~ by kevin maher ~

Nostalgic horror fans describe the magic of feeling like a kid again: watching an ‘80s movie and being transported back to a simpler time of watching a scary movie you were too young to see. But Poltergeist invites you to view it differently as an adult. Not only can you relate to the struggles of put-upon breadwinner Steve and tough-mother Diane, but also you’ll pick-up on details, jokes and choices that make for a more satisfying movie watching experience.

You can join me for a 35mm screening of Poltergeist at Brooklyn’s Alamo Drafthouse on Tuesday June 20th.

Here are 100 things I adore about Poltergeist.

“Star Spangled Banner” gives way to Jerry Goldsmith’s whispered/spooky score.

Cutting away: from tiny hands on the teevee screen to hand-like trees reaching up from the earth.

The tree in the middle of the road.

Menacing RC cars crashing into beer cans.

Steven’s butch “football-watching” outfit.

“Who the hell is this guy?”

Tweety’s toilet funeral: a Norman Rockwell painting.

E. Buzz licking his chops during Tweety’s garden funeral.

The way Robbie pronounces “bones” (“Mom when it rots can we dig it up and see the bownze?”)

Carol Anne through the goldfish bowl.

Carol Anne’s white headboard resembles the tree of Gondor.

Tree-shadow in lightning.

Faces in the tree.

Robbie’s Alien poster. (R-rated movie poster on an 8-year-old’s bedroom wall!)

Seeing what goes on behind closed doors, with two and a half minutes of great character building.

Steve reading a Reagan biography while Diane rolls another joint.

“Before/After. Before/After.”

The surprisingly emotive faces of Tweety 2 and Tweety 3.*

Gear-shift from dirty talk to “Hey Pardner”/”Hi Hunny.”

Teaching a generation of kids to count from lightning to thunder.

Gene Shalit cameo on the teevee.

No one eats the waffles except E. Buzz.**

A Greek Chorus of “Ask Dad!”

Dana flips off the skeevy construction workers (who are harassing a 16-year- old girl in their employers’ back yard.)

Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2’s Lou Perryman as Bluto! (aka Pugsley.)

The 7 seconds it takes for the chairs to re-arrange.

Dissolving from the Freeling kitchen to the identical kitchen in a Phase-4 unit.

Dana would blab.

“Reach back into our past, when you used to have an open mind.”

Ben’s kid sneaking a spoonful from beans from his old man’s plate.

“I don’t know, Dad.” “He don’t know.”

The nervous laugh.

The fact that Ben doesn’t invite the Freelings inside when they were losing a pint of a blood every few seconds.

“It’s like another side of nature” delivered as Diane passes in front of the mirror, foreshadowing Poltergeist II's subtitle (“The Other Side”) and Poltergeist III’s endless mirror gags.

The closet suck.

A tree groans in Cuesta Verde.

The doctor-with-bad-news poker face by C3P0.

The bend in the bedroom door (fish eye lens.)

Diane’s laugh-cry when she uncovers the clown.

Post-tree-attack Robbie covered in yellows, browns and reds like it’s some blood-and-feces afterbirth.

When Diane and Robbie realize at once where Carol Anne went.

The “no big deal” reveal that Diane gave birth to Dana when she was 16. (A horror movie in itself. And the explanation for Dana and Diane’s whole Rory-and-Lorelei dynamic.)

The inordinate amount of smoke coming from Steven’s ashtray.

“Mmm-hmm” deadpan from Steven hearing about the case of the Matchbox car.

Evil Hulk on horseback.***

Ryan’s skepticism. (He’s such a Scully.)

Steven says hello to Carol Anne and turns off the lamp.

The falling timepieces are met with “What the hell is this?” (echoing the earlier reaction to Fred Rogers “Who the hell is this guy?”)

JoBeth Williams’ reaction to having Carol Anne move through her.

Something took a bite out of Marty.

“All the things that we don’t understand… I feel like the proto-human coming out of the forest primeval and seeing the moon for the first time and throwing rocks at it.”

The combination of Jerry Goldsmith’s stirring strings, the light reflected in Dr. Lesh’s eyes and the best stage whispers of 1982.

Robbie wishes Dr. Lesh good night with “goodnight lady!” like he’s Andre the Giant in The Princess Bride.

Crawling steak (the novelization says it best “The steak was alive. Alive with death.”)

American Werewolf/Raiders of the Lost Ark/The Thing-era of practical effects.

The simple fact that it wasn’t Ryan (the film’s only black character) who got scared away by ghosts.

The surprisingly layered expressions in E. Buzz’s farewell.

Diane’s non-judgmental returning of the empty flask.

The combined strength and hope of two women working together to rescue a missing little girl.

Teague grinning at his own joke. “What have you got screwed-in there? 300-watt bulb?”

Tobe Hooper’s camera slowly moving closer during the single-take of Diane’s hallway scene.

“It’s just… people.”

The combined courage and determination of three women working together to rescue a little girl.

Ryan and Dr. Lesh standing in an almost-religious ceremony, each with their hands over their respective junk.

Despite Tangina’s accent and lengthy exposition, the monologue about the window to the next plane doesn’t come off as condescending.

“To her, it simply is another child. To us, it is the beast.”

When tasked with threatening his 5-year-old with a spanking, '80s Dad Steve Freeling clarifies that Carol Anne will get a spanking “from the both of us.”

“I hate you.” Said with raw honesty in Diane’s voice.

Tangina puts on her shades to look into the light.

When Ryan smells the tennis ball.

That stuff on the rope.

“You’re right. You go.”

All the capital-L Love that’s in their kiss.

The repetition of “only when I say so. Only when I say.”

Fear, courage, dread and determination tied together all over Diane’s face.

That giant face Steven pulls out of the light.

Cosmic spaghetti-O blasts Tangina.

The way Steve rushes down all 16 steps of the staircase.

Diane’s “kinda punk” gray streaks.

“We worked so hard for this.”

This silent exchange.

Gently placing the head back on the decapitated doll.

Dreading the clown attack, no matter how many times you’ve seen it.

“I hate you. I hate you. I hate you.” Another hate-filled Freeling.

That four-legged thing. (The novelization calls it “the Beast.”)

Two words: “No more.”

The sound-effect that introduces the first pool-skeleton.

That Diane escapes the skeleton pool only to go back into the skeleton pool.

Metaphor: this is what Mom puts up with at home while Dad's at the office.

The long hall/ long haul.

The family that avoids the coiling tentacle tongue together, stays together.

The surprisingly expressive doorway corpse.

Steve sliding over the hood of the car like he’s T.J. Hooker.

Dana’s hickey.

“Drive away. Daddy, drive away.”

The Biblical destruction of Cuesta Verde has a father tell his children “Don’t look back!”

Teague knew this could happen someday.

Dr. Fantasy and Friends.

Tattered and splattered, the Freelings are still alive, a then-modern middle-class Joad family surviving in Reagan’s America.

If you enjoyed this piece, Kevin Maher recently appeared on The Wrong Reel to discuss Tobe Hooper with the rest of The Pink Smoke. You could also read this article by John B. Cribbs exploring the use of clothing & costumes in Hooper's work.