INVESTIGATING DIRECTION OF THE ORIGINAL CLASSIC 'POLTERGEIST'

Year of Theatrical POLTERGEIST Haunting circa 1982

One of the most iconic images in horror film history occurs when the little blond-haired Heather O'Rourke's Carol Anne places her hands on the family TV's flashing static/snowy screen after the Star Spangled Banner, and, like in real life back then, televisions would all cease programming for the night: Which is about as entirely unfathomable to Millennials as Prohibition was to Baby Boomers and especially Generation-X...

And for members of the curious and cinema-obsessed, cult following few... Trying to figure out the difference between the already renown style of producer Steven Spielberg to his director Tobe Hooper is like imagining the childlike-eerie Jerry Goldsmith score in the hands of Spielberg's usual composer John Williams...

Beneath the hills of Agoura Hills suburbia in Los Angeles

The foreboding main theme doesn't have Williams' deeper, wider scope (which might not have fit here) but there's a similar cadence as things pick up in a more jovial pace: Like when a chubby, beer-holding neighbor's chased by a remote-controlled car to the pivotal sprawling suburban locale...

And a creepy underline remains with both Goldsmith's soundtrack and Hooper's direction: The groundbreaking indie TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE maker who's not only underrated for this gig, but is often disregarded as having actually directed this haunted house classic: which was Spielberg's labor-of-love going back to his Long Beach State college days...

Great image of the geists gone wild

Maybe it's best not to ask what Hooper did, but what Spielberg didn't or wouldn't do? For one, Tobe's exploitation style makes POLTERGEIST much darker than the usual Spielberg outing. Even the classic terror JAWS turned the initial gory killings into a triumphant Moby Dick style adventure. But as this otherwise conventional horror progresses into extremely deep darkness, there's far less mainstream-breathing room for the characters and audience...

Before which, the conservative-looking parentals liberally share a joint (as dad reads a Ronald Reagan biography), acting like the kind of young free-spirits hunted in a body count slasher, as they later "reach back to the past when we had open minds," so that, while being Spielberg's script, it doesn't really feel like his usual platform...

Dominique Dunne gives an FU to Sonny Landham and crew

And stuff like the killer bedroom clown little Robbie just can't put away could be something straight out of Hooper's dementedly wicked, thoroughly hypnotic FUNHOUSE. Or the schoolgirl-skirted teenage daughter flipping the bird to a group of lustful construction workers...

Also during the buildup, what really distinguishes a slightly offbeat pace is the 1960's/1970's-style of editing: When one scene feels half-a-second from ending in a normal manner, the other begins, already in motion: which derives from the previous decade that Hooper began in, throwing the viewer slightly off-balance, and...

E. Buzz is named after a Dan Aykroyd original SNL character

In all, Spielberg's touches are too numerous to mention, especially since POLTERGEIST ultimately bears his collective touch: ranging from moving toys ala CLOSE ENCOUNTERS to the camera-gliding flow taking the viewer perfectly along for the ride, like RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK and even 1941. And that ride soars at the most wonderfully voracious moments during scenes of initial contact: before Carol Anne gets sucked into the Sony..

Thus the second act goes into full (for better or worse) Spielbergian mode with bouts of melodramatic living room sequences, joined by a trio of paranormal experts led by a new-age Beatrice Straight; her searing whispers cram in too much hopeful exposition instead of letting the audience continue to blindly suffer along with the family...

Zelda Rubinstein as Tangina in POLTERGEIST

This kind of optimism should have been left entirely to Act Three in the competent little hands of Tangina (Zelda Rubinstein), a different kind of Exorcist and a female version of Truman Capote channeling Peter Falk's Columbo, whose voice is both grating and comforting...

She's Robert Shaw's JAWS Captain Quint's crazy aunt, albeit "crazy like a fox" while sharpening the plot and the family: especially dad, Craig T. Nelson as Steve. Their heated anti-chemistry is as fun and essential as polar opposites veteran Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss's young shark expert. And while they don't compare scars, Tangina proves herself by reading Steve's mind... We all know who's in charge now: especially the former head of the house! 

James Karen lectures in POLTERGEIST Rates: ****

Then there's the JAWS-style Murray Hamilton/money-seeking "simple mind over serious matter" mayor in Steve's land developing boss: both meeting above the suburban tract liken to a doomed and dusky Amity Beach. Played by late character-actor James Karen, the greedy Mr. Teaque brings matters back to earth right when the viewer needs a perfectly mundane break from the ghostly chaos, and...

Basically, POLTERGEIST shines in and out of itself, and works best around and between what are technically more important, plot-shaping elements. Meanwhile, Spielberg's often overwhelming sense of fantastical "aw" (purposely over-saturated in that year's sister production E.T.) and/or the "deep understanding of what's beyond our limited, living-human knowledge" doesn't match moments of deliciously voyeuristic, formidable menace: the ghost behind the ghost, as it were...

The Spider Beast, which we'll later learn is Reverend Kane

Which could be attributed to Tobe Hooper's blunt, malevolent threat that, while created for audiences young and old, is equally severe for hardcore horror buffs who don't except anything less than pure unapologetic evil...

Something Steven Spielberg might not have accomplished (or would have chosen not to accomplish) if left entirely to his own highly successful devices: So perhaps Tobe Hooper was a director and a device, and, quite possibly, a deliberate, strategic and extremely effective scapegoat as well.

Ask what exploitation king Tobe Hooper provided in the case of Steven Spielberg Presents...

Poltergeist with sexy mom JoBeth Williams as the suburb's dream wife and... MILF

Some say it's just a name on the screen, but the boss knew who to hire

Holiday Inn after the haunting for the Poltergeist cast including a sadly doomed Dominique Dunne

Classic ending, a sort of Twilight Zone but with funny closure in place of a twist in Poltergeist

As big a labor-of-love for Spielberg, he'd dreamed of a haunted house movie since Long Beach State College

Foreboding clouds of Spielberg's Poltergeist directed by Tobe Hooper in a comparative review/article by James M. Tate

Being that Sonny Landham, as Pool Worker # 2, has more lines and purpose in Poltergeist than Lou Perryman

The late Dominique Dunne flipping the bird to construction pool workers in POLTERGEIST

The late Dominique Dunne flipping the bird to construction pool workers in POLTERGEIST

The late Dominique Dunne flipping the bird to construction pool workers in POLTERGEIST

Lou Perryman as Pugly with Sonny Landham as Pool Worker 2 in POLTERGEIST

Heather O'Rourke in POLTERGEIST with JoBeth Williams

Heather O'Rourke in POLTERGEIST with JoBeth Williams

JoBeth Williams in POLTERGEIST with Craig T. Nelson reading about Ronald Reagan

The beautiful JoBeth Williams as an early MILF in POLTERGEIST

JoBeth Williams and Heather O'Rourke in POLTERGEIST

JoBeth Williams in POLTERGEIST

Heather O'Rourke in POLTERGEIST

JoBeth Williams and Craig T. Nelson in POLTERGEIST

JoBeth Williams and an ALIEN poster in POLTERGEIST

Not part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but the Hulk on a Horse is indeed quite magnificant

Oliver Robins and The Poltergeist Clowny that can kick Pennywise's fargin arse

POLTERGEIST does kitchen tables (JoBeth Williams, Heather O'Rourke)

Full size of JoBeth Williams and a STAR WARS poster in POLTERGEIST