Poltergeist (1982) Dir: Tobe Hooper
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This 1982 classic had been on my horror watchlist forever, due to its iconic status and infamous reputation. Directed by Tobe Hooper, I would say this film did a lot of things well and a lot of things badly.
To start positively, I thought the tension building was well-crafted at the beginning of the film. There was a subtlety to the sinister happenings that drew me in quite successfully. I would go so far as to say the first 20 minutes or so were very good.
However, from there-on in the problems really started. The comedy, in my view, was misplaced. It felt jarring and ultimately damaged the film tonally. The film couldn't decide if it was a Tobe Hooper horror or a Stephen Spielberg fantasy. What's more, it felt at times like an ad-campaign, warning of the dangers of letting kids watch too much television.
Furthermore, the pacing was consistently all over the place, something that caused the whole film to suffer. It was hard to keep my focus on a film that lacked just that at pivotal times.
Going back to the positive, I thought that, while not scary by modern standards, there was some pretty decent jumps, as well as scenes were the physical effects department really came to the fore.
Craig T. Nelson and JoBeth Williams aren't incredible protagonists by any means, but they do at least have a fair few decent scenes amongst the poor ones, particularly Williams.
Heather O'Rourke stole the film with some very creepy scenes that helped generate the spookiness in the film a lot. The rest of her performance wasn't too bad either, but she definitely peaked early. The other performances most worth noting came from Beatrice Straight, Dominique Dunne and Oliver Robins.
Overall, while this is clearly a classic spookhouse horror, it was undeniably plagued by issues, on-screen and off, that dragged it down in some vital ways. Don't misconstrue, I did enjoy my experience of watching this one, but I felt as though it could have been so much better.
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