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Tuesday, March 20, 2018

POLTERGEIST (1982)

When this Family Oriented Horror Pic was released, talk centered on how Steven Spielberg may have taken the reins from accredited/harder-edged director Tobe Hooper (TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE/'74). A moot point in a Spielberg production from his own original story and script. (No doubt, final cut, too.) Heck, even the classic film clip on the family tv is Spielberg fave A GUY NAMED JOE/’43. (A film he remade, to his regret, as ALWAYS/’89.) But all the finger-pointing doesn’t much help the film, it’s the same Lite Fright-Fest mishmash about suburban parents JoBeth Williams & Craig T. Nelson (he’s very good), fighting off tactile & ghostly ectoplasmic units screwing with their house & lives, before abducting their youngest child. Enter a ghost-busting team to document the scene and fight off Special Effects Monsters that now look both technically dated (no matter) and conceptually weak (very much matter). The premise might have worked if the mix of comic, gory, scary, sentimental found (and held) a tone to play in, but it's neither fish nor fowl after Spielberg's Post-Production. A couple of years on, Joe Dante hit just the tone for GREMLINS/’84; even better on GREMLINS 2/’90. A perfect TRIPLE-BILL.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: The ‘product placement’ shots are truly beyond the Pale, check out the bag of Cheetos!

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