Halloween Movie Recomendations

Today I would like to recommend one Halloween movie. Over the weekend I watched the 1982 movie Poltergeist one of my favorite scary movies. Steven Spielberg was one of the writers and was an executive producers. There is also claims that he was actually the director of the movie, more about that later. The movie sure feels and looks like a Spielberg film and for years I had forgotten that Tobe Hooper is actually credited as the director.

I am sure everyone is familiar with the plot. A family in suburban California is terrorized by ghosts and abducts the youngest member of the family and the movie revolves around getting her back. Even after 30 years this movie is still pretty creepy. Although some of the special effects seem dated the majority of them still hold up real well. One of the things I like about the movie is how realistic it depicts the family. You actually feel as if this is all real and happening to them. The people seem real with real problems and personalities and that makes them more genuine. The movie is also not all dark and dreary and there is some humor mixed in which makes it all that much more enjoyable.

Controversy has followed this movies. Some say there is a curse on the film. One of the reasons for the said curse is the fact that during the swimming pool scenes near the end where skeletons and bodies are being washed out of their graves, the special effects crew decided to use real skeletons for that scene because they were cheaper to obtain and easier to work with that plastic skeletons.

Two of the deaths which fuel the curse mythos are related to actors from the fist film. Dominique Dunne, who played the eldest daughter Dana in the first movie, died a few months after the release of the film. Dominique died on November 4, 1982 at age 22 after being strangled by her abusive former boyfriend John Thomas Sweeney. The other death was that of Heather O’Rourke, who played Carol Anne in all three Poltergeist movies. She died on February 1, 1988 at the age of 12 after what doctors initially described as an acute form of influenza but later changed to septic shock after bacterial toxins invaded her bloodstream. These deaths are tragic and are not evidence of a curse which I think is just silly superstitious nonsense.

Spielberg released ET exactly one week after Poltergeist was released to theaters and because he had a contract with Universal Studios saying he could not work on both films simultaneously he could only direct one of them, or at least take credit for only directing one of them. However according to many people on the set, including the actors and actresses, many claim that while Spielberg was present he was the de facto director and many decisions for the movie were finalized by Spielberg and not Hooper. From further reading it would be more accurate to say that Spielberg was more of a co-director on the film in that he was on the set almost as much as Hooper and the two worked together on many decisions regarding the film.

The film is a classic in the horror genre and it deserves to be. A great movies with a great cast that still delivers frights, laughs and chills no matter how many times I have seen it.