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If 1982 belonged to any genre film, it was inarguably Steven Spielberg's E.T. The Extraterrestrial, which shortly eclipsed Star Wars as the highest grossing domestic film. But Mr. Spielberg had a nasty little red-headed stepchild to debut that same year, an occasionally-gruesome little ghost tale for which he turned over the directoral reigns to Texas Chainsaw auteur Tobe Hooper.
Poltergeist, which Spielberg co-wrote and co-produced, is the story of the Freelings, a suburban California family who gradually come to realize that their house is haunted by a host of ghosts who begin their shennanigans in the usual, moving-furniture fashion, which provides a brief period of wonder for Steven and Diane Freeling (Craig T. Nelson and Jobeth Williams). Trouble is, the ghouls upgrade their tactics to possessing trees, plush toys and other objects that terrorize young Robbie (Oliver Robins) and finally commit the ultimate in tackiness by whisking five-year-old daughter Carol Anne (the late Heather O'Rourke) into their dimension. These fermented spirits obviously want something, and in desperation the family turns towards parapsychologists for help. A trio of local ghostbusters enter the Freeling home, and after a night of supernatural tomfoolery (including a disgusto dream sequence in which a guy manually peels the skin off his face), it's clear that an expert in exorcism is needed. In the meantime, Steven is getting flak from the real estate firm where he's their star boy. He's missed a lot of work in the last many days, and he needs to be in on the firm's "next big thing." An entertaining cameo from genre fave James Karen as the boss provides some set-up for a shocking revelation which comes later into the movie.
The diminutive clairvoyant Tangina Barrons is summoned to "cleanse" the house, and in her initial counseling sessions with the Freelings, she seems to understand what the ghosts really want and why they've abducted young Carol Anne. A plan is devised to rescue the tot from the netherworld, as well as grant the spirits their wish. The children's closet is actually an area of bi-location, or a doorway to the other dimension. But there's a big complication: a terrible presence, referred to as "The Beast," is restraining Carol Anne and using the child for its own purposes. It is up to Steven and Diane, under the guidance of Tangina, to accomplish the task. Where ratings are concerned, these guys got away with some arguably R-rated stuff. This was two years before the advent of the PG13 rating, mind you. And had the project not had Spielberg's name attached to it, such elements as the aforementioned face-peeling, a pair of joint-toking parents as protagonists, decomposing corpses galore later in the film, and the notion of children in constant peril would have very likely required toning down in order to secure the squeaky-clean PG certificate. The sexual content is almost non-existent, and the cussing never goes beyond the occasional "shit," but all in all this is PG13-plus fare even by today's standards.
Poltergeist was followed by a pair of sequels, neither of which had involvement from either Hooper or Spielberg and both of which were mauled by fans and critics; too bad, too, because 1986's Poltergeist II: The Other Side remains vastly underrated and offers some hair-raising exposition about the ghosts and their motivations. More disconcertingly, a series of cast-member deaths from the three movies caused a rumor of the "Poltergeist Curse" to be promulgated during the late 80's. Subsequently, the pristine gestalt of Spielberg's campfire tale has become somewhat sullied.
Somehow it all works better if we can just forget about the sequels, the real-life deaths and the superstitions and just focus on the original Poltergeist as it first appeared, its benign cousin E.T. racking up at the box-office while this lean, mean little spooker comfortably rode shotgun. Using the limitations of 1982 moviemaking magic, Hooper and Spielberg constructed a marvelous whirlwind of a ghost story, complete with enough shocks, false endings and story twists to leave the viewer fitfully exhausted and thoroughly entertained once the end credits begin to roll.
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