DVD - Poltergeist

Poltergeist

With Halloween only days away, what better way to celebrate than with a classic horror movie. Ghost stories and movies are nothing new these days, but back in the early 80's movie goers were shocked by this little movie about a family living in a nice suburban neighborhood. A happy couple living the ideal life with their three children until one day things begin to move by themselves. (no, that isn't the shocking part) At first they are amused by the unusual occurances that begin happening but on the night of a terrible storm the pranks turn ugly and the youngest daughter is sucked into another dimension. Mommy and daddy can only communicate with Carol Ann through the static in their television set.  I was just a new teen when the movie came out and I'm sure I'm not the only one who was creeped out by the static when the TV went off air. Teens today wouldn't know what that was like since most everyone has cable or satelite these days and channels don't go off air. But in those days, Poltergeist did for static screens what Jaws did for the ocean.

Poltergeist, although no longer scary to me is still a classic horror film and doesn't lose any of it's appeal decades later. It has great special effects, lots of skeletons, ghosts and an evil entity. The cast is superb, the plot moves quickly and the real villain of the story, the real estate developer, is appropriately sleazy. Who builds a nice family neighborhood on top of graves? Who does that? Who moves the tomb stones and leaves the bodies? Well, probably most real estate developers if they thought they could get a way with it. Remember this movie was made back in the 80's and there were not a million activist groups to regulate such things. 

Zelda Rubinstein will probably always be remembered best for her roll as Tangina, the miniscule medium, who is instrumental in helping the Freeling family get Carol Ann back and clearing the house of spirits. They made two more Poltergeist movies after this one, but most critics agree, this one was the best. Not many horror movies can boast they got nominated for 3 Oscars. Definitely a movie to revisit for Halloween.

And was it just me, or was the clown in that movie the most evil doll you've ever seen?

I live in a coastal college town, down the road from a Marine base, so I usually choose to stay in and avoid the scary drunk people wandering around our fair city and the ones in costumes are even more frightening.  We always have a horror movie marathon on Halloween at my house. What is your Halloween tradition?