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Spooky ghosts in the heart of 1980’s Americana is the name of the game this week, as we take a stroll through the unassuming sub-divisions with a dark sinister secret with the Tobe Hooper classic Polgergeist! Or is it the Steven Spielberg classic Poltergeist? Either way, there’s enough ghosts, goo, and gore to go around, so bring the kids along, it’s good clean family fun! What’ve you got to lose? If you like the 6 o’clock news then you’ll love Poltergeist!
Strange and creepy happenings beset an average California family, the Freelings — Steve (Craig T. Nelson), Diane (JoBeth Williams), teenaged Dana (Dominique Dunne), eight-year-old Robbie (Oliver Robins), and five-year-old Carol Ann (Heather O’Rourke) — when ghosts commune with them through the television set. Initially friendly and playful, the spirits turn unexpectedly menacing, and, when Carol Ann goes missing, Steve and Diane turn to a parapsychologist and eventually an exorcist for help.
Join Clay and Amanda as they plumb the ectoplasmic depths of perfectly nomal clowns that aren’t scary in any way, little people doing big things, the world’s grossest adult swim, the glorious gore of a 1980’s PG-rated movie, contentious director credits, sliding chairs, malfunctioning tvs, cadaver surprise parties, and, of course, questionable parenting!
Regardless of who is the actual director (assuming there was one, and it’s not just a matter of shared credit), Poltergeist remains a classic of the era, taking the haunted house from the dark, creepy locales of old and bringing it directly into the modern suburbs via the universal symbol of 80’s suburbia: the television. A production as haunted as the house it’s set in, Poltergeist has a legacy that keeps it in the minds of horror fans even almost 40 years later. So sleep with one eye on the clown, watch out for the trans-dimensional portal in your closet, and tear off your own face with us…if you DARE!