Poltergeist (film)

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Movie
German title poltergeist
Original title poltergeist
Poltergeist Filmlogo.png
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1982
length 110 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Tobe Hooper
script Steven Spielberg
Michael Grais
Mark Victor
production Steven Spielberg
Frank Marshall
music Jerry Goldsmith
camera Matthew F. Leonetti
cut Michael Kahn
occupation

Poltergeist is an American horror film from 1982, which was made under the significant influence of Steven Spielberg and in which the eponymous Poltergeister play a leading role. The official director of the film was Tobe Hooper , but he was excluded from the post-production of the film, which Spielberg was in charge of. The film was followed by two sequels (1986 Poltergeist II - The Other Side and 1988 Poltergeist III - The Dark Side of Evil ), with which neither Hooper nor Spielberg are connected.

action

The Freeling family lives as a more or less typically American family in the Californian prefabricated housing estate Cuesta Verde. The opening scene of the film shows the family in their house at night. Everyone sleeps peacefully, with the exception of 5-year-old Carol-Anne , who is having a loud conversation with the television picture , which is rustling after the broadcast has ended. The conversation eventually wakes up the rest of the family. Carol-Anne's parents Diane and Steven initially suspect that this is sleepwalking , think nothing of it and initially overlook other unusual signs, such as: B. the death of Carol-Anne's canary the following morning. The following night, Carol-Anne, who once again enters into a dialogue with the roaring television - this time in her parents' bedroom - witnesses a paranormal spectacle: a band of light reaches out of the television in the shape of a hand and finally rushes out the television out into the opposite wall, causing the building to shudder. The parents are shaken from their sleep, but when asked what happened, Carol-Anne answers succinctly with "You are here".

From now on, quite harmless arise in the House initially haunting one: cutlery is bent shatter glasses, chairs move on their own and the domestic dog retrieves front of the wall post to which the light band dipped hours before. A few days later a strong thunderstorm is approaching, which brings strange cloud formations with it. On this stormy night there was a major outbreak of paranormal events: A tree in the garden came to life, broke through the child's room window and took Carol-Anne's older brother Robbie . While his parents and his older sister Dana are desperately trying to snatch Robbie from the tree in the garden, Carol-Anne, left behind in the house, who clings helplessly to her bed frame, is sucked into her wardrobe, from which a glaring, unnatural light streams . The tree is eventually torn from the garden by a sudden tornado. Steve manages to free Robbie at the last second. Carol-Anne has disappeared without a trace, while a terrifying ghost settles in the devastated children's room, which causes all family members to fearfully avoid the room. Only with the help of the television can the parents hear Carol-Anne's voice but not see the child.

Helpless and resigned, the Freelings turn to a team of scientists whose initial skepticism quickly gives way as they tour the house. Together with the scientists, the Freelings are now experiencing a series of spooky phenomena, be it biting attacks from nowhere, a thunderstorm on the living room ceiling, from which some ancient, partly modern belongings of strangers are raining down, or glowing, shadowy ghosts coming down the stairs from the children's room walk. A scientist even escapes a steak that is unexpectedly swelling apart with maggots, and immediately afterwards an appearance in the mirror leads him to believe that his face is dissolving into shreds of flesh. Finally, the equally exasperated scientists consult Tangina Barrons as a medium . At their instigation, contact is immediately made with the missing Carol-Anne and a little later, in a turbulent rescue operation, it succeeds in bringing Carol-Anne back into this world: To do this, mother Diane goes over the children's room wardrobe, which is a kind of established gate to the intermediate world, to "the other side" and saves Carol-Anne. A mistake on the part of Steven almost leads to the failure of the action and lets him - with a mild outcome - make the acquaintance of a very strong, evil appearance that Tangina simply calls "the beast".

After Carol-Anne's rescue, the spook seems to have come to an end, the Freelings think they have survived the terror and are planning their move. But on their last night in the house, the ghost breaks out again with unprecedented severity: Again the beast strives for the children and tries to pull them to "the other side" in the form of a gigantic throat that opens up again in the children's room . After several terrible apparitions, the house finally begins to collapse, while opening coffins rise from the ground in the garden, from which decayed and skeletonized corpses fall out. During the panicked escape from the property, Diane finally succeeds in snatching the two children from the maw. Meanwhile, Steven finally realizes the meaning behind the recent statements of his employer, a real estate agent: The house and the entire settlement were built on a cemetery, from which only the gravestones had previously been moved, and now the Freelings are still being revenged souls buried under their homes. With this insight, the family flees Cuesta Verde, with the Freelings' house crashing and disappearing. You are temporarily staying in a hotel, where Steven's first official act is to banish the television in front of the room door.

Optical effects

Poltergeist is now regarded as one of the great showpieces of the effect cinema of the 1980s. The most difficult scene that the special effects team had to implement was the one at the very end of the film, in which the Freelings' house collapses and is sucked into a kind of spectral hole. This scene was realized with the help of optical tricks, using techniques such as miniature trick, high-speed recording and optical copying, as well as a complex and experimental vacuum process. Other special animated shots were a tornado at the beginning of the film and the animal monster that blocked Diane from entering Carol Anne's room in the finale. The monster was taken underwater to give the movement of its hair something unnatural and supernatural, and later copied into the film; a procedure that was also used for the ghost appearances that occurred earlier in the film (although less easily recognizable).

The special effects, overseen by Richard Edlund , were nominated for an Oscar and lost to Spielbergs ET , whose special effects were overseen by Dennis Muren . Both Edlund and Muren worked for Industrial Light & Magic , under whose roof the effects of both films were created, and had already held a similar internal ILM “competition” the year before. Muren was Oscar-nominated for the effects in The Dragon Slayer and Edlund for his work on Raiders of the Lost Ark . At that time, however, Edlund had won the race.

useful information

Spielberg or Hooper?

Questions about Tobe Hooper's artistic independence came up again and again, as the film sometimes has very strong influences from Steven Spielberg's staging style. According to reports, Spielberg, who had the basic idea for the film and co-wrote the script, was on the set almost every day; In addition, Hooper was excluded from film editing, for which Spielberg's regular editor Michael Kahn was responsible, as well as from the rest of the post-production (music, effects, etc.). In early copies of the film, the words "A Steven Spielberg Production" were written larger than "A Tobe Hooper Film" in the opening credits, which not only fueled further suspicions about Spielberg's strong producer role, but also resulted in union law problems for Spielberg. In an interview from 2016, he indirectly commented on this as follows: "I would say it was not possible to show the scene when I was making the film."

The " Poltergeist Curse"

The Poltergeist film series hit the headlines because two of the children from the first part and the actors of the Indian Taylor ( Will Sampson ) and Kanes ( Julian Beck ) from the second part died after filming the various films. Especially the case of the actress Dominique Dunne caused horror; she was killed by her boyfriend in the year the first film was released. Heather O'Rourke , who played Carol Anne, died in 1988 of an intestinal obstruction. In the course of the advertising campaign for the first film, fantastic stories about a "curse" were also launched through numerous stories by members of the film crew about mysterious accidents on the set or only white film strips; even Steven Spielberg himself spoke of some strange occurrences during the filming. The extent to which this should primarily only serve the marketing of the film - the press releases were also full of sometimes crude (pseudo) scientific debates on the subject - was in turn the subject of speculation. Combined with the tragic events surrounding a few actors, such stories finally became the legend of a “ poltergeist curse” that overshadows the film series.

Awards

In addition to the special effects, the sound effects editing and the soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith were nominated for an Oscar in 1983 , even though they all lost out against the competition. Of six nominations for the Saturn Award of the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films , the film won three in the categories of Best Horror Film , Best Make-up and Zelda Rubinstein for Best Supporting Actress . In addition, JoBeth Williams was nominated as best actress , Tobe Hooper as best director and once again Jerry Goldsmith for the score . Richard Edlund finally received a BAFTA Award for the special effects of the film and Heather O'Rourke the “Young Artist Award” in the category “Best Supporting Role”.

The location

The original house from the first part, where the exterior recordings took place, is still standing - in California in Simi Valley , 4267 Roxbury Street. The owners of the house, who rented it to the film team in 1982, still live in it today.

Others

In the scene in which mother Diane Freeling goes down on her knees in front of clairvoyant Tangina Barrons and cries, the small-stature Barrons asks about the house with a curse: “ Where was the last bilocation event? ". A bilocation is the alleged ability of a person to be in two places at the same time.

Remake

The poltergeist remake by 20th Century Fox and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was released in US cinemas on May 22, 2015 . In Germany, the film was released on May 28, 2015; the start in Austria and Switzerland came a day or two later.

Originally, Vadim Perelman was slated to direct. After Perelman turned it down in April 2012 and Sam Raimi was also unavailable , Gil Kenan took over the direction. Raimi and his long-time colleague Robert G. Tapert produced the 3D film starring Rosemarie DeWitt , Sam Rockwell , Jared Harris and Saxon Sharbino .

Reviews

“What begins as a joke and accurate satire on the ' American way of life ' ends as a horror orgy with a concentrated use of refined special effects. A high-class, skilfully made entertainment film. "

- Lexicon of international film

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mr. Spielberg, what are you afraid of? at zeit.de
  2. ↑ Tony Reeves: Poltergeist film locations. In: web presence movie-locations.com. The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations, accessed July 28, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Sam Raimi Circling Poltergeist Remake?
  4. ↑ Poltergeist. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used