Why POLTERGEIST Still Scares Me, How Watching Horror Films Can Help Your Relationship, and More!
In this Issue:
- Horror History: Why Poltergeist Still Scares Me
- Image of the Week: Creepy, Kooky, Colorful
- Tiny Bites – This Week’s Best Horror Headlines
- Things We Love: Audio Aliens
- Hey, That’s Us! – Shudder in the News
HORROR HISTORY: WHY POLTERGEIST STILL SCARES ME
By Jeff Strand
“They’re heeeeere … “
Even at the time of release, June 4,1982, that line (so heavily used in the marketing) had become more of a pop culture catchphrase than something genuinely spooky. But audiences soon learned Poltergeist more than delivered the scares.
It’s a movie where a tree breaks through a kid’s window and tries to eat him. It’s a movie where that same poor kid is dragged under his bed by his clown doll. It’s an action-packed special effects-laden extravaganza with ghosts and maggots and skeletons falling out of coffins and giant monsters. Why is that terrifying white creature blocking the door? Because it’s cool and scary.
But there were quieter chills as well. For example, everything Zelda Rubenstein says, especially the line reading of “There is peace and serenity in the light.” The disembodied voice of Carol Anne telling her parents that there’s somebody with her. And even with dated effects, the scene with ghosts slowly floating down the staircase is supremely eerie.
Though Poltergeist was a collaboration between Tobe Hooper, who directed, and Steven Spielberg, who wrote and produced, audiences at the time would have been forgiven for expecting a film more E.T. the Extraterrestrial than The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. After all, Spielberg’s name appeared in huge letters at the beginning of the original trailer, with Hooper’s name only in smaller type at the end, while the narrator promised that “now Stephen Spielberg crosses a frightening new threshold into a world within our own.” Which made the scene where the guy tears off his own face — easily one of the goriest moments to appear in a PG-rated film, and a sequence that is even more over-the-top in James Kahn’s novelization — a surprisingly graphic moment.
In some ways the legacy of Poltergeist comes as much from what happened behind the scenes. Heather O’Rourke died at age 12, before Poltergeist III was released. Dominique Dunne (who played the older sister Dana) was murdered by her boyfriend a few months after the first movie came out. There was also the “Did Spielberg direct this film instead of Tobe Hooper?” controversy, with varying answers given by people on the set, and still being debated 37 years later.
The film was a massive box office hit, one of the top 10 moneymakers of the year, and also enjoyed critical success along with three Academy Award nominations in technical categories. It remains an enduring horror classic and is still one of the scariest films ever made.
IMAGE OF THE WEEK
Creepy, Kooky, Colorful
The Addams Family house from the original TV show may have been a museum when people came to see ’em, but one thing it definitely wasn’t was black white. That may be all viewers got to see on their small screens in the ’60s, but here’s a picture of the real-life set in glorious color.
TINY BITES
STEPHEN KING BEDTIME STORY, WALKING DEAD SUPERCUT & MORE
Science says if you want to have a happy relationship, you should start watching horror movies together.
In news that may or may not be related, someone started a dating app for horror fans.
On the other hand, actually being in a horror movie can doom a relationship, as proven by these 10 friendships gone bad.
David Harbour believes the biggest problem with his recent Hellboy movie was that audiences compared it to Marvel’s movies and thought “this does not taste like chocolate at all.”
A Japanese coffee commercial cleverly honored Haruo Nakajima, the man inside the Godzilla suit for 12 consecutive films.
If you want to learn more about kaiju, head to the recently opened Miyoshi Mononoke Museum — the first focused entirely on Japanese monsters.
Relive nine seasons of The Walking Dead with a supercut collecting one second from every episode.
Horror writer Dennis Etchison — who wrote novelizations for The Fog, Videodrome, andHalloween, and was given the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2017 — has died at 76.
If you want to redecorate your living room so it looks exactly like the Byers family house fromStranger Things, IKEA’s got everything you need. And if you’d rather eat Stranger Things than pretend to live in it, Baskin-Robbins is selling a Demogorgon Sundae.
Tony Todd’s tease about a Candyman cameo turns out to have been “a bit premature.”
Stephen King tucked us all in with a horror story this weekend.
Why was The Dark Tower so disappointing? Ron Howard said it’s because he made a “sort of a boy’s adventure” when “it should’ve been horror.”
While we wait for that J. J. Abrams/Jordan Peele series Lovecraft Country to launch on HBO, here are 10 things we know about it.
Todd McFarlane says the money’s there for a big-screen Spawn reboot, but the only holdup is the script, warning “if I have to change it too much, I’ll just walk away from it all.”
The Perfection on Netflix movie is apparently making many viewers “feel like puking.”
THINGS WE LOVE: AUDIO ALIENS
Though we’ll probably never get to see William Gibson’s unfilmed screenplay for Aliens III on the screen, we’re finally getting the chance to hear it, thanks to Audible’s multicast dramatization. Lance Henriksen and Michael Biehn return as Bishop and Corporal Hicks, and we can’t think of a better way to celebrate the 40th anniverary of the birth of the Aliens franchise than by slipping on our headphones and immersing ourselves in this legendary sequel that never was (but finally is) from the Father of Cyberpunk.
HEY, THAT’S US! – SHUDDER IN THE NEWS
Shudder Announces Visitations with Elijah Wood & Daniel Noah Podcast
Creepshow: David Arquette, Tricia Helfer & Dana Gould Join Shudder Series; Tom Savini To Direct
[Images] Killer Pig Flick Boar Starring Bill Moseley Coming to Shudder in June
Shudder Announces Its June 2019 U.S. Highlights
The Last Drive-In pulls out all the stops for the Season 1 finale
Three Nightmare Cinema Directors to Present Shudder Screening Series An Evening of Nightmares