31 Days of Halloween: Day Eight

Poltergeist (1982 – Rated PG in the US for Creepy ghosts, pissed of dead indians and a scary little person)

Summary (from IMDB):

A young family are visited by ghosts in their home. At first the ghosts appear friendly, moving objects around the house to the amusement of everyone, then they turn nasty and start to terrorise the family before they “kidnap” the youngest daughter.

RB Wood’s Rating (Out of 5): 4 and a half Carol Anne’s

This is the movie that spear-headed the PG-13 rating, and it’s not hard to see why.  The Creep/horror factor is high, althought the lack of bare boobies and f-bombs kept this out of the “R” territory. This is very different than Spielberg’s other entry for 1982 (a little flick called E. T.).  Although the same neighbor hood and Golden Retriever is used for both flick, they couldn’t be more different. Scary shit begins to happen in the Freeling home when young Carol Anne (Heather O’Rourke) begins to sleepwalk and have in depth conversations with the television.  Craig T. Nelson plays daddy Freeling who is a real estate agent for the housing development the family has moved into.  Once Carol Anne announces that “They’re here!” the oddities begin to increase, culminating in Carol Anne’s kidnapping into the ‘ghost dimension.’

Still a classic, the performances (even by the children) are quite good–something Spielberg is quite good at.  Both Craig T. Nelson and JoBeth Williams (who plays Diane Freeling) play the ‘protect the children at all costs’ card very well. The score sets the tone brilliantly, and the ‘corporate greed’ underlying theme is there, but not over done.  I take a half star off due to the late Zelda Rubinstein’s performance as Tangina.  She’s done so many other great bit roles, her performance here is just not up to her usual standard.

Tomorrow: Man is The Warmest Place to Hide.

Peace