M&M: Poltergeist

Dear reader,

welcome to another “Movie of the Month! Today: Poltergeist. The film cam out in 1982. Just now I am reminded of „The Exorcist“. But when I thought of horror films I know, the first that came to mind was “Poltergeist“. Apart from the films, there's also a so-called “Poltergeist curse“. More on that later on.

“Poltergeist” is about a family with 3 children. The bird of the youngest daughter, Carol Ann (Heather O’Rourke) dies and is buried in the garden. The brother, Robbie (Oliver Robins) and the older sister, Dana (Dominique Dunne) make a bit of fun about that. In the night Carol Ann sits in front of the gray, static transmitting tv and announces her famous line, “They're here!” There are other strange (for now) harmless things happening in the house. Chairs move by themselves and Carol Ann can slide on the kitchen floor, but fast as if moved by some force. One night a big tornado makes the family wake up and Carol Ann disappears. She's sucked into her wardrobe. But she's not entirely gone. The family can still hear her and talk to her over the tv.

Of course scientists have to come and help the family. The whole thing looks like “Ghost Busters” from the characters, but the atmosphere is scary and intense more like “The Exorcist”. Strange things happen, especially in Carol Ann's room, which the family doesn't dare to enter anymore. The scientists suspect a poltergeist more than a classic haunting for starters. They call upon the help of the medium Tangina Barrons (Zelda Rubinstein) as last resort. Her rescue mission almost goes wrong, they get Carol Ann to the right side just in time. But the strange phenomenon don't stop here. In a thunderstorm night the mother goes out to get help from the neighbours when she slides into the muddy swimming pool, from which dead corpses suddenly appear. The family planned to move anyway. This night was supposed to be the last in the house. But they move to a hotel that very night.

If you don't want to know, why the ghost problems happen, skip the following paragraph. I can't help, but write it, because it's one of my favourite scenes of the film!

In the final stormy night, the father suddenly remembers a remark from his boss, a real estate broker. They planned a new estate and for that they want to move the graveyard. But the company will do it the easy way: they'll only move the headstones. The phenomenons the poor family has to endure, are the revenge of the restless souls buried under their house. So the father goes to his boss and screams, “You moved the cemetery, but you left the bodies, didn't you? You son of a bitch! You left the bodies and you only moved the headstones! You only moved the headstones! Why?! Why?!”

The final scene of the film has the whole family moving into the hotel room. The father stands outside for a bit longer and then follows the others inside, closing the door behind him. Shortly after that he opens the door again, shifts the small tv, which is on wheels, outside the room and closes the door again. A tv truly is the last thing that family needs now.

And now the “Poltergeist curse”: Like so many successful films, there were sequels to “Poltergeist”. But Dominique Dunne, who played the older daughter, never lived for them. She got killed the same year “Poltergeist” came out, killed by her ex-boyfriend. Heather O’Rourke, who played Carol Ann, died in 1988, while shooting “Poltergeist 3”. She died from an acute bowel obstruction, which had also led to a septic shock after bacterial toxins invaded her bloodstream. Which makes Oliver Robins to be the last surviving child actor. William Sampson played in “Poltergeist 2”. He died after complications following a surgery. The actor Julian Beck played in “Poltergeist 2” and died in 1985, two years after being diagnosed with stomach cancer. Curse or not? You decide.

Until next blog,
sarah