The start of the Poltergeist craze!
This book is sufficiently erie, nad the movie scared the bejuzzes out of me when I was a kid!
Based on the movie, pretty creepy.
It's no secret that this is one of my favorite movies, one I've seen dozens of times. I don't remember 1982, but there's just something nostalgic about it, a characteristic that many of Spielberg's productions have. It was kind of odd: I actually saw Poltergeist III before I saw the original, back in the late 80s, at a neighbor's house when I was at a slumber party (!).
I remember that I wasn't all that terribly fond of the third installment (the second in the series was the worst of the three movies, in my opinion), possibly because I didn't really know the "back story" at that point, so I didn't actually see the original until I was maybe a teenager. That unprecedented movie turned me into an avowed horror movie aficionado.
The fact that a book was released at the same time the movie came out speaks to the expectations that it was going to be a blockbuster hit, which it was. This novel version, which was written after the screenplay, is a fairly faithful adaptation of the movie. There are some differences in events and dialogue, but the latter is definitely recognizable if you're familiar with the film.
It also provides more in-depth background material on the characters, especially Zelda Rubenstein's iconic psychic Tangina, which explains some things the movie leaves out. In that case, however, the way in which she first meets the family differs from what appears in the movie. I wonder, in fact, if some of the book's material was written from cut scenes which originally appeared in the script, which never saw the light of day.
Even if this novel had been written as a stand-alone book, it easily could have served as material to base a movie on, as it would have been a very capable novel on its own, reminiscent of other horror classics like "The Amityville Horror" and Stephen King novels (whose movie adaptation are generally awful, truth be told, with a few notable exceptions). This trade paperback was actually published by Warner Books, in May, 1982, so it was the official release facilitated by the movie studio. Actually, it shows that the copyright is per Amblin' Entertainment, Steven Spielberg's production company, so it was clearly released per their approval. I wasn't aware that a movie studio also had a book publishing division, but this was more than forty years ago.
"Poltergeist" probably needs no introduction, but this is a timeless horror classic which tells the story of a young family living in an idyllic (fictional) Southern California town called Cuesta Verde, where real estate developer Steven lives with his wife and three young children. They were the first to move into the area, which is perhaps one reason why the events which unfold fall hardest on them. On just another typical day in Suburbia, daughter Carol Ann begins displaying some strange symptoms, which the family initially takes for sleepwalking, but things progress until the point that it is clear that something supernatural is going on.
The family's suspicions are confirmed when a malevolent force steals Carol Ann away, apparently to some alternate or parallel dimension in the beyond, which is populated with the spirits of those who have died, and the race is on to find her before she is lost forever. Steve and Diane encounter a paranormal research team, along with one of their protege psychic study subjects, who has been having dreams of Carol Ann since her disappearance. Together, the team take on the malevolent force in an attempt to retrieve the couple's missing daughter and to solve the mystery of why their house has experienced such a vicious poltergeist intrusion. The culprit is more horrifying than any of them could imagine.
This movie, in my opinion, essentially established the "haunted house," movie genre, or at least cemented its viability in cinematic history. This one movie also set the canon for generations to come. Few people knew what a poltergeist was before this movie was released, but its tropes have been replicated innumerable times in subsequent horror films.
There were certainly movies about the paranormal prior to this one's release, including the aforementioned "The Amityville Horror," which was based on another book involving a family who lives in a reportedly haunted house where a horrific mass murder took place (although, as I have written about elsewhere, the events described have been thoroughly debunked at this point), but "Poltergeist" set the bar and even gave rise to a jargon for those to follow, which have included the wildly successful "The Conjuring" and "Paranormal Activity" series, but I think it also just brought the paranormal into the mainstream.
I would even attribute the highly successful "ghost hunting" TV shows, on the order of Zac Bagans's "Ghost Adventures" show, to the popularity garnered by the original Poltergeist.
That said, the additional two films in the series were, as many Spielberg production franchise films tend to be, ridiculously bad, with the second one being the worst of all of them. There was also a recent re-make which generally followed the story line of the original, but it wasn't much better than the others. There was also a short-lived TV series, I believe, which didn't fare too much better than the films in the franchise, aside from the wildly successful original film.
If you're familiar with the series, you are no doubt also at least aware of claims of a "Poltergeist Curse," which took an even darker turn following the tragic, untimely deaths of two of the original film's stars: Dominique Dunne, who played the teenage daughter Dana, and Heather O'Rourke, the film's most notable character, little Carol Ann, who tragically passed away at the age of twelve.
This film certainly seemed to take on a life of its own. It didn't help matters that there were reports of strange occurrences on all of the three movies during filming. One of the more freaky happenings on set was in the scene where Diane falls in the unfinished swimming pool during the movie's climax. Perhaps it wasn't actually an odd occurrence, but for her, it was an unsettling one: she later discovered that the skeletons which appear in the scene... were real. The actress Jo Beth Williams claimed that years later she ran into one of the prop guys, and mentioned the scene and the skeletons, whereupon he told her that they were actually real. At the time, cadaver skeletons were reportedly cheaper than manufacturing plastic ones.
The worst of the tragedies associated with "Poltergeist" involved the death of the two "Freeling" daughters. Dominique Dunne, the daughter of Hollywood producer Dominick Dunne and sister to fellow actor Griffin Dunne, was murdered by her boyfriend John Sweeney (who later changed his name to John Maura and disappeared) in Nov., 1982, shortly after "Poltergeist" premiered. His only real claim to fame was that he was once a sous chef at the popular LA nightspot "Ma Maison" - that, and the fact that he had a criminal record. He had a history of severe domestic violence, having severely beaten another of his prior girlfriends so badly that he ruptured one of her lungs.
He had reportedly met Dominique at a party, and shortly thereafter, they began a relationship, wherein she, too, began to experience numerous bouts of domestic violence at his hands. On one occasion, his assault was so severe that she did not require makeup when she played a domestic abuse survivor on the popular '80s police procedural drama "Hill Street Blues" in 1981. The shocking, visible bruises, split lip and swelling on her face were real.
Ultimately, after she finally ended her relationship with him, he stalked her, and upon seeing her rehearsing a scene with another male actor for the upcoming TV series "V" at her home, Sweeney dragged her outside and strangled her in her driveway. She survived for a brief time but was declared brain dead, and was removed from life support five days later.
After Sweeney was convicted of manslaughter rather than murder, due at least in part to the judge's refusal to allow the testimony of Sweeney's previous abuse victim whom he nearly killed, he was sentenced to only a few years in prison, and ended up serving less than half of that sentence. Dominique's father then worked tirelessly and became a vocal advocate for victim's rights after his daughter's untimely passing and the grave miscarriage of justice in essentially seeing her murderer go unpunished. Dominick Dunne passed away in New York in 2009.
Heather O'Rourke will forever be remembered for her portrayal as the lovely little blonde-haired girl in Poltergeist, and her iconic, eerie line, "they're heeeeeere...." She passed away on Feb. 1, 1988 in San Diego of cardiac arrest due to intestinal stenosis, an undiagnosed congenital birth defect, which resulted in a ruptured bowel and septic shock. She had begun to experience symptoms as early as January, 1987, more than a year before. She was eventually diagnosed with Crohn's Disease, a chronic inflammation of the intestine, and was put on steroids to try to decrease the inflammation. Many moviegoers noticed her "chipmunk" cheeks in the third installation of Poltergeist, which was a side effect of the medication, although she reportedly never complained while working on the set of the third film.
She was reportedly doing well, until Jan. 31, 1988, which was a Super Bowl Sunday, when she was unable to keep anything down. By the next morning, her hands and fingers had turned blue, and she later passed out at the breakfast table. She tragically suffered a cardiac arrest in the ambulance on the way to the hospital and died on the operating table that afternoon. In a tragic twist of fate, she and Dominique are buried in the same cemetery in Los Angeles.
In addition to the two beloved actresses who passed away at a young age, there were apparently additional unexpected deaths associated with the movies, including that of Will Sampson, who played the Native American shaman in the second movie. As it turns out, he was a REAL shaman and stated to both cast and crew his belief that the set was haunted, to the degree that he performed a cleansing ritual to repel any malevolent energies which might be lurking. This was in response to some unsettling mishaps which had occurred during filming; after his ritual cleansing, no additional untoward events occurred during filming.
There are few moviegoers who haven't seen the original "Poltergeist," which is all the more poignant after the death of two of its beloved stars. This is a great book, but it's somewhat difficult to find, as it was not reprinted after the first run, and trade paperbacks aren't known for their longevity. It's now forty years old, but it's well worth the read if you can find a copy.
I remember that I wasn't all that terribly fond of the third installment (the second in the series was the worst of the three movies, in my opinion), possibly because I didn't really know the "back story" at that point, so I didn't actually see the original until I was maybe a teenager. That unprecedented movie turned me into an avowed horror movie aficionado.
The fact that a book was released at the same time the movie came out speaks to the expectations that it was going to be a blockbuster hit, which it was. This novel version, which was written after the screenplay, is a fairly faithful adaptation of the movie. There are some differences in events and dialogue, but the latter is definitely recognizable if you're familiar with the film.
It also provides more in-depth background material on the characters, especially Zelda Rubenstein's iconic psychic Tangina, which explains some things the movie leaves out. In that case, however, the way in which she first meets the family differs from what appears in the movie. I wonder, in fact, if some of the book's material was written from cut scenes which originally appeared in the script, which never saw the light of day.
Even if this novel had been written as a stand-alone book, it easily could have served as material to base a movie on, as it would have been a very capable novel on its own, reminiscent of other horror classics like "The Amityville Horror" and Stephen King novels (whose movie adaptation are generally awful, truth be told, with a few notable exceptions). This trade paperback was actually published by Warner Books, in May, 1982, so it was the official release facilitated by the movie studio. Actually, it shows that the copyright is per Amblin' Entertainment, Steven Spielberg's production company, so it was clearly released per their approval. I wasn't aware that a movie studio also had a book publishing division, but this was more than forty years ago.
"Poltergeist" probably needs no introduction, but this is a timeless horror classic which tells the story of a young family living in an idyllic (fictional) Southern California town called Cuesta Verde, where real estate developer Steven lives with his wife and three young children. They were the first to move into the area, which is perhaps one reason why the events which unfold fall hardest on them. On just another typical day in Suburbia, daughter Carol Ann begins displaying some strange symptoms, which the family initially takes for sleepwalking, but things progress until the point that it is clear that something supernatural is going on.
The family's suspicions are confirmed when a malevolent force steals Carol Ann away, apparently to some alternate or parallel dimension in the beyond, which is populated with the spirits of those who have died, and the race is on to find her before she is lost forever. Steve and Diane encounter a paranormal research team, along with one of their protege psychic study subjects, who has been having dreams of Carol Ann since her disappearance. Together, the team take on the malevolent force in an attempt to retrieve the couple's missing daughter and to solve the mystery of why their house has experienced such a vicious poltergeist intrusion. The culprit is more horrifying than any of them could imagine.
This movie, in my opinion, essentially established the "haunted house," movie genre, or at least cemented its viability in cinematic history. This one movie also set the canon for generations to come. Few people knew what a poltergeist was before this movie was released, but its tropes have been replicated innumerable times in subsequent horror films.
There were certainly movies about the paranormal prior to this one's release, including the aforementioned "The Amityville Horror," which was based on another book involving a family who lives in a reportedly haunted house where a horrific mass murder took place (although, as I have written about elsewhere, the events described have been thoroughly debunked at this point), but "Poltergeist" set the bar and even gave rise to a jargon for those to follow, which have included the wildly successful "The Conjuring" and "Paranormal Activity" series, but I think it also just brought the paranormal into the mainstream.
I would even attribute the highly successful "ghost hunting" TV shows, on the order of Zac Bagans's "Ghost Adventures" show, to the popularity garnered by the original Poltergeist.
That said, the additional two films in the series were, as many Spielberg production franchise films tend to be, ridiculously bad, with the second one being the worst of all of them. There was also a recent re-make which generally followed the story line of the original, but it wasn't much better than the others. There was also a short-lived TV series, I believe, which didn't fare too much better than the films in the franchise, aside from the wildly successful original film.
If you're familiar with the series, you are no doubt also at least aware of claims of a "Poltergeist Curse," which took an even darker turn following the tragic, untimely deaths of two of the original film's stars: Dominique Dunne, who played the teenage daughter Dana, and Heather O'Rourke, the film's most notable character, little Carol Ann, who tragically passed away at the age of twelve.
This film certainly seemed to take on a life of its own. It didn't help matters that there were reports of strange occurrences on all of the three movies during filming. One of the more freaky happenings on set was in the scene where Diane falls in the unfinished swimming pool during the movie's climax. Perhaps it wasn't actually an odd occurrence, but for her, it was an unsettling one: she later discovered that the skeletons which appear in the scene... were real. The actress Jo Beth Williams claimed that years later she ran into one of the prop guys, and mentioned the scene and the skeletons, whereupon he told her that they were actually real. At the time, cadaver skeletons were reportedly cheaper than manufacturing plastic ones.
The worst of the tragedies associated with "Poltergeist" involved the death of the two "Freeling" daughters. Dominique Dunne, the daughter of Hollywood producer Dominick Dunne and sister to fellow actor Griffin Dunne, was murdered by her boyfriend John Sweeney (who later changed his name to John Maura and disappeared) in Nov., 1982, shortly after "Poltergeist" premiered. His only real claim to fame was that he was once a sous chef at the popular LA nightspot "Ma Maison" - that, and the fact that he had a criminal record. He had a history of severe domestic violence, having severely beaten another of his prior girlfriends so badly that he ruptured one of her lungs.
He had reportedly met Dominique at a party, and shortly thereafter, they began a relationship, wherein she, too, began to experience numerous bouts of domestic violence at his hands. On one occasion, his assault was so severe that she did not require makeup when she played a domestic abuse survivor on the popular '80s police procedural drama "Hill Street Blues" in 1981. The shocking, visible bruises, split lip and swelling on her face were real.
Ultimately, after she finally ended her relationship with him, he stalked her, and upon seeing her rehearsing a scene with another male actor for the upcoming TV series "V" at her home, Sweeney dragged her outside and strangled her in her driveway. She survived for a brief time but was declared brain dead, and was removed from life support five days later.
After Sweeney was convicted of manslaughter rather than murder, due at least in part to the judge's refusal to allow the testimony of Sweeney's previous abuse victim whom he nearly killed, he was sentenced to only a few years in prison, and ended up serving less than half of that sentence. Dominique's father then worked tirelessly and became a vocal advocate for victim's rights after his daughter's untimely passing and the grave miscarriage of justice in essentially seeing her murderer go unpunished. Dominick Dunne passed away in New York in 2009.
Heather O'Rourke will forever be remembered for her portrayal as the lovely little blonde-haired girl in Poltergeist, and her iconic, eerie line, "they're heeeeeere...." She passed away on Feb. 1, 1988 in San Diego of cardiac arrest due to intestinal stenosis, an undiagnosed congenital birth defect, which resulted in a ruptured bowel and septic shock. She had begun to experience symptoms as early as January, 1987, more than a year before. She was eventually diagnosed with Crohn's Disease, a chronic inflammation of the intestine, and was put on steroids to try to decrease the inflammation. Many moviegoers noticed her "chipmunk" cheeks in the third installation of Poltergeist, which was a side effect of the medication, although she reportedly never complained while working on the set of the third film.
She was reportedly doing well, until Jan. 31, 1988, which was a Super Bowl Sunday, when she was unable to keep anything down. By the next morning, her hands and fingers had turned blue, and she later passed out at the breakfast table. She tragically suffered a cardiac arrest in the ambulance on the way to the hospital and died on the operating table that afternoon. In a tragic twist of fate, she and Dominique are buried in the same cemetery in Los Angeles.
In addition to the two beloved actresses who passed away at a young age, there were apparently additional unexpected deaths associated with the movies, including that of Will Sampson, who played the Native American shaman in the second movie. As it turns out, he was a REAL shaman and stated to both cast and crew his belief that the set was haunted, to the degree that he performed a cleansing ritual to repel any malevolent energies which might be lurking. This was in response to some unsettling mishaps which had occurred during filming; after his ritual cleansing, no additional untoward events occurred during filming.
There are few moviegoers who haven't seen the original "Poltergeist," which is all the more poignant after the death of two of its beloved stars. This is a great book, but it's somewhat difficult to find, as it was not reprinted after the first run, and trade paperbacks aren't known for their longevity. It's now forty years old, but it's well worth the read if you can find a copy.
