Poltergeist Re:view

Capra meets evil for its own gains. 

“My mum says I can watch it, and also, can I get her 20 Rothman’s Mr.Patel” This Is the sort of thing I uttered to see Poltergeist for the first time in 80’s land. Like many Benchmade movies of an era, it’s probably more seen in clips and homages. The first thing I thought of when we were introduced to the family was how Simpson this family was, bar the grating tension. But being a kid with toy clowns and a massive tree outside his room, these were the things I focussed on. Robbie was my go-to then, and in many ways still is now in a Hooper movie that manages to blend family drama and genuine scares beyond the prosaic dark fantasy one sees in a Speilberg production.

I never noticed that Steven and Diane were pretty ‘groovy’ parents in their own way, and some of the other dynamics totally passed me by.

From the outset, the family arguments come down to Dana being a teen girl on the phone too much and Robbie calling his little sister a barf bag. But with their job security and the home being entirely secure aside from the odd dead pet, nothing could go wrong.

Having said that, there is nothing sentimental about them, which makes the family so likable. Steven is a blue-collar guy making white-collar money. Diane is a proud housekeeper, not in keeping the place spotless but watching and being assured as their teen daughter deals with catcallers with confidence and aplomb.

While the set pieces have held up effects way over time. The things that would have passed by really came to the fore. Steven is not just a guy who moved in. He built this town, and he sold it. He practically populated almost half of it with real estate sales. 

Once the supernatural comes into the home. Diane does not respond with fear at levitating chairs; it automatically and almost instinctively wonders, even allowing the force to move her daughter around.

Once things do go ballistic with trees and rooms. Their response is shock, trauma, and frustration, but the build we share putting into this family is so strong you can’t help but be along for the journey. With great bleak laughs, “we saw a toy car move. It took 7 hours” cut to the intro of the twilight zone…The film never outlasts its run time, and the big reveal of the graves and the discourse with Steven’s boss even does the wink. It is indeed not some ancient Indian burial ground. But these are still people who could complain..and have literally been trodden on to make this prefab happen.

With some genuinely gruesome moments that make me look at grabbing a midnight chicken leg totally differently. The film tugs into the human and gives a reality once we are outside the home. The ghost hunters are accurate, and the moments between Martha Lesh, parapsychologist, with her little tipple with Diane give a certain spark to the role and sense of people’ feeling the fear and doing it anyway.’

I never noticed the more overt Christian trappings the first time around with comments about the beast from Tangina, and I did find it a distraction from the plot. I prefer my spirit to be nondenominational when the big questions come up. But Tangina Barrons is a character of such incredible charisma. It’s hard to deny the sway. She brings a certain Willy Wonka quality to her rhetoric, taking and insisting on a particular path for a family at this point. Literally have nowhere to go!

On a big screen and with other viewers, the blend of the kitchen sink and the fantastical has rightly stood the time since. But the heart of this film is in that family. And even as they walk away from it all in the last scenes. You are with them for every minute.]]Dig it out, and if you can make your way to a big screen for a worthy spectacle.