For this year’s 31 Nights of Horror Challenge, the Night 11 prompt is My First Horror Movie. We watched the movie Poltergeist on HBO MAX.

Storyline

A young family is visited by ghosts in their home. At first the ghosts appear friendly, moving objects around the house to the amusement of everyone, but then they turn nasty and start to terrorize the family, eventually “kidnapping” their youngest daughter.

Our Thoughts on Poltergeist (1982)

We picked Poltergeist because it was Michele’s first scary movie she saw in the theater at about 9 years old. 

This is one of my favoirte movies. It is just dang good. 

Just re-watched Poltergeist (1982) for first time in years, still one of those movies where I am stunned by how good it is, from the fun, goofy kitchen scenes at the start, through the tense battles (for want of a better phrase), to the exile of the appliance at the end. A must watch!!!

By the way, so many Star Wars references! 

8 out of 10 stars

Trivia

Heather O’Rourke kept the pet goldfish Carol Anne has in the film.

Drew Barrymore was considered for the role of Carol Anne, but producer Steven Spielberg wanted someone “more angelic”. Barrymore’s audition ultimately landed her the part of Gertie in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982).

When Steve tells the parapsychologists his family members’ ages, he says that Dana, his oldest daughter, is 16 and that his wife, Diane, is 32. Many viewers interpret this to mean that Diane was only 16 when she gave birth to Dana. However, the novelization of the film clarifies that Diane is Steve’s second wife and that Dana is actually Diane’s stepdaughter. In the movie, when telling the parapsychologists about his family, Steve specifically says, “My daughter, Dana, …” and not “Our daughter, Dana.”

Real human skeletons were used in the swimming pool scene, since the crew decided it would be too complicated and expensive to get fake ones. Tobe Hooper had previously done the same in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974). JoBeth Williams was not made aware of this until after the scene was finished.

Two cast members were subsequently murdered. Dominique Dunne was strangled by her former boyfriend, John Thomas Sweeney, in the driveway of her West Hollywood home on October 30, 1982. She died five days later at the age of 22. Lou Perryman was killed with an axe by Seth Christopher Tatum in Austin, Texas, on April 1, 2009. He was 67 years old.