They’re heeeeeeeere. – Poltergeist

Horror Movie Challenge #1 - POLTERGEIST

The beauty about the horror movie challenge is that there are different types of horror – different levels of ‘horror’, and thus I wanted to start off with a classic ghostly movie, as opposed to a gory, shlock horror from the 70s. Heck, as soon as I saw the cover of Suspiria (1977) I backed away slowly and said I’d come back to that. Maybe. It may later be crossed off the list actually. Accidentally of course. I’ll pretend not to have seen it.

So, I started off with Poltergeist which I was told would be a ‘gentle’ start but it actually was a movie which once I told friends about the choice; they would gasp and recall their reaction when they first saw it – in the early 80s once released, or when they were old enough to actually watch a horror film. Old enough, or sneaky enough. So I was quite curious to see if it would be as scary for me – seeing it as an adult, as opposed to seeing it during my childhood.

The memory I have of being terrified as a child came while viewing the full video for Michael Jackson’s Thriller clip. That terrified me. (The whiskers!)

The only thing I knew about Poltergeist was the oh-so-cute she’s scary little girl with the extremely bright blue eyes, staring into a staticky screen and creepily uttering ‘they’re heeeeere’. So effectively, I went in completely blind.

It brings you in to the strangeness straight away, or the ‘paranormal activity’ if you will, with a staticky television waking up the little girl from her slumber (though not the stereotypical Dad lounging right in front of it) and she sits in front of the TV asking ‘speak louder’… oooh. The recreationally stoned parents think she must just be sleep walking, and think nothing of it.

Even when the kitchen chairs mysteriously move around, its exciting! Not creepy at all! But then, the creepy bald tree outside the kids’ bedroom window tries to swallow up the little boy, and its no funny business anymore!

The movie from this point turns into a bit of a free-for-all – less of a suspense, a couple of really gross sequences, but all in all, I would find the Marshmallow man from Ghostbusters scarier than what comes out of the kids’ closet. Well. Except for the clown.

On a scale of ‘did I need to sleep with a teddybear’ or ‘I need to leave the lights on for this’ – I will say, nope. I shrieked loudly a couple of times, but other than that, I was more disgusted, and will keep an eye out for a crawling piece of steak.

What was your memory of Poltergeist?

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