*BEST GHOST MOVIE??* Poltergeist (1982) Reaction: FIRST TIME WATCHING (Spielberg)
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“Why is their TV so low?” What you have to understand is that large televisions back in those days were quite literally pieces of furniture in their own right. A smaller TV you could set on a stand so that it would be elevated. But the big sets from back in those days? Forget about it. Just moving one of those monsters was a two-man job, almost akin to moving a sofa-and about as much fun.
Lol he made me laugh with that question. 🤣
The floor model Zenith...incased in wood with a top almost as big as the kitchen table. The screen itself was a whopping 25" and therefore always called the "big" TV. They were meant for parents to watch from couches and easy chairs and kids from the floor on the shag carpet with their pillows...
@@Drawkcabi Ah, Zenith! “The quality goes in before the name goes on” …until you go bankrupt and get bought out by a South Korean multinational corporation.
yeah i remember moving i to my first college apartment off campus in '90 with my first big tv that i got in my room at home in '86....i needed two of my friends to help get it upstairs.
& it was maybe 25 inch screen.
Ah 1990... Kind of miss that. 😔
Yup them "big" screen in the 80s would weigh way to much to lift, we were using CRTs not plastics
The ghosts didn't position the cameras on to the stairs. They are motion detection cameras, they picked up the movement from the ghosts coming down the stairs :)
One of the aspects that I love about this movie is that they don't go straight into the horror; they take their time to establish the family dynamic, making us feel bad for them even more.
Agreed. All good stories are predicated on characters you can invest yourself in, which takes a bit of building up to, to do effectively.
It's called "character development", something severely lacking in modern horror.
Plus their very judicious choices around when to use instrumentals and when to just make us sit in the quiet and dread
I'm giggling at your reaction to the opening sequence. "Back the in day', there were no infomercials to keep you company in the middle of the night. There were four stations and they all went off the air about 1am until the 5-6am and they would sign off with that type of 'sign off' for the night.
It blows my mind that no one’s knows this anymore. Lol. Guess that another thing to add to the “Back in my day” list.
@@dmpbabe haha, give it another 20 years and people will be asking "what is a tv?"..... 😝
@@stefanforrer2573 true 🤣
@@dmpbabe btw, love the profile pic.... looks almost like my cat 😉
@@stefanforrer2573 thanks that my boy Lucian. Aren’t they just the best?!
this movie influenced EVERYTHING after it. truly iconic. also a fantastic score by jerry goldsmith.
JoBeth Williams doesn’t get enough credit for her role here.
The re-make of this suffered, to me, because I felt as if the parents didn’t care as much about their kids.
But here her passion and love for her kids makes all these scenes more intense and the pay off worth it.
The part where she screams “God, help me” trying to pull her kids out of the room always gives me goosebumps!
Poltergeist 2 is actually just as, if not more scary than the first one. The story of the 'curse' from all three of the 80's Poltergeist films came from the fact that after P1, the acress who played the eldest daugher was strangled to death by her boyfriend, and after P3 finished filming, the girl who played Carol Anne in all three died of an obstructed bowel complications. A Native American actor in P2 died suddenly after filming was complete as well but due to natural causes. And during filming cast and crew all reported a host of unfortunate mishaps both on the set and off the set, allegedly.
But seriously, while Poltergeist the original was groud-breaking in terms of a new twist on the old ghost story, Poltergeist 2 adds an alternative origin for things, and really kicks the horror up a notch. Like moving from jalapeno to habanero peppers of fear. I think you and the channel would enjoy it. (P3 is... bleh. Skip it.)
I’d heard somewhere,I forget where, that Carol Anne was actually played by twins,with one passing away and the other taking up the role. Also,was it supposed to be an alternative origin? I always figured they’d moved and found another haunted location.
@@JD43081 if you look closely one of the bodies resembles the preacher....but that could just be me.
@@FallenRingbearer You might be right about the similarity in bodies. It was hard to tell with them floating around. But clues I noticed were the cliffs and mesas and the fact that Kane and followers were found in a desert cave meaning,to me, that the Freelings had moved. Not to mention how Diane warmly greeted Tangina by name,as if already knowing her,and the eldest daughter was mentioned,her absence explained away as college and Robbie and Carol Anne being older.
Oh absolutely!
@@JD43081 It is also said that real bodies were used in the scene of where they come up from the ground, and alot believe thats the reason the film was cursed.
It seems as though it’s been forgotten at this point, but “Poltergeist” came to be regarded as a “cursed film” in the years following its release on account of the untimely deaths of a number of cast members. Dominique Dunne, who played the oldest of the Freeling’s children, Dana, was murdered by an ex-boyfriend about six months after the film was released to theaters. More tragic still was the death of Heather O'Rourke, who played little Carol Anne. She passed away in 1988, at the age of twelve, as a result of a congenital intestinal blockage.
It's not a cursed film. Bad shit happens. Lots of people work on a movie... odds are, bad things will happen to a few out of hundreds.
@@DanJackson1977 I didn't say it was a "cursed film." I said that it came to be regarded as one--and it was by some folks back in the day. That's totally silly, of course. As you say, "bad shit happens." But people can be very superstitious about things like that.
Forgotten? Half the comments on every Poltergeist video, including this one, invariably bring it up.
@@Corn_Pone_Flicks Half is an over exaggeration. But yes, I do see other commenters here raising the subject. Perhaps awareness of that aspect of the film’s history has persisted to a greater extent than I initially thought. I'm still willing to bet that plenty of folks here didn't know, though, especially among the younger viewers.
This one definitely freaked me out as a kid. In the theater it’s overwhelming. This movie is a bit cursed. My brother was terrified of storms, but storms here can be deadly and very destructive. I used to sit up with him on stormy nights. This was 1982 so yes it came first.
Tv's used to weigh nearly 300 lbs. sitting low was the only option back then.
One of the few horror movies in which no one dies.
It wasn't a Twilight Zone episode on the TV, it was the film 'A Guy Named Joe' (1943). Spielberg would direct the remake to this film 'Always' in 1989, with Richard Dreyfuss in the lead role. Might I recommend that film for a reaction. It gets little attention as it wasn't exactly a hit by Spielberg's standards at the time, but it's every bit as good as a lot of his other films that get reacted to all the time, in my opinion.
There is a Twilight Zone episode similar to Poltergeist though. It doesn’t have the TV as part of it, but the little girl does disappear suddenly but can be heard still in the house, within the walls. I can’t remember the details, but I think the explanation had something to do with her being stuck in another dimension.
@@jentoby73 yeah that was the episode Little Girl Lost.
The deaths of several cast members fueled rumours of a curse, but shudder did a amazing 4 part series called cursed films (poltergeist was one episode) and it had some really interesting interviews with the director. Well worth a watch if you enjoy behind the scenes info on movies
That one was so good.
yeah, the deaths..... really tragic, but not much else... don't know how accurate this is, but i've read that the "hickey" on the teenage daughter's neck wasn't a hickey at all.. it's supposedly a bruise caused by her abusive boyfriend who later went on to kill her... really tragic and disgusting
The poster above Robbie`s bed is dated 31st Jan 1988... Heather O`Rourke died 1st Feb 1988...
@@kylereese4822so….. that isn’t the same day.
"Thor's he-ere!"
I'm not a horror movie fan, but I always liked this one, even at the first watch, when I was... a bit younger than today.
But later, it fascinated me for the title.
I'm German. The title in German is "Poltergeist". Because "Poltergeist" is a German word... and most Americans never knew that.
This movie was so iconic and a classic in the modern haunted house genre, especially with bringing in people to try and catch evidence, and Tangina was a hugely recognizable character for a little bit.
As others mentioned, this movie seems to be cursed since a few of the main cast died young :(
It's interesting to see in hindsight.
It was indeed a "modern" haunted house. Instead of spooky old villas with ghosts behind a iron grill, you had the haunting flicker of television static and ghosthunters with videocameras. It was... immersive. It was what you knew, what you experience (even if we in our country didn't air the Star Sprangled Banner).
And today, young people have no idea anymore what this is all about.
How things change.
Well there is a second one...
This movie terrified me as a child though. Some scenes will always be stuck in my head. Such great cinematography for its time. One of the best horror films of its time.
There's two sequels actually
@@sirkylanthered Yeah but only the first sequel is worth the price of admission, really.
When it comes to ghosts and hauntings, I believe there are various reasons for them; some are because the dead didn't receive the proper burial rites (no matter what faith you have), large amounts of negative emotions attached to a place can become a hotbed for activity (like prisons, asylums, or areas of extreme violence), and of course, disturbing sacred grounds, especially ones set aside for the dead. The last one is considered to be one of the worst taboos, dating back CENTURIES.
There are other reasons for hauntings, I believe, but these were the ones I could immediately think of.
There's also hoaxes, people being mentally unsound, people being honestly mistaken, hypnogogic and hypnopompic hallucinations, and other reasons much more probable than the idea that people's minds keep on going after their bodies don't exist anymore.
Another reason is a residual haunting. Their is no intelligence behind it, no spirits, but events that happened left behind an energy that sensitive peiple can pick up on.
I was 12 in '82 (GREAT year for movies!) I saw this in a nearly sold out theater. The audience was SOOOO into it, laughing at the funny parts, screaming and jumping at the scary parts! I enjoyed it so much I saw it twice 😁😁🪦💀
TVs back then were built into a really heavy console or so big themselves that you had to place them on the floor or a very very sturdy stand. It usually took 2 people to move any of them except a 13". It was either bulky or 13" and that was pretty much it. We had one that had a tv, s record player, a radio and an 8 track player in it that was as long as our couch.
Those bodies. Completely real. They were rented/bought from a local body farm. And the cast had NO idea!
No... the SKELETONS were real.. as they had been in movies since movies have been made. the "flesh" was rubber. There were also real skeletons in the Indiana Jones movies... and no one cared.
@@DanJackson1977 Cause the cast of Indiana Jones were told ahead of time. A lot of the actors were brand new to this concept, especially Diana's actress, and she had no clue she was swimming with real bodies, and yes skeletons count as bodies. Don't know why you're being so combative though.
@@sirkylantheredI think they’re mad cause people always attach the supposed “curse” of these movies to the bodies. But you didn’t say that so idk what their problem is.
This movie is the same age as I am, but I'm glad I didn't see it until I was a senior in high school, as I was old enough to enjoy it without having nightmares. A lot of the earlier stuff in the film was era-related. The TV being low was because large TVs like that were HEAVY, to the point one could seriously injure oneself moving them, so if you wanted to have a TV high up, you would use a small one, which would still weigh more than a modern large flat-panel TV. The TV channel war between neighbors was uncommon, but not unheard of at the time. Also, one of the themes of the movie is that the haunting keyed in on people's fears, so the tree grabbed the son because he was especially afraid of it, and the clown attacked him later because he was afraid of that. That's also why the mom was forced into the pool, due to her fears of her daughter falling into it.
When programming ended after a certain time of night the national anthem would play before the tv turned to snow. You know. Back when it wasn’t an option to consume media whenever and wherever lol
The before and after scene with the dad and the mirror is funny now because he did the voice for Mr Incredible. (It’s much like Mr Incredible before and after he starts getting in shape again.)
The haunted house genre long predates “Poltergeist.” One of my personal favorites is “The Legend of Hell House” (1973) with Clive Revill and Roddy McDowell. But I’m hard-pressed to think of a haunted house movie predating “Poltergeist” that was set in a relatively modern, suburban American home. Old Victorian mansions or European castles would have been more typical venues for such films in the past. So I think “Poltergeist” was influential in that sense, bringing this type of horror to a very contemporary setting. It seems to me, as well, that “Poltergeist” was the first film to bring to a ghost story the new, cutting edge “Star Wars”-era special effects. Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), the company George Lucas created to do the effects for “Star Wars,” was brought in to do “Poltergeist.” This was still the pre-CGI era, and so everything was done with miniatures and blue screens, along with older techniques. But the visuals were very advanced for the time.
House is another scary movie starring William Katz from Carrie and the Greatest American Hero.
I loved “The Legend of Hell House”. If you liked that one,I recommend “And Now The Screaming Starts”,also released in ‘73,and “The Changeling”,released in ‘81
Not so fun fact: the skeletons in the pool are REAL skeletons. Movie is said to be cursed because of that.
Which is nonsense, of course. My sixth grade science classroom had a real skeleton in it, and no one ever accused it of being cursed.
Yes, Poltergeist was filmed in the same neighborhood, at the same time as E.T., only one street over. Spielberg wanted the two movies filmed back to back, but the studio said No, as Spielberg was under contract. So he wrote and produced Poltergeist, and directed E.T.
Also, the tree attacking Robby is done as a diversion. It brings the parents outside, leaving Carol Anne alone and vulnerable. They're drawn to her because she was born in the house and is sensitive to them. Carol Anne is precocious and wiser than her years. If you watch Poltergeist II, you'll understand why.
The skeletons in the pool at the end were real ones and they never told the actress until that sequence was done shooting. Wonder if she would have done it knowing that
Just the biohazard element alone...
Dude, back in day, tv stations stopped broadcasting at the end of the day late at night. So the tradition was to play the Star Spangled Banner and then everything would go to visual and aural static.
Spielberg produced but you can tell he was involved -- this was made at the same time as ET and he was not contractually allowed to direct two movies at once, but both his and Tobe Hooper's touches are all over this film. You can even tell this was filmed near the same place as ET, and they were in fact at one point the same movie
I believe they were both filmed in the same neighborhood for the outside shots. At the beginning of this movie when the man on the BMX bike, rides the bike down his driveway with the beer cans I think that might have been Elliot's house from E.T..
@@childof70s1 Yeah, I am almost certain exteriors were done in the same area. But it's neat to compare the two and think of the film ET was when it was first conceived as aliens converging on a family cowering in their home.
The Spielberg ghost-directing story is a big one but I'm glad someone else thinks both director's styles are all over this movie.
The actress who played the older sister was unfortunately murdered by her abusive ex boyfriend before the movie came out.
The used real skeletons because they were cheaper to buy then fake skeletons but they didn’t tell the actress who played the mom till after she filmed the pool scene.
In those days a lot of tv stations would stop broadcasting at like 2 in the morning and okay the national anthem before they went off, even here in Canada that would happen and they they would start broadcasting again at like 5 or 6 in the morning. TV’s we’re like pieces of furniture back then so that’s why they were so low and they also weighed a ton, they usually had fake wood shells which made them look like furniture.
The red light in the bathroom was a heat lamp.
When I was young, our TV was this big thing with wood on all sides of it, and it sat on the floor. I'm a child of the 80s/90s.
Old televisions were CRTs (cathode ray tubes) and were big and heavy. Today's televisions are very slim and light and can go anywhere. The old CRT ones were almost as deep as they were wide (also the 4:3 aspect ratio, no widescreen then) so the bigger ones of 26" and above needed something sturdy to be on, so were usually pretty low.
The 'patriotic music' is the sign-off for the channel. Before the days of 24 hour television (and with fewer channels), the station went to maybe midnight or 1am and then stopped broadcasting as most people were in bed asleep and the channel ended the 'regularly scheduled programmes' with the National Anthem. The UK did much the same and we had even fewer channels than the U.S.
The little girl Heather O'Rourke actually died in real life in 1988 at age 12.
I lived in a haunted house in my childhood, I also live in one of the most haunted states, and have seen my fair share of the paranormal. I used to be skeptic until the whole haunted house thing. Then came other interactions. You don't know strength of spirit and mind until you feel your bed dip in the middle of the night, with a clear impression, and something starts to breath in your ear as it says your name. Switching between male and female.
At first, you think it's just because your tired, and it's late at night so you shrug it off as maybe a dream. But then it starts happening while you're awake. Playing video games with your sibling and then you feel breathing on the back of your neck and it says your name. Repeatedly. And you have to ignore it or else they think they have permission to keep interacting with you. I have had doors rattle on their own when I was home alone and when there were people in the house. It was constant until my Mother chased it out of the house when it threw a door open and growled in her face.
I have had other instances of paranormal activity in my life. Like seeing a shadow man in my Grandmother's house when I was staying up late to watch Toonami on Adult Swim. Or a woman in white in the middle of a graveyard at my cousin's funeral.
I also want to give a fair warning that you could just have crappy wiring and your electricity is putting off a high EMF field that can cause you to hallucinate or produce "evidence" of a haunting. I would always suggest checking with an electrician before assuming the supernatural is at work. But unlucky childhood me had a real haunting because our electricity was fine. Whoopee.
When I was five years old, I had a scary experience on a family camping trip, which may or may not have been ghost related. My grandparents took 3 of my older cousins and me to a state park in western Nebraska. The park had been an old army fort that was later turned into a pretty neat park, and the old soldiers' barracks became rental camping cabins. One of the nights I was there, I was sleeping in a small, wheeled folding bed. I was suddenly awakened by the bed moving from where it had been against the wall to the middle of the room. I didn't see any lights or hear any voices, but something seemed very...off, for lack of a better term. I exclaimed "My bed moved!" in a frightened voice, which woke up my cousins. They thought it was funny, and teased me about ghosts for the rest of the trip. I would suspect one of them grabbed my bed and rolled it to the middle of the room as a joke, except that they wouldn't have had time to run back, jump in bed and pretend to be asleep without my hearing them do it. While I think the most likely explanation was that a wheel brake on the bed may have come loose and the floor may have sloped slightly downward, there's some chance it was something else, as that fort had been the site of many deaths, both of soldiers and of Native prisoners, including the famous war chief Crazy Horse, who was murdered on the fort's parade ground after he was captured and brought there...
Ah yes! Poltergeist, the movie that worsened my fear of evil possessed trees (right next to The Evil Dead)
Your commentary was spot on especially about the filmmaking side of it. Framing etc.
I'd say it's a "frontrunner" for sure, especially with the family element and the great performances from the kids. It's a tricky thing with child performances, because a precocious kid(s) can be annoying in a horror film. But the family element, with the family moments is what helps to make the story stick. Each family member has their own moment or two. You mention "The Conjuring", which I think borrows the great family dynamic (and they're visited by the paranormal researchers, too). The Netflix series "The Haunting of Hill House" uses the family dynamic to great effect, with each member of the family getting their due.
This movie is basically the movie that scares us of everything 😬😰
Agreed.
the cigar box is what mom and dad use to keep the stash in!!! that's what the smell was that the kid was talking about.
Not a lot of people talk about the sequel but I honestly adore it. Mainly because of Julian Beck who at the time was fighting cancer and STILL gave the performance of a lifetime despite it all. If you get the chance at least check out the second one. It may not be as good as this one, but just for Beck alone. Man deserves more recognition for honestly being one of the coolest under appreciated horror villains of all time
I enjoyed the second one save for that one scene in the other side when Kane corrupted Carol Anne,and you see her spirit warp and hear her voice distort as she screams “Noooo!” It makes a shiver run up my spine every time.
@@JD43081 There is a novel that goes with the movie. The novel covers a LOT more of the story that the movie didn't. I would suggest checking it out for sure. I WISH the movie would have been more like the novel, but there are some parts in the novel that made my hair stand up MORE than that scene.
It's called Poltergeist II: The Other Side just like the movie it's written by James Khan.
@@Vernydog92 Thanks! Definitely going to look for it! 👍🏻
@@Vernydog92 I found an audiobook version on CZcams
For me the tree scene would be a nightmare inducing part, but I've seen "The Thing", "Alien", "Puppet Master" and "The Blob" earlier so I was hardened.
You could check out the second part. It is also pretty cool.
I was hardened as well. I saw Watership Down as a kid. The original version,not the cutesy one.
The National Anthem in the beginning 2:12 was something that was played back then in the 80's right before the network would go off the air. Back before infomercials, and all night reruns some networks shut down late at night, maybe 2-3 AM and they played that static until morning when the network programming returned. I believe this movie probably used it as an introduction to the creepy static and to help scare people when it happened to them IRL late at night in the future. I cant recall when they stopped doing that.
I think the psychic lady when she said the house is clear, she was referring to the ordinary ghosts, who she told to go into the light while the mother was inside the closet getting Carol Anne. Unfortunately, she was not strong enough to get rid of the Beast Poltergeist. Which is why we have more movies to watch!
Man, that closet head still gives me chills. That thing first traumatized me when I was about 4. My dad thought it was hilarious to scare me.
The movie is said to be cursed as the skeletons in the swimming pool were real!
The film was even nominated for
Best Visual Effects
Best Sound Editing
Best Original Score.
It lost those awards to ET, which came out the same year
Speilberg was originally going to direct the project, but directed 2 films at the same time would have violated his contract with the Directors Guild, so he recieved a producer and writing credit instead.
The Star Spangled Banner would play every night when the broadcast stations signed off, around midnight. (Sorry if someone already answered this question. )
I believe Poltergeist was thr first haunted house movie where an ordinary suburban house was haunted. Previously, haunted houses were either castles or run-down houses or mansions. While people would always say they would avoid the creepy house, now it was possible that any house, even a brand new house, could be haunted.
Back when I was a kid. TV wasn't on all night. When the channel ended it's last show we got as we called it Snow on the screen.
The man who brings the beers is the son of Hoss on Bonanza.
You’re definitely right that this movie inspired a LOT of the haunted house movies that came after it. Obviously it isn’t the first of its kind necessarily but it definitely was one of the first hugely successful blockbuster films in the genre. It proved that a mainstream big budget horror movie could be a major hit. This year I believe marks the 40th anniversary of Poltergeist as well.
I believe one of the most notable things about this movie was those skeletons they used were actually real corpses because it was cheaper than making fake ones, and the actors didnt find out until after the movie came out
I rember watching this on VHS when I was younger, in 1990, but I'm pretty sure I did not get it all! I then re-watched it when I was a teenager and the part with the chairs on the kitchen table freaking scared the living shit out of me! My father had just bought a Sorround Sound System and it was just a blast watching this with my family on DVD over and over. It already looked dated, of course, but I recognized it as an instant classic and a true reference to many of the ghost/haunted house movies being released at the time - and it was so much better, the acting, the score, the realism and genuin relationships and dinamics with the family and also with the experts!! This is an awesome movie! And great reaction as well! Cheers, mate!
Yes, this is one of those films that heavily influenced a lot of the genre going forward. I saw this when i was way to young to be watching it and it scared the living shit out of me. lol. They didn't hold back. they went all out on this family and the effects are still pretty creepy today, largely because of how well directed and acted the film is. It builds the tensions extremely well. The tree coming through the window is an iconic sequence. The caskets rising to the surface everywhere. Just all hell breaking lose. And knowing it was all practical kind of makes it even scarier. It must have been a hell of a lot of fun to build and film all of this.
FUN FACT: One of the most frequently cited facts among Poltergeist curse theorists is the claim that real human skeletons were used in the scene when JoBeth Williams’ Diane falls into the unfinished swimming pool, and finds numerous ancient corpses creeping out of the earth around her.
It has since been confirmed that the skeletons in the scene are indeed real. However, it should be noted that this has long been common practice in the film industry, as it is of course considerably cheaper and easier to obtain real human remains than to build fake ones. Plus, the way they were sourced was completely above board, as real skeletons are often bought and sold for medical students to use in their studies.
The rumor is that Spielberg had more then just a producer role in this movie. He was filming ET at the same time and according to union rules he wasn't allowed to film 2 films at once. So he took the producer role for this film but un-officially was behind the camera for a lot of the film. It is well known that those are his hands that are ripping off the face in the sink scene.
Yeah - the producer credit comes with a big "wink" and a smile; the "rumor" is that the production dailies were sent to him every night and immediately returned with his notes for the next day.
@32:25 they actually used the same set piece for both shots in this movie and Nightmare on Elm Street, nice catch! =D
"It Knows What Scares You" is the key to the plot. Robbie was afraid of the tree outside his window and the clown doll. Carol Anne wanted the closet light on early in the movie. Diane was afraid of sleep walking and falling into the pool. The demons manifested themselves in all the family's fears. Poltergeist 2: The Other Side was a great sequel to this which you should also review at some point.
This was basically the one that set the stage for a haunted house in a suburban home. The Haunting of Hill House (1963) and House on Haunted Hill (1959) were the typical haunted mansions though both movies were awesome. Then there's The Amityville Horror which is another beast altogether.
My favorite part of JoBeth Williams’ performance is when she’s heading up the stairs and Carol Ann’s souls passes through her and she goes “she just moved through me. I can smell her scent.”
In 1982 there was no CZcams or Cloud. The most you could do was to record by the way of analogue
The effect used to roll JoBeth Williams (Diane) up the wall and across the ceiling was a rotating set (just like they used in Nightmare on Elm Street ironically lol). The whole room rotated and tumbled her up the wall, across the ceiling and down the wall while the camera and cameraman were strapped to the floor of the set. JoBeth Williams stated in an interview that after several takes, they had to repeatedly wipe her legs clean of blood due to her legs getting absolutely SHREDDED by the popcorn spackled ceiling.
And the interesting special effect in the movie? They used a miniature of the house that was hooked to a vacuum and shot it with shotguns to create the house implosion scene at the end. Practical special effects will forever beat CGI in my opinion.
My only pet peeve…after they get the daughter back…they act like things are normal…she’s coloring her hair, kids playing in their bedroom…yeah…no!
One a little older than this that really got me as a kid…The Amityville Horror!!
Back in the day, there wasn't 24 hour tv. The stations would sign off at night with the national anthem. Edit: Yes, this movie came out when I was a kid and it terrified me for years.
Back before TV stations began to air reruns and infomercials all night long, after daily broadcasting was over, they would go off the air for the night; this was usually after 1am, give or take an hour or two.
When they did this, they would typically run what they call the "station identifier" and a "sign-off." This consisted of giving the name of the station, where they were broadcasting from, what area they serve, and details like the wattage and/or frequency of the broadcast. They would run some imagery/footage right before the station went off, then maybe a test pattern accompanied by a loud tone, and then there was nothing but static/"snow" until broadcasting began again in the morning.
A lot of the time, this footage was of a government building or monument, usually with a waving flag somewhere in the video, along with a patriotic piece of music.
You can find out more by looking up "Sign-on and sign-off" on Wikipedia, and CZcams undoubtedly has some nostalgic videos of old station sign-offs.
Larger CRT based TVs are dangerous to place on tall stands, due to the possibility of them tipping over and crushing someone. All the rolling TV carts at school had stickers warning of exactly that possibility (and was why those TVs were usually belted to the cart). Larger CRTs were typically encased in a heavy piece of wooden furniture, with built-in speakers, so placing them any higher was not really an option.
People seem to have either forgotten or don't realize how big and heavy old appliances were. We recently had to have our dishwasher replaced and, when one of the two delivery guys was going to take the old one away, the first guy (who had already dragged the old dishwasher out of its alcove), asked him, "Aren't you getting the dolly?" Delivery guy 2 said he thought he'd just pick it up and carry it out, and the first guy said, "This isn't a new washer, it's old and it weighs about 400 pounds; you're going to need the dolly."
In my opinion, if you believe in an afterlife, you believe in ghosts. I do believe that some ghosts are indeed lost. This is a horror movie, but it is most importantly a family movie, and that gives it depth. I always enjoy watching people who've mainly watched modern horror seeing this for the first time. It subverts certain expectations, but there are also scenes/situations which have since become so widely used that they've become tropes (and in some cases memes). It's also fun to hear reactions to the Star Spangled Banner at the beginning, because many people don't remember when television stations actually went off air late at night. Yes, this was scary back in the day. It was the idea of it, something so sinister that just slips into your life without preamble or warning. The setting was unnerving; an average house, neighborhood, and family, then *bam* poltergeist! You started wondering if your house was built on caskets, if that big tree was going to eat you, and if the TV would suck you. And the most important question: Why did my grandmother make this freaky clown doll and is it rude to burn it?
I was taught that those who are dead cannot interfere with the physical world unless given permission by us (the living) and that's why we pray. We are giving God permission to come into our lives.
Ever since I learned that, I noticed that even in horror movies, the people who don't believe in ghosts never see the ghosts until they start believing.
In other words, i believe that whether or not ghosts exists is up to us. If you believe, you are giving them permission to interact with you and so the do exist. If you don't, then they don't have permission to interact with you and so they don't exist.
@@melodramatic7904 fun fact, if you own the novelization of this movie's script, the tagline on the cover reads:
"Somethings have to be believed to be seen"
Wanna hear something spooky, the skeletons used were real. They thought it was cheaper than to make them. It was likely the reason the curse hit the set. I used to be so worried about storms, me and my sisters we would sing the theme song of Gumby to dispel the storm, we believed it worked and 70% of the time storms did pass quickly because of our singing ☺. I can't wait for your Scream reaction, I would love it if you'd watch Texas Chainsaw 2003 or the never mentioned splendid movie Wind Chill from 2007
When we only had a handful of TV channels, the daily broadcasts would end (at 1 a.m. or so) with the Star Spangled Banner and go off the air until morning.
This should help answer your Spielberg question.
For years, rumours have circulated that Poltergeist's credited director, Tobe Hooper, wasn't actually behind the lens of the classic 1982 horror; instead, fans claimed Steven Spielberg was responsible, already being credited as both producer and screenwriter.
All easily dismissed, it seemed. Hooper's work on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre has made him a legend of horror cinema, and the rest of his fairly cult CV makes Poltergeist a natural fit.
However, fans have noted for a while that the film's visual style seems to far more echo Spielberg's work, which led to claims that a clause in Spielberg's E.T. contract prevented him from directing another film while in pre-production on the beloved sci-fi; he reportedly accepted a producer role, but secretly ran the show on set.
Claims which have now been more-or-less confirmed by one of Poltergeist's own crew members, John Leonetti. A director now in his own right, behind 2014's Annabelle, Leonetti worked as first assistant camera on the film and revealed the truth to the Shock Waves podcast.
"It was a very intense, very fun, very technical movie to work on. There’s a lot going on. And candidly… Steven Spielberg directed that movie. There’s no question," he stated. "However, Tobe Hooper - I adore. I love that man so much."
"Hooper was so nice and just happy to be there. He creatively had input," he elaborated. "Steven developed the movie, and it was his to direct, except there was anticipation of a director’s strike, so he was ‘the producer’ but really he directed it in case there was going to be a strike and Tobe was cool with that."
"It wasn’t anything against Tobe. Every once in a while, he would actually leave the set and let Tobe do a few things just because. But really, Steven directed it."
Oh & those skeletons in the pools; they were real!!! Regarding the Star Wars toys / posters it’s due to Spielberg & Lucas being good friends. Also, I’ve always found the Alien poster an interesting feature. This is because HR Giger, who did so much design work on Alien, provided a lot of concept art for Poltergeist II……although, unlike Alien, his ideas weren’t realised to their full potential.
This movie is so wild. The corpses you see at the end, rising out of the ground, were all ACTUAL CORPSES (because making fake corpses was out of their budget and ability).
But most interesting is the so-called curse around this movie where people died early deaths most notoriously, Heather O'Rourke. On the wall of their bedroom in the movie is a poster for Superbowl XXII, which wouldn't be played until January 31, 1988 which was 6 years after the film was made. On January 31, 1988 Heather began exhibiting flu-like symptoms. The follow day of February 1 Heather died following two cardiac arrests due to intestinal congenital stenosis complicated by septic shock. She died in a children's hospital in San Diego. Super Bowl XII was held January 31 and was very oddly enough held in San Diego.
I've seen (different) ghosts on two separate occasions. Both times totally unexpected, very clear, and absolutely no doubt what I was seeing.
I love the wide establishing shots of the Freeling house at various points in the movie, sort of like episodic TV, scene changes to indicate the passage of time.
I always like your reactions. I saw this in the movie theater when it first came out. Such a huge visual experience on the big screen.
I can't believe hardly anybody knows this anymore, but "The Beast" is another name for The Devil.
Poltergeist 2 is a good watch as well. You'll learn more about the difference between Poltergeists and ghosts. It also will reveal why it doesn't matter where they move, a Poltergeist attaches to a person, not just a location as in a haunting. Part 2 also explains more about why there is an attachment to Carolanne specifically.
I was scared of storms because I'm born and raised in the Dallas area, and the Mayfest storm of 1992 happened when I was in first grade. Mayfest is an outdoor festival that happens in DFW every May, and a storm came through that year that literally had grapefruit sized hail. Several people at Mayfest were killed from being hit in the head with hail, and it was coming through people's roofs and destroying everything in its path.
It came through at night, so I was woken up by the deafening sound of that enormous hail pounding against the roof. I didn't know what it was, and I started screaming for my mom and dad. They couldn't hear me because it was so loud and they were panicking trying to deal with all of the skylights in our house being shattered by the hail and rain and debris coming into the house.
I was almost to junior high before I was finally over my fear of thunderstorms after that night.
Would have been cool if they gave acting credits to the people who were the skeletons. 🙂
Well the left lets dead people vote so why not give them acting credits.
I hope I can be a skeleton in a classic to be horror movie after I die!
This movie gave me nightmares as a kid, but i love it as an adult, and yes the house we lived in had spirits that i talked to, also my current residence we have the occasional occurrence, I think this movie caused me to have a phobia of dark (unlit) closets with the door wide open, i also had an occurrence happen from a closet so yeah
in the beginning there was broadcast tv. broadcast tv did not play all night, it had to sign off for a few hours a night. so if you fell asleep, not only did you miss the movie, but you woke up in the middle of the night to what we call static(snow).lol (didn't have cable till around the time this movie was made)
The white demon that appeared to keep the mom out of the kids room at the end terrified the crap out of me when I saw this movie as a kid.
Back in those days TV ended at a certain point in the night, and they always played the National Anthem before it would turn the feed off
Do I believe in ghosts? No, I know they exist. I believed as a kid even before my family moved to a haunted house when I was 13. After that I didn't believe, I knew they are real.
I don't know when my mom and brother figured out the house was haunted, I figured it out right away when he turned my stereo off the first night. I know it wasn't my parents or a blackout because I was still awake. The next morning I took a chance he was listening and explained who I was and that music helped me sleep. I asked him to please leave my stereo alone and he never bothered MY room again.
Now my dad wouldn't believe my brother and I weren't leaving the bathroom faucet dripping even though we never had before. And an old house like that was bound to have electrical issues. However he couldn't explain who was moving the furniture at night or how the windows that had been painted shut were being opened.
Now it was a a bit unnerving at first to always wake up to find things moved around but he was never malevolent, he was just there. We learned to live with it and even started calling him George.
I've seen this movie a zillion times, lol. It's a fun movie even if there is horror elements you feel human touch with the family and the supernatural investigators. This was definitely not the first haunted house blockbuster. Amityville Horror had happened a few years earlier. But this was the 80s and the location in a relatively new suburban error was unique. This was directed by the same guy who directed The Texas Chainsaw Massacre but was heavily micro-managed by Spielberg's production.
I really hope you'll watch Scream (1996) for spooky season
At the beginning of the movie, at 10:00 one of those workers trying to hassle their daugher is Billy from the Predator.
“What a legendary name.” Her real name is pretty legendary too. Pun very much intended.
the other movie I can think that set the "genre" would be "The Amityville Horror" from 1979 which was also setting a genre in terms of house/family possession. Great reaction, stay awesome!
Yes I was scared of storms. Once when I was kid, my mom was driving me to my grandma's house and lightening struck a transformer as we went past. It scared me to death and to this day, I have a fear of lightening. And back the day, the tv's would sign off at midnight and they would play that patriotic theme before going to static. Tvs were also very very expensive so most homes would just have one.
When I was a kid in the 80s, I often would also find my parents smoking strange cigarettes in the late evening.
The TV"s back then couldn't be raised. They were to big and heavy. And the national Anthem always played at the end of the night before going off air. And there were no zoom calls, CZcams or cloud. And Tangina was briefly possessed by a spirit in the house. She was played by Zelda Rubinstein She passed away in 2010 at the age of 76, She was 4 foot 3 inches tall, and had a wonderful career. And you can be relieved until part 2. Poltergiest 2 The other side. Take care.xx
The source story, though not cited/admitted, is "Little Girl Lost" episode of Twilight Zone. An excellent groundbreaking episode (with Bernard Herrmann score!) that tales the viewer into an alternate dimension, where their daughter has disappeared.
I strongly recommend THE HAUNTING (1963)
Everything makes this movie a classic. Dominick Dunne(the older sister), was literally murdered by her real life boyfriend, Heather O'Rourke died at the age of 12, from an infectious disease (from drinking bad water), and yes, real skeletons.
There's a lot of paranoid theories that these films were cursed just because some bad things happened in people's personal lives. As for the real human bodies, this movie may or may not have used them. If they did, they were not the first to do so. It's actually more common than you'd think. The series Cursed Films has an episode on Poltergeist. I highly recommend that series.
Yeah but that’s not titillating, stupid, and dramatic enough to make click bait articles of, or like-farm in comment sections with.
Hilariously ironic that people talk about how this movie is cursed because they disrespected the dead, and then disrespect the dead by attributing natural deaths to some stupid bad psychic energy so that they can “educate” people about “fun trivia” (it’s like-farming). These people have literally tainted the memories of four deceased actors in pop culture cause people wanna talk about some stupid curse.
Nice reaction! Good call on the Close Encounters reference also, these two films came from the same original script from Spielberg
I can easily point to this movie for my childhood fear of things under the bed
I was 10 when this came and way too young to go see it, probably. But I did. Loved it. I notice things now that I didn't when I was younger, like how that guy was about to take a whole steak out of someone else's fridge in the middle of the night and cook it (I personally think the ghosts went after him because they too think "wait, who does that?"), or how when he's giving his family's ages he says the mom is 32 and the oldest daughter is 16. It's definitely one of my favorite scary movies.
This was one of the curse films. In real life some of the cast and crew died not long after all the films were finished, including the cute blond girl, either through illness, accident and even murder. Maybe it was all a coincidence but its still classed as a curse film!
Oh... and the bodies on the pool were REAL! not kidding.
i do not think the ghost moved the camera , i believe the camera was set up to move if any activity occurs
It's not an episode of The Twilight Zone, but the movie Guy Named Joe.
As far as the curse of the movie, personally I think all movies are cursed. Think about it. Any person who makes a movie eventually dies.
TV wasn't on 24/7. Stations signed off around midnight -1am back in the day.
I didn't grow up out West either BUT where I grew up and still live, we have an annual hurricane season 🌀. It's so weird watching this cuz of the thunder scene. Two nights ago here... Myself.and my 95 yo mother thought that maybe we'd had a small tornado touchdown. The thunder was so loud and so powerful it actually vibrated the ground. I thought it was imagining it because I live on the top floor. Can I call down to house like Ma... do you feel that? She was like oh my God yeah I'm like yeah I thought I was imagining song she goes oh no you're not. Next thing you know a whole bunch of car alarms went off on the street. I went outside about an hour later to the garage and I called my friend Diane who lives in the next town over. Now her parents lived on the block from me so I know they felt it. I asked her if she felt it one town over and she's like oh yeah I sure did! People think we don't get tornadoes here but we've had one a couple months ago a little baby one. You also had a couple of baby earthquake hit here but further upstate. People don't realize that we actually sit on not one but several major fault lines. When it comes to hurricanes I got to say I've lived through a lot in my lifetime, but Hurricane Sandy which actually is the 10 year anniversary of this month... Absolutely was the worst one I went through. People talk about Florida and the islands in the Caribbean all the time. Florida's 345 miles above sea level. BUT Long Island is just a little over 122 miles above sea level. Yeah, no kidding. It doesn't take long ON Long Island to be sloshing around in water as we say! 😂 #BrooklynBorn #LongIslandRaised #NYGENXBIKERLADY
I’m pretty sure the camera was meant to be a motion tracking camera. It wasn’t that the ghosts were moving it, but it was detecting motion.