be if I didn’t mention the creepiest role of Tangina, played by Zelda Rubinstein. She is both funny and very creepy. When she can feel/see the ghosts in the film you believe her. You want to laugh because of how she acts and works, but you can’t because how she’s expressing her character through dialogue is just too darn horrifying.
The movie brings around a new type of terror. Prior to Poltergeist, most ghosts were always heard, but never seen. A good example of this is the movie The Shining. The ghosts in that movie are actual people and they come and go. They don’t mysteriously, silently alert you of their presence, they’re just there. Poltergeist took a different ghost story route where mysterious moments in the film are established through sudden moments of unknown terror. You have chairs moving and stacking on their own, unknown people asking little girls questions through a television, or even a tree crashing through a window and trying to devour someone; these are the moments that drive Poltergeist and make it quite terrifying. Hitchcock always said that the most terrifying moments in a film are the ones you don’t see, Spielberg and Tobe Hooper took this to heart. You can’t see or hear the intruders in Poltergeist most of the time which makes it perfect for the horror that goes on. Add this type of suspense and terror to the fact that ILM had a field day creating effects to enhance the experience and that equals out to ‘scary as hell’.
I can do blood, I can do violence, but as soon as you bring illogical into logical and make it fit, I can’t do that. This is the precise reason why Poltergeist works.
Another sleepless night awaits.
Blu-ray makes the experience just a bit too real
I have always praised the fact that Blu-ray enhances the movie experience, especially with action, but now it’s got a new genre champ. Horror movies benefit tremendously from the Blu-ray technology. Poltergeist is much scarier on Blu-ray thanks to enhanced visuals and audio. The moment where Carol Anne is talking to the television is probably one of the creepiest things I’ve heard and seen in HD. It’s difficult to describe, but picture looking at someone actually being sucked into their closet and than realize it’s the HD version of Poltergeist. It’s that good and at the same time that terrifying. Or, if you need another example, look no further than Carol Anne shouting for her mother through the television after being captured by the ghosts. When it’s coming through all the speakers and sounds sad, innocent and scary at the same time, you know it’s good audio.
It will be tough to give you a healthy description of how great the experience is, just know that it’s leaps and bounds from DVD. It makes DVD look like VHS.
As for features, the movie certainly skimps a bit. You get two 15-20 minute documentaries on ghosts, poltergeist and other paranormal subjects. The featurettes are appropriate, but it would have been great to see a documentary on the movie itself. It has been well-rumored that there was some tension/bad-blood between writer(Spielberg)/director(Hooper), this might be the reason for the lack of featurettes. Regardless, it’s still interesting to watch, but there could have been more.
