Last night we went to a "One Night Only" screening of Poltergeist - the 25th Anniversary.
Holy Bat Fuck! 25 years?!?
I remember going to the movie theater, which was 20 miles from home and used to be a single theater until the balcony was converted to a second theater and being scared while watching it behind clenched fingers.
I was 13 at the time, I don't remember who I went with, but I may have been friends, it may have been my family?!? I don't remember, but I do remember seeing it in the theater.
The funny thing about watching a movie on the big screen that you originally saw on the big screen is looking at all of the ephemera that is usually found in a movie, but is typically not viewable on the "boob tube" For example, I do not recall at ALL in the beginning of the movie that the parents were in their bedroom smoking pot?!? I remember that scene, but I just thought they were smoking, I didn't know they were smoking the wacky tobaccy! And there were other references to that as well, like when they were getting ready to bury the bird in a cigar box and CaroleAnne said "tweety doesn't like that smell" (of course referring to the smell of mary jane).
And the kids room was COVERED in memorbilia from the 80's, a rubik's cube, star wars galore (this was just a few years after Star Wars was released) as well as a vintage Cheeto's bag which was hilarious to see in it's red-white-and blue!
Watching the movie though was fun, I'm sure I laughed at different places now than I did then, being a big adult and all now and actually "getting" the humor instead of going "Why did everyone laugh, I don't get it?" Craig T Nelson was YOUNG and although he had been in a lot of movies before this, he was still a relatively "unknown" as well as JoBeth Williams.
It is, of course, dated, but that's what makes it so great. It was one of the first horror movies that wasn't all slasher and actually made you think that it could really happen. Watching it again, I was a little more criticial of it because some of the editing seemed to be off and the story seemed to jump around a bit, but that may have been just been the version they showed.
The worst part of the movie though was watching it with my companions, one who was 23 (who had NEVER seen the movie ) and one who was 27 (and had only seen it on TV) , you know I felt as old as a box of rocks when I had to admit that I actually saw this on the Big Screen the first time around.....god I'm getting old!
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11 comments:
I read about the screening the other day!
remember me taking this picture for my 365? I remember telling Georgia how scary that film was and she didn't believe me so I Netflixed it and she LOVED it. Yes, I felt old too but it was fun to watch!!!!
Ahhh... to be your age again....
I was in COLLEGE when the movie came out!
Getting old?!?!?!? I saw 'The Sound Of Music' on the Big Screen!
They're here!
I was 23--gawd, was I ever 23?!?--when I saw it in the theater on opening night, thankyouverymuch. You do the math!
OhMy, has it already been twenty-five years????
ill just say i watched it with my mom and she got a kick out of some of the 80's stuff also.
I loved the little person who talked like a munchkin. What ever happened to her?
she died.
So did the actress who played Carol Ann, as well as the guy who played the Shaman in the second flick.
Hi
I am a longtime fan of Poltergeist as there is soo much about this movie I connect with. I remember it when it came out and it terrified me at the theatre.
1/ The 'familyisms' are sooo real, all that 'are we there yet' style of family banter that goes on in almost 'every' family, jokes at meals, fear of the night, 'whats under the bed?' scary tree, scary storms, cool family home, tripping over kids gears, all that stuff.
REAL stuff like Mom and Dad having their smoke-up, sports games, getting the beers to the crew as fast as they can without even worrying about dropped cans,
Poking fun at the 'last name' form of address "Ben.... hahahahahaha"
Who hasn't been in a hurry and scrambled to get their key into the lock without fumbling it
I totally love this movie and enjoyed watching it again last night in glorious Blu-Ray.
Theres one thing I don't get though and its something that was obvious to me in the theatre, that the "Door Demon" was tweety the canary. Nobody else has picked up on this and I have never seen it discussed anywhere.
Think about it, The poltergeist attack was triggered by the desecration of burial grounds by moving the headstones and not the bodies.
American movies NEVER have events without a reason. A 'random event' is always linked to other events that show up later on and the 'tweety scenes' were made a big deal of, too big a deal to not have them relating to anything else.
Tweety's death and burial were major scenes and we are shown the bulldozer turning up tweety's coffin and, as such, desecrating it.
Look at the "Door Demon" that confronts "Mom" to block her entering the kids room.
Look at it's skeletal structure, especially the hind legs. It looks like a demonized bird skeleton.
It has always been obvious to me that it's "Tweety" yet it seems to me that no-one else has ever 'got' this aspect.
Poltergeist remains awesome to this day. Hopefully it gets the 3D conversion treatment. That would be soo amazing.
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