Poltergeist (1982)The light of a child is a magical thing, full of vibrancy and life; but for the young Carol Anne Freeling (Heather O'Rourke), it is also a lure for the unquiet spirits haunting her home in the burgeoning suburbs of Cuesta Verde. What begins in the Freeling home as a series of seemingly innocent supernatural occurrences quickly escalates into a full-blown manifestation of terrifying specters and demons. And when these forces from beyond the veil of our reality abduct Carol Anne, determined to repel her family from reclaiming her, the Freelings recruit the aid of parapsychologists to assist them in drawing her from the clutches of a poltergeist.
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The setting of Poltergeist (1982) is a quaint, growing complex of prefabricated homes, sold and resided in by realtor Steven Freeling (Craig T. Nelson), where he and his family--including his wife, Diane (JoBeth Williams), and three kids, including Carol Anne, Robbie (Oliver Robins), and Dana (Dominique Dunne)--all live a perfectly normal-looking life of a middle-class, Better Homes and Gardens kind of bliss--their big excitement is putting in a swimming pool and watching the football game. If Poltergeist resembles the grim cousin to E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, it should not be too surprising, as Steven Spielberg wrote and produced this film. Due to contractual obligations, he could not direct it, but Tobe Hooper--of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre--took the reins, infusing the film with a terrifying pedigree. The home of the Freeling family is a picture of the consumer-driven American Dream, insulated and safe on their quaint cul-de-sac. Although hardly perverse, there is an inescapable sense of artificiality in this lifestyle. Even the looming mountains in the background of Cuesta Verde suggest that this community has been dropped into this open space from out of nowhere. There is a sense that the residents are disconnected from real life concerns, "sleepwalking" like Steven and Diane believe Carol Anne was doing when they awoke to find her shouting at the television in the middle of the night. Although they don't do it consciously, people like Steven and Diane do not seem to respect death as a powerful force, evidenced when the pet canary dies suddenly--the first victim in the proverbial coal mine--and Diane considers it more of an inconvenience than a loss, ready to drop the carcass down the toilet. Instead, Carol Anne insists that they perform burial rites for the pet, an instinctive, wholesome response absent from the hurried, modern concerns of adults like Steven and Diane. (It also prompts an unintentionally funny line by Diane: "Do you want to see mommy lying in a cigar box covered in licorice?") Steven's boss, Mr. Teague (James Karen), informs him that the land was previously a cemetery and that the graveyard was ostensibly relocated prior to development. Steven makes an observation--previously unconcerned until his recent paranormal encounters--about how it is sacrilegious, and Teague brushes it off claiming there have been no complaints, and that it's not like it was some "ancient Indian burial ground". The myth of disturbing the resting place of a Native American burial site has persisted in films and horror stories, and is teased in Poltergeist in subtle ways, like how the spirits manifest after the sound of the national anthem precedes the station break, or even how Diane uses the same kind of drug for recreation (cannabis) that the Native Americans used in their religious ceremonies. There is an arrogance in the modern society of Poltergeist, ill-prepared to address the emergence of supernatural forces like those which ambush the Freeling household.
The Freelings take the confrontation with the demonic entity that abducted Carol Anne seriously, and recruit a psychologist named Dr. Lesh (Beatrice Straight) and her assistants to help document and understand the ghostly activity. Diane takes the existence of the supernatural more in stride than Steven, who looks visibly worn down by the experience. However, Diane also seems to be someone implied to have a hippie background--a very young mother of three who would have had to have given birth to Dana during the "Summer of Love" in the Sixties--and is the first to excitedly share the manifestation she and Carol Anne first witnessed, asking Steven to "keep an open mind". When it becomes clear that these forces are beyond their power to confront, it is the gentle specialist in "cleaning houses" of evil spirits, Tangina Barrons (Zelda Rubinstein), who is solicited to recover the young girl from the other side. Dr. Lesh describes the manifestation as being potentially a "haunting" or a "poltergeist", the key difference being that a haunting is confined to a house, whereas the poltergeist is tied to a person (i.e. Carol Anne). The differentiation between which is which in Poltergeist is actually somewhat blurred; aside from the giveaway in the title of the film, Tangina points out that the ghosts, and especially a demon she calls "the Beast", are drawn to Carol Anne's life force out of whatever lingering compulsion keeps them from passing on and into the "light". Tangina talks of how there is no "death", but a transition between these states, and that the ghosts are stuck in a dreamlike state, or a nightmare. While the sequels expand on this in greater detail, one interpretation of what the varied and terrifying manifestations of the spirits include that the Beast is manipulating the power of these souls to evil ends, just as it has convinced Carol Anne to listen to it. Tangina describes how the Beast would likely communicate with the girl as only a child could to lure her into a false sense of security and trust. Thus the spirits which the Beast has commandeered could be swayed to assail those who stand in its way, like Diane when she tries to save her children, when she discovers what her home in Cuesta Verde is built upon.
The iconic image of Carol Anne touching the television set transmitting static also hints at the ever dissolving barrier between our humanity and another form of consciousness or existence, even a technological one. The television is usually only a metaphorical window to another world, but in the case of Poltergeist, it is also a literal portal from whence the spirits emerged--as Carol Anne calls them, the "TV people". When the portal in the bedroom closet is opened, and Tangina guides Diane to save Carol Anne, the images projected on the back wall of the room resemble the markings on film from rapidly flashing movie projector. Along with the television set, these tropes suggest that the medium of transmitting images across space is akin to sharing a message from another dimension. Diane even tells Dr. Lesh that one channel comes in better than the others when she hears Carol Anne in the television. This idea that images and invisible waves are a means not only of communicating but transmitting energy--even spiritual energy--across the material plane of existence (and beyond) imply that as the predominance of technology grows, so too can the connection the world beyond our perception. Carol Anne--like most kids when it comes to technology--is just ahead of the curve.
Recommended for: Fans of a terrifying and nail-biting ghost story of the incursion of a violent poltergeist into a quiet, suburban home. It is also a contemplation on our responsibilities to respect and understand death better than we do.
The Freelings take the confrontation with the demonic entity that abducted Carol Anne seriously, and recruit a psychologist named Dr. Lesh (Beatrice Straight) and her assistants to help document and understand the ghostly activity. Diane takes the existence of the supernatural more in stride than Steven, who looks visibly worn down by the experience. However, Diane also seems to be someone implied to have a hippie background--a very young mother of three who would have had to have given birth to Dana during the "Summer of Love" in the Sixties--and is the first to excitedly share the manifestation she and Carol Anne first witnessed, asking Steven to "keep an open mind". When it becomes clear that these forces are beyond their power to confront, it is the gentle specialist in "cleaning houses" of evil spirits, Tangina Barrons (Zelda Rubinstein), who is solicited to recover the young girl from the other side. Dr. Lesh describes the manifestation as being potentially a "haunting" or a "poltergeist", the key difference being that a haunting is confined to a house, whereas the poltergeist is tied to a person (i.e. Carol Anne). The differentiation between which is which in Poltergeist is actually somewhat blurred; aside from the giveaway in the title of the film, Tangina points out that the ghosts, and especially a demon she calls "the Beast", are drawn to Carol Anne's life force out of whatever lingering compulsion keeps them from passing on and into the "light". Tangina talks of how there is no "death", but a transition between these states, and that the ghosts are stuck in a dreamlike state, or a nightmare. While the sequels expand on this in greater detail, one interpretation of what the varied and terrifying manifestations of the spirits include that the Beast is manipulating the power of these souls to evil ends, just as it has convinced Carol Anne to listen to it. Tangina describes how the Beast would likely communicate with the girl as only a child could to lure her into a false sense of security and trust. Thus the spirits which the Beast has commandeered could be swayed to assail those who stand in its way, like Diane when she tries to save her children, when she discovers what her home in Cuesta Verde is built upon.
The iconic image of Carol Anne touching the television set transmitting static also hints at the ever dissolving barrier between our humanity and another form of consciousness or existence, even a technological one. The television is usually only a metaphorical window to another world, but in the case of Poltergeist, it is also a literal portal from whence the spirits emerged--as Carol Anne calls them, the "TV people". When the portal in the bedroom closet is opened, and Tangina guides Diane to save Carol Anne, the images projected on the back wall of the room resemble the markings on film from rapidly flashing movie projector. Along with the television set, these tropes suggest that the medium of transmitting images across space is akin to sharing a message from another dimension. Diane even tells Dr. Lesh that one channel comes in better than the others when she hears Carol Anne in the television. This idea that images and invisible waves are a means not only of communicating but transmitting energy--even spiritual energy--across the material plane of existence (and beyond) imply that as the predominance of technology grows, so too can the connection the world beyond our perception. Carol Anne--like most kids when it comes to technology--is just ahead of the curve.
Recommended for: Fans of a terrifying and nail-biting ghost story of the incursion of a violent poltergeist into a quiet, suburban home. It is also a contemplation on our responsibilities to respect and understand death better than we do.