Poltergeist 1982
I remember when Poltergeist came out and was a huge hit, but I never saw it. Forty years later I was lucky enough to be given a digital copy and I watched it right away. Although Steven Spielberg got writing and production credits and some say he even directed it, it lacks a lot of the magic of Spielberg movies. The light cast by the television is represented by pretty harsh strobelights and not that realistic. That sounds minor, but it is used a lot and is pretty jarring. An old tree looks very fake. The parents put their young kid and dog in a cab and wave goodbye? Did anyone ever do that? And I‘m wondering why because these people definitely had a car. Also the kids in the movie are pretty rotten and their parents aren’t much better. It seems like Spielberg would have done better on all of that. It also took a long time for the movie to really get going. The visual effects in the movie can be really good or kind of sloppy. A moving slab of meat looks really fake (did anyone ever throw a slab of raw meat on their counter? Again, why?). Still, a lot of things work and effects in 1982 were a mixed bag anyway, though I feel like a good director would just leave out bad effects rather than have them mar the film. Ultimately all of the character and plot stuff is pushed to the back and the horror aspects take over the movie. While I‘m not crazy about horror, it is pretty effective. And the very ending has a clever and cute scene, though you realize there were far too few of those along the way.
Written: 23 Jan 2023
Owned on: Digital