Poltergeist 25th anniversary
Poltergeist, 25th anniversary – a revisit to the eighties
I remember this movie from my youth and I remember being really scared when I watched it for the first time. No it is time for a revisit when Warner comes with a digitally restored and remastered version.
The story is from American suburbia in an area with a huge development of a residential area. I found myself thinking of Wisteria Lane from Desperate housewives when I got the first glimpse from this Suburbia, but Teri Hatcher didn’t appear. Our family of five get some unpleasant visits from "the other side" and the first manifestations are some shuffling of the kitchen chairs and the small girl of the family talking to the snow on the TV set. "They’re here", she says. "Who?", her mother asks. "The TV people".
So we get the disappearance of the little daughter, arrival of the strange poltergeist exterminators, revelation of the ghosts, the fighting against the ghosts with the return of the daughter – and the second round after you thought the movie was finished.
I have to confess I have some problems getting gripped by the story. We have had 25 years with development of movie monsters and supernatural phenomena, and I think that Poltergeist doesn’t match the new action packed films at all. But the story line is of good Steven Spielberg quality and there are scenes of both humor and tension. The plot is well structured and laid out, and the end, after you think all is going to be ok, works well with me. Both the fighting with the neighbor with the TV remotes, the pot-smoking in the bedroom and the guy using the bike to fetch more beer to the baseball match are all kind of funny. But being a ghost movie with monsters and horror – I get more associations with Ghost busters than I get scared, unfortunately.
The most funny about the movie is the music and the scenery from the eighties. The film music couldn’t pass in a film from 2007 without being interpreted as ironic, but in this setting it works. And the cars, the TVs, the food, the hair, the clothing, the talking – all reminds us of the eighties in a sentimental way. And I liked it – in a sentimental way. It was a kind of a walk down – not Wisteria Lane – but memory Lane.
Extras;
The extras is some sort of a documentary; Science of the Spirits and Communing with the Dead. A complete waste of time! Some sort of psychics with abilities to communicate with the other side stating some psychic mumbo jumbo, with some scenes from the movie once again. It felt just ridiculous to me.
Hiro, back from the past
Movie facts
- Title: Poltergeist
- Director; Tobe Hooper
- With Craig T. Nelson, JoBeth Williams and Heather O’Rourke
- Producing company; Warner video
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