Poltergeist
 

How is this movie? I'm TiVOing it but it doesn't come on for another week or so, but I'm kinda psyched to finally watch it. Good? Bad?

Depends on what you're looking for. I thought it was really good, but it's just a typical ghost story overall. If you want cool deaths, go elsewhere. Still, classic, great movie:)

Re: Poltergeist
 

You're what??! I can't really remember much of it I've been meaning to buy it but it hasn't popped up cheap anywhere yet. Some fool was trying to charge me $20 for the VHS the other day. Fuck that!

i got the dvd for like 10 bucks

Re: Re: Poltergeist
 

TiVO. I couldn't live without it. It's like a hard drive on your TV...it tapes shows right on to your TV (Via digital cable) and you can watch them whenever. It also allows you to FF, pause or rewind TV. It's amazing.

TiVo

Oh yeah..... I saw them on the TV news not to long ago. Flash!

Great ghost movie by tobe hooper. Definetly worth watching/owning hoping we get a dcent dvd of it soon

A key 80's title.
It has dated settings wise, but it still has some great visuals and ideas and a good few chills. The 'steak' scene was a major freak-out when i was younger, and the storm/bed sequence is a textbook example of how to do a haunted house scene.

I cut everything in half before cooking for awhile after the first time I saw it

LOL! :)

Poltergeist is like the Ring (only i doubt very many peiople will say it sucks) in that it proved that a PG title could be scary, if it is made by a talented director. It's hard to believe that the guy whjp made TCM made this, but i think it is a tribute to how good Hooper is.

I never bothered with the sequals.


The movie is even more freaky if you know about all the tragedy that surrounds the actors in it, specifically the actresses who played the girls.

i thought it was effective when i was a kid (the face ripping off scene) but i never had 'the fear' because i instinctively knew no one was going to get killed (as in the Amityville Horror)

that was the case with PG horror films back in the day - people ran around scared - but they werent killed..

i guess the fear of the character you like getting killed was key for me - put me more in the driver seat so to speak..

the 1st sequal was interesting just for the creepy presence of Julian Beck ..

nothing at all to recommend #3 pointess junk.

Re: Re: Poltergeist
 

found it for $12 at best buy. havnt bought it yet though.

I remember seeing the third one whne I was little. Even then i thought it was fucking terrible. I bet the first is a lot better though.

I think Im retarded, but I though speilberg did poiltergeist, then again I haven't looked anything up. Its a good movie and worth watching, I like the swiming pool full of dead people.

I believe it was a team effort, Spielberg and Hooper. Not sure though. Like I said, I haven't yet seen it.

Hooper gets directing credit, but, if I recall correctly, Speilberg wrote and produced, I think. And I get the impression he pretty much had creative control....lol.

But I love it, scared the hell out of me when I was a kid. Well, two scenes did. :p Think it is a really well-done film.

http://imdb.com

A movie geek's best freind.


Hooper directed, Spielberg wrote and produced.

I've always thought Hooper was a guy who just had lighting strike with TCM, Poltergeist was as good as it was because of the genius he was previledged to work with. Don't get me wrong I don't have a problem with the guy after all he made one of the best films I've ever seen but I just don't think he's all that great.

Well, I finally watched this, and I thought it was very good. The clown scene near the end was terrifying.

My Poltergeist Review

First off let me state that unlike a lot of other people my age (26), I had never seen Poltergeist in its entirety until now. Oh, I've seen bits and pieces here and there around Halloween, but I've always resisted watching it on TV (with the obvious commercial breaks and cuts for time and content). I thought the movie was a very solid ghost / haunted house story, and I thought it did a good job of ratcheting up the "fear factor" as the ghosts went from playful to malevolent in a hurry. The acting wasn't great, but it was definitely solid, and the idea behind the movie was a good one. There have been a lot of questions as to how much influence Spielberg (as executive producer and writer of the story and screenplay) had on this movie, and how much (or more precisely how little) Tobe Hooper had. It definitely has the feel of a Spielberg film, and for obvious reasons. It'd be pretty tough for Hooper to NOT make it feel like a Spielberg film, since the screenplay was written by Spielberg. Enough of the background, on to a quick summary. Craig T. Nelson and JoBeth Williams play an upper middle class husband and wife happily raising their three children in suburban America. Things seem to go fine at first, but after a storm, little Carol Anne (played beautifully by Heather O'Rourke) announces that now-famous line, "They're heeee-ere", and the weirdness is on. Chairs start stacking themselves and moving around the kitchen, and at first the family is amused. They soon find out that these supposedly playful forces aren't at all what they at first appear to be. One other thing to note is the supposed "curse" on the Poltergeist franchise. Dominique Dunne (who played the oldest daughter Dana Freeling) was strangled to death not too long after the movie came out. Heather O'Rourke died of a bowel obstruction after making the third film (she was only 12), and two actors who appeared in Poltergeist II died after making that movie. I don't really believe in curses, but like The Exorcist before it and stretching back to ancient Egypt, sometimes events make you wonder. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, and it is one of the better ghost stories of the past 30 years. While it might not be considered a classic by everyone, it comes awfully close. I'd recommend a buy for Poltergeist, and I'd give it an 8/10.

actresses? I thought just the little blonde girl died from cancer.
Who else had tragedy??

I thought the movie was great....I remember being a little kid and seeing the closet seen....holy shit, I always made sure the closet was shut and a chair propped under the door-knob from then on.....I've seen it recently...not as scary, but effective......:)

It was mentioned in bschulte's review....the actress that played the oldest daughter was strangled by her ex-boyfriend. Sick. :mad:

I know. I actually still can't stand to have a closet door open; day or not. I don't know if that goes back to watching that movie or not. But I know my issues with clowns came from this movie...lmao....my grandmother used to collect clown dolls, I just couldn't stand to be in that room of her house.:rolleyes:

The scene with the clown scared me too, it's probably my favorite part.I don't think Poltergeist 2 and 3 were nearly as good as the first one.

Heather O'Rourke aka the little blonde girl, died of congenital intestinal stenosis....