#25 - POLTERGEIST - Horror Countdown to Halloween

This October we here at Dark of the Matinee are counting down our 31 favorite horror films. Join us daily as we countdown from #31 starting on October 1, 2012 leading up to #1 on Halloween!

#28 – Poltergeist (1982)

Dir. Tobe Hooper

"They're here!"

Famous words from a famous film. Poltergeist is not an obscure pick for our list. If you are like me, you grew up seeing this film at a young age. Like Jaws, it's one of the few genuinely scary films with a PG rating. I used to make my parents rent this for me over and over again. Looking back on the film and watching it recently, I wondered why did the film have such a strong effect on me.

The story is fairly simple in it's setup. A nuclear family moves into a brand new house, one that is part of a new housing development. The family starts to experience strange things at first, chairs move on their own for example. Soon things get more violent and extreme resulting in the youngest daughter, CarolAnn, to be taken to "the other side


Soon the family is tormented by all kinds of horrible things and paranormal experts, led by the great Zelda Rubinstein, are brought in to help rescue Carol Ann.   

Poltergeist is brilliant on many levels but one in particular is how ordinary the family is. This is the American family most of us experience and because its so universal, we as viewers can easily place ourselves amidst the terror. Steven Spielberg was the executive producer of the film and many believe he took over much of the production. However for Hooper fans out there, the film really does feel like his creation. Hooper, who may appear later on this list, is fantastic at creating normal, realistic environments for horror to live in.

The film contains so many memorable sequences, the tree that tries to eat the young boy, the killer clown doll, the maggots, the skeletons coming alive. I think its very rare for a horror film to have this many quality scares that stay with you for a long time after the film. Poltergeist plays a large role in why I hate clowns so much for instance. These scenes are handled in such a skillful manner. Shot wonderfully, choreographed with precision these scare scenes are masterful.

Poltergeist still holds up well today. In fact, it serves as a nice reminder of how a film can deal with evil spirits. The recent boom in Paranormal Activity films boils down the scariness of evil ghosts to simple jump scares. Nothing happens and then there is a loud noise. Poltergeist creates scares that get under our skin because the evil spirits here invade the home and prey on genuine fears. What kid hasn't been freaked out by the shadows a tree casts at night or a doll with a creepy smile or even the glow of the television screen late at night. Hooper understands where our fear lies in ghosts and invades the sanctity of the home with that in mind.

On a quick side-note, the film has a legend of its own. Many believe the film is cursed due to the premature death of several people associated with the film including it's star Heather O'Rourke.

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written by Matthew G. Robinson