Poltergeist (1982) (25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)

[slimdude]

Originally Posted by DukeTogo84

Never seen Lifeforce or The Funhouse, but I think I'll check those out soon. I need to buy Salem's Lot on Blu-ray for sure, maybe in time for Halloween.

I also agree with your statement that while it has a bit of Tobe's flavor, Poltergeist really does feel more like a Speilberg film.

Steven Spielberg's touch is all over Poltergeist. It's 30% Hooper and 70% Spielberg.

[DukeTogo84]

Got my copy in today and quickly scanned through it. For a release that is 12 years old, I thought the PQ was damn nice. Obviously, I still have to watch it to be sure. My wife has never seen this film before and I haven't watched it in nearly 20 years. Hopefully we can put our daughter to sleep early to watch it all in one sitting tonight. Pretty excited to be honest.

[SeanJoyce]

Originally Posted by DukeTogo84

Never seen Lifeforce or The Funhouse, but I think I'll check those out soon. I need to buy Salem's Lot on Blu-ray for sure, maybe in time for Halloween.

I also agree with your statement that while it has a bit of Tobe's flavor, Poltergeist really does feel more like a Speilberg film.

I've never seen Lifeforce either, but with the 4k steelbook going for $20 I figured I'd go for it and round out my Hooper collection before next month.

Speaking of which, Salem's Lot and The Funhouse have always been ideal Halloween viewing for me. While TCM is resplendent with hot, sweaty dog-days-of-summer suffocation, those two are perfect for the chillier, festive nights of October.

[BNex99]

Originally Posted by DukeTogo84

Got my copy in today and quickly scanned through it. For a release that is 12 years old, I thought the PQ was damn nice. Obviously, I still have to watch it to be sure.

It holds up pretty well, especially for a VC-1 encode.

As for the Spielberg / Hooper question, who knows? I think it's probably still accurate to say Hooper directed the film, but as this was early in Spielberg's producing career, he may have over-inserted himself into the whole process.

At any rate, it's definitely edited like a Spielberg film, but for a producer to take charge in the editing room is not as unusual as we'd like to think.

[happydood]

I keep trying to give Poltergeist III some grace when I see how many horror fans love it, but it just doesn't do it for me. I respect Gary Sherman, the effects are fun, there are some cool, edgy sequences, and I know they had the obvious hurtles to deal with in getting it finished, but it just doesn't work as what it's trying to be: a Poltergeist movie.

The second one has a wonderful score, the same wonderful actors as the first + Julian Beck(!), and the suburban nightmare feel of the first, but it's not scary and it feels like very little is at stake that hasn't already been done better in the first movie- of which it keeps trying to remind me.

If you put these two together somehow, you'd have the elements of a pretty good
sequel and one much like the first, but whenever I look at either of them, I end up turning them off and watching the first one. It's a perfect movie and there's an edgy kind of magic at work that you don't get with either Spielberg or Hooper alone. I don't care if Hooper's influence is 30% to Speilberg's 70, or however anyone wants to cut it, but I think his visual influence is all over that whole nightmare sequence of the finale with the clown attack and the pool and the endless hallway. Spielberg definitely has a nasty streak- it's on full display in Jaws and War Of The Worlds and the brutality in his historical pictures, but I don't think it's the same kind of edgy that Poltergeist has. I think it's also funny that Spielberg claims pretty much all of the dark stuff in Temple of Doom is George Lucas, and that all of the hokey CGI of Crystal Skull was Spielberg himself, so even though he has a signature style, I don't necessarily assume he's pulling all of the strings when he's collaborating.

[DNSK]

This has always been my all time favorite horror film.

[ptsherm]

Originally Posted by slimdude

Steven Spielberg's touch is all over Poltergeist. It's 30% Hooper and 70% Spielberg.

Spielberg could never think of images like this

[Show spoiler]

and your ratio is completely arbitrary in regards to 1st Unit shooting by Hooper that Spielberg, much more likely, wasn’t 70% present for. The film has a script written by Spielberg. That is the source of his touch. Meanwhile, Hooper was throwing things out, editing things down, removing comic relief, changing the tone completely by ignoring storyboards and demanding mid-shoot rewrites (the ending and several scenes were rewritten midway through shooting - and whose original script is it?). Spielberg: “The turmoil [of producing] is wanting to things your way but having to go through procedure. That is why I will never again not direct a film I write.” If anyone felt sidelined in regards to making the film they wanted to make, it was Spielberg.

[slimdude]

Originally Posted by ptsherm

Spielberg could never think of images like this

[Show spoiler]

and your ratio is completely arbitrary in regards to 1st Unit shooting by Hooper that Spielberg, much more likely, wasn’t 70% present for. The film has a script written by Spielberg. That is the source of his touch. Meanwhile, Hooper was throwing things out, editing things down, removing comic relief, changing the tone completely by ignoring storyboards and demanding mid-shoot rewrites (the ending and several scenes were rewritten midway through shooting - and whose original script is it?). Spielberg: “The turmoil [of producing] is wanting to things your way but having to go through procedure. That is why I will never again not direct a film I write.” If anyone felt sidelined in regards to making the film they wanted to make, it was Spielberg.

It's only a movie so who really cares. and You didn't had to write a book about it.

[MJD64]

Respectfully, the man who came up with so many memorably shocking images in JAWS could certainly have imagined what's shown there. The man who'd given us the CGI-wraiths of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK the year previous could certainly have come up with that spectral closet dweller. Take another look at Karen Allen with the cadavers and skeletons in the RAIDERS Well of Souls sequence and see how closely it resembles the "coffins 'n' cadavers" climax of POLTERGEIST - especially that scene with JoBeth Williams in the swimming pool.

[Darthbooth1978]

Every time I watch Raiders I think of Poltergeist and vice versa.

[Swissangel4616]

Not a horror fan but this is my favorite ( movie generally). Top entertainment (Hooper/Spielberg) great story-telling and camera-work... glad I got to meet Tobe Hooper just weeks before he passed away and he was honored what I thought/said about this movie- even he did only 30%.

[DMRI2006]

Hooper apparently had a drug problem. It's addressed in the UK Arrow Blu documentary on Lifeforce (one of them at least has an interviewee who basically says it) and one of the commentaries on The Dark which he was fired from for being "unreliable" and disappearing from the set. There are also interviews with cast members of various films he made at the time who wondered if he was on something too.

Maybe Spielberg took over because he had to, and frankly, nobody is going to want to trash the guy because he had a problem, which a lot of people did back at the time.

That said, it would have explained his "erratic" and at times withdrawn behavior, and why he probably didn't direct a whole lot of Poltergeist in the final analysis.

[OneWayFilms]

Originally Posted by ptsherm

Spielberg could never think of images like this

[Show spoiler]

and your ratio is completely arbitrary in regards to 1st Unit shooting by Hooper that Spielberg, much more likely, wasn’t 70% present for. The film has a script written by Spielberg. That is the source of his touch. Meanwhile, Hooper was throwing things out, editing things down, removing comic relief, changing the tone completely by ignoring storyboards and demanding mid-shoot rewrites (the ending and several scenes were rewritten midway through shooting - and whose original script is it?). Spielberg: “The turmoil [of producing] is wanting to things your way but having to go through procedure. That is why I will never again not direct a film I write.” If anyone felt sidelined in regards to making the film they wanted to make, it was Spielberg.

Originally Posted by slimdude

It's only a movie so who really cares. and You didn't had to write a book about it.

"It's only a movie so who cares?"

Did you suddenly forget where you are? You are in a message board about blu rays and Movies. Everyone who takes the time to register here, click around and contributes posts shows that they have SOME level of interest in the topics of movies. We can even assume that your very presence in here indicates that you too have some level of interest. Now, you personally may not care about his post, but it's very unbecoming of you to suddenly be rude to this poster and indicate to him that no one here cares about what he has to share....this message board is free for ALL people to post and share their thoughts and opinions, even if they go against your personal interest.

As for him writing a book about it? Again....how rude. His post was only a short paragraph, which means he composed a well-thought out response. Your response was simply rude and juvenile.

[postmodel]

Originally Posted by slimdude

It's only a movie so who really cares. and You didn't had to write a book about it.

But it’s such a good book to read! I love this person’s posts about the film. Team Hooper all the way.

[SeanJoyce]

Originally Posted by OneWayFilms

[Show spoiler]"It's only a movie so who cares?"

Did you suddenly forget where you are? You are in a message board about blu rays and Movies. Everyone who takes the time to register here, click around and contributes posts shows that they have SOME level of interest in the topics of movies. We can even assume that your very presence in here indicates that you too have some level of interest. Now, you personally may not care about his post, but it's very unbecoming of you to suddenly be rude to this poster and indicate to him that no one here cares about what he has to share....this message board is free for ALL people to post and share their thoughts and opinions, even if they go against your personal interest.

As for him writing a book about it? Again....how rude. His post was only a short paragraph, which means he composed a well-thought out response. Your response was simply rude and juvenile.

Ignore this person...he/she is totally incapable of critical thinking. I'm even on their side when it comes to the debate in question, but objectively-speaking that's a pretty typical and weak-sauce retort.

[OneWayFilms]

Originally Posted by SeanJoyce

Ignore this person...he/she is totally incapable of critical thinking. I'm even on their side when it comes to the debate in question, but objectively-speaking that's a pretty typical and weak-sauce retort.

Oh, I agree also with this viewpoint....but the rudeness needed to be called out. I just think people can disagree without being so disagreeable.

[ptsherm]

Appreciate the appreciative words, folks. Perhaps I was approaching a book.

Originally Posted by MJD64

Respectfully, the man who came up with so many memorably shocking images in JAWS could certainly have imagined what's shown there. The man who'd given us the CGI-wraiths of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK the year previous could certainly have come up with that spectral closet dweller. Take another look at Karen Allen with the cadavers and skeletons in the RAIDERS Well of Souls sequence and see how closely it resembles the "coffins 'n' cadavers" climax of POLTERGEIST - especially that scene with JoBeth Williams in the swimming pool.

And what of Texas Chain Saw Massacre? There was a certain “funhouse” sensibility come about from the collaboration on a blockbuster-intended film, but the pool sequence likely would have resembled the Raiders sequence even more, with the skeletons not floating up from water but, in its initial conception, sprouting from waist high mud and spraying dust from bursting caskets over Williams. I think Hooper made it a much more protracted - and wet - sequence.

Really, in the end, it’s not a question of whose idea was what, but whether we can parse anything totally to Spielberg. We know we can parse things totally to Hooper, thanks to most accounts attesting to Hooper’s constancy versus Spielberg’s inconstancy on the set, and the odd changes to a lot of script-derived plans.

Originally Posted by DMRI2006

Hooper apparently had a drug problem. It's addressed in the UK Arrow Blu documentary on Lifeforce (one of them at least has an interviewee who basically says it)

Okay, I’ve thought a lot about the drug rumors. No matter what Hooper went through right before Lifeforce (and who ever said films can’t be made with the director completely nose-deep in a vice or two), it was three years after the shooting of Poltergeist, and what I’ve heard is that any “spiral” he had actually had a lot to do with the scandal that happened around Poltergeist.

and one of the commentaries on The Dark which he was fired from for being "unreliable" and disappearing from the set. There are also interviews with cast members of various films he made at the time who wondered if he was on something too.

I think you’re spinning off a few things about Hooper’s general mien you’ve read without there actually being straight, uninterpretable statements about “disappearing from set.”. I’ve read pretty much anything any cast member has to say about a Hooper set, and the one thing that unites them is that Hooper was always super-focused on completing a film. The Dark was produced by a company of true-blue hucksters who would never allow any filmmaker to complete a film showing any interest in the art of cinema, once they’d used the person’s name to raise funds and entice talent. They pulled the same bait-and-switch on Mark Rosman (“House on Sorority Row”) on the film MUTANT/NIGHT SHADOWS, firing him a week in because they always planned on making the movie they wanted to make.

Maybe Spielberg took over because he had to, and frankly, nobody is going to want to trash the guy because he had a problem, which a lot of people did back at the time.

That said, it would have explained his "erratic" and at times withdrawn behavior, and why he probably didn't direct a whole lot of Poltergeist in the final analysis.

Not even Zelda Rubinstein, who thought he was a dirty hippie, could say Hooper was not present, physically and mentally, on the set. Her final remarks on the topic: “I found Tobe set up every shot and then Steven came in and made final adjustments. So I think it was a split decision.” Spielberg adherent John Leonetti says he “loved” Hooper and was “involved,” certainly no side-eyes about him being a troubling energy.

I think there’s no real story about him being erratic. Hooper was always a withdrawn person. As it stands, Hooper directed almost everything, as there is no set story, from supporters to naysayers, that does not include Hooper.

[FilmNerdJamie]

Originally Posted by DMRI2006

Hooper apparently had a drug problem. It's addressed in the UK Arrow Blu documentary on Lifeforce (one of them at least has an interviewee who basically says it) and one of the commentaries on The Dark which he was fired from for being "unreliable" and disappearing from the set. There are also interviews with cast members of various films he made at the time who wondered if he was on something too.

Maybe Spielberg took over because he had to, and frankly, nobody is going to want to trash the guy because he had a problem, which a lot of people did back at the time.

That said, it would have explained his "erratic" and at times withdrawn behavior, and why he probably didn't direct a whole lot of Poltergeist in the final analysis.

For what it's worth, that is what I heard in regards to why Spielberg took the reigns over from Hooper.

[ptsherm]

Originally Posted by FilmNerdJamie

For what it's worth, that is what I heard in regards to why Spielberg took the reigns over from Hooper.

And pray tell where did you hear this incontrovertible and water-tight account? Or if you didn’t hear it from a reputable source, why share it (something that has no evidence to have happened)?

[Nailwraps]

Let's just agree Hooper AND Spielberg directed it.