Poltergeist (1982) vs. (2015) - no contest!

Review by Jack Kost

My wife and I are both “arty” souls.
We love to watch movies, and when they’re over we discuss them in depth, probably more in depth than most people.
We also enjoy discussing books, music, art, et al … also in depth.
My wife loves to paint, I love to write and sketch.
Our recent viewings of the 1982 and 2015 versions of Poltergeist turned from a fond, nostalgic chat about the former, to a “why did they bother” rant about the latter.

I’ll start with the original 1982 version, released in the United States on June 4, 1982:

It was produced by Steven Spielberg, based on his own story, and directed by Tobe Hooper.
For us, the 1982 original is a cinematic treat.
Hooper may have helmed the direction, but this has all the heart, feeling, emotion, humor, and suspense of a Spielberg movie.
We – the audience – see the family dynamics, their neighbors, and the history of the ever-expanding housing development.
The movie may be thirty-four-years-old, as of this writing, but it’s still the thrill-ride Spielberg has entertained fans with for decades.
The original is one of the best of the haunted house genre; an eerie and memorable light-show with a perfect end scene.

The high entertainment value reminds us of why we watch movies in the first place.
Spielberg knows how to engage and hold his audience.

Then we experienced the miserable let-down of the 2015 remake:

This was our post-Thanksgiving movie.
As usual, we discussed it after the end credits rolled, our discussion fueled by disdain!
We compared both versions, and shook our heads at how dreary and painful the remake is.
It felt like a by-the-numbers run-through for the actors in it, who seemed content to show up, recite the dismal script, and pick up their pay checks.
Not many movies have actually pissed me off, but this one made the list.
Absent is the charm and quality scripting of the original.
It simply goes through the motions without any of the character development, tension, or suspense of the original.
I watched it feeling bored after the first fifteen minutes, hoping it would pick up, get better, curious as to how it would unfold in a new retelling, being more disappointed as each scene unfolded.
I’m a fan of Sam Rockwell, but this was another example of how even a fine actor can’t save a lousy script.
We see some flashy effects, as we expect to see in this modern CGI-heavy age, but there’s nothing behind it, no depth or reason to care about what we’re being presented with.
The scene with Sam Rockwell regurgitating black goo into the sink, then seeing his reflection in the faucet, sores opening on his face, is a reworking of the scene in the original: Marty (Martin Casella) seeing maggots swarming on a chicken drumstick he’s just taken a bite out of, then his own face coming apart in the mirror.
It’s a great scene, even with the dated animatronics, with far more impact than the insipid 2015 version:

Zelda Rubinstein’s portrayal of Tangina, the psychic brought in to rescue their daughter and “clean” the house, is one of the high points of the story.

Her monologue to the family and investigators about what is really going on is chilling.
The character is also reworked for the 2015 version, changed for the contemporary audience, but giving nothing new or remarkable.
Running at roughly thirty minutes shorter, the remake has omitted the best elements of the original – to its own detriment.
Gone is the steady build-up of the original, as the 2015 version cuts directly to the shock-free plot markers.
Gone also are the comedic elements with the death of the pet canary, and the neighbor’s battle with the TV remote controls, parts of the story that developed the set-up and made us care more about the family and their predicament.

The key scene of the malevolent force entering the home, via the static of the TV set, is also changed, but as animated as the original was - it still had significant shock value to a first-time viewer:

It felt like the 2015 version had been made quickly and rushed out the studio door, nothing more than another vacuous money-making product.

The 1982 original has rightfully earned its place in cinema history – a classic of its genre; the 2015 rehash deserves nothing more than to be ignored and forgotten.

Thanksgiving: a time to give thanks.
Along with everything else we have been blessed with, we gave thanks for the fact that we hadn’t wasted money at the cinema box office for yet-another pointless, lazy, half-assed, cash-grab.

On this day in movie and book history - Poltergeist (1982)

Poltergeist

directed by Tobe Hooper,

written by Steven Spielberg, Michael Grais and Mark Victor,

based on a story by Steven Spielberg,

was released in the United States on June 4, 1982.

Music by Jerry Goldsmith.

Cast:

JoBeth Williams, Craig T. Nelson, Dominique Dunne, Oliver Robins, Heather O’Rourke, Zelda Rubinstein, Beatrice Straight, Richard Lawson, Martin Casella, James Karen, Michael McManus, Virginia Kiser, Lou Perryman, Clair E. Leucart, Dirk Blocker, Allan Graf, Joseph Walsh, Helen Baron, Noel Conlon, Robert Broyles, Sonny Landham, Jeffrey Bannister, William Vail, Craig Simmons, Phil Stone, Dana Gendian, Jaimi Gendian, Danny Nero, Paula Paulson.

Recommended reading:

Poltergeist

by James Kahn.

Filmed as Poltergeist (1982), directed by Tobe Hooper.

Mass Market Paperback.

Published by Granada Publishing Ltd.
Published 1982.

ISBN-10: 0583136419
ISBN-13: 978-0583136419
 
Description:

Based on a Story by Steven Spielberg with a Screenplay by Steven Spielberg, Michael Grais & Mark Victor. From the imageless eye of the tv set, from the flickering snowy light, it calls to Carol Anne, six years old and innocent. From beyond the world of the living, it reaches out in unholy anger, ripping her from the arms of her family into the thrall of the Poltergeist.

Eudora Welty, on reading, writing and imagination:

Both reading and writing are experiences – lifelong – in the course of which we who encounter words used in certain ways are persuaded by them to be brought mind and heart within the presence, the power, of the imagination.

– Eudora Welty.

Born on this day – Beatrice Beckley:

Beatrice Beckley

Actress

June 4, 1882 – February 8, 1959

Credits:

Stage:

An Ideal Husband; Caliban of the Yellow Sands; Declassee; John Glayde’s Honour; The Freedom of Suzanne; The Knife; The Walls of Jericho; Why Marry?

Movies:

Should a Husband Forgive? (1919); The Prisoner of Zenda (1913).

Born on this day – Rosalind Russell:

Rosalind Russell

Actress

Comedienne

Writer

Singer

June 4, 1907 – November 28, 1976

Credits:

A Majority of One (1961); A Show Business Salute to Milton Berle (1973); A Woman of Distinction (1950); ABC Late Night (1975); AFI Life Achievement Award (1973); All Star Revue (1952); American Experience (1996); At Long Last Cole (1975); Auntie Mame (1958); Bates Motel (2013); Bicentennial Minutes (1974); Biography (1999); Breakdowns of 1938 (1938); Breakdowns of 1941 (1941); Breakdowns of 1944 (1945); China Seas (1935); Christmas with the Stars (1953); Coming Up Roses (1986); Craig's Wife (1936); Crawford at Warners (2008); Design for Scandal (1941); Evelyn Prentice (1934); Fast and Loose (1939); Film Time (1955); Five Finger Exercise (1962); Flight for Freedom (1943); Forsaking All Others (1934); Four's a Crowd (1938); From the Ends of the Earth (1939); Gable and Crawford (2008); General Electric Theater (1956); Great Performances (1987); Gypsy (1962); Has Anybody Here Seen Canada? A History of Canadian Movies 1939-1953 (1979); Here's Hollywood (1962); Hired Wife (1940); His Girl Friday (1940); Hollywood and the Stars (1963–1964); Hollywood: Style Center of the World (1940); Hollywood: The Fabulous Era (1962); Hollywood: The Gift of Laughter (1982); It Had to Happen (1936); Life Is a Banquet (2009); Live, Love and Learn (1937); Lost Forever (2011); Man-Proof (1938); Mary Pickford: A Life on Film (1997); Meet the Stars #1: Chinese Garden Festival (1940); Moguls & Movie Stars: A History of Hollywood (2010); Mondo Hollywood: Hollywood Laid Bare! (1967); Mourning Becomes Electra (1947); Mrs. Pollifax-Spy (1971); My Sister Eileen (1942); Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind (2020); Never Wave at a WAC (1953); Night Must Fall (1937); No Time for Comedy (1940); Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad (1967); One Rogue Reporter (2014); Picnic (1955); Pioneers of Television (2014); Reckless (1935); Rendezvous (1935); Rosalind Russell: The Inside Scoop (2000); Rosie! (1967); Rosie! (1967); Roughly Speaking (1945); Roughly Speaking (1945); Salute to Oscar Hammerstein II (1972); Schlitz Playhouse (1951); Screen Snapshots Series 15, No. 12 (1936); Screen Snapshots Series 16, No. 1 (1936); Screen Snapshots Series 18, No. 10 (1939); Screen Snapshots Series 19, No. 9: Sports in Hollywood (1940); Screen Snapshots Series 22, No 10 (1942); Screen Snapshots Series 25, No. 1: 25th Anniversary (1945); Screen Snapshots, Series 19, No. 4 (1940); Screen Snapshots: Famous Hollywood Mothers (1947); She Wouldn't Say Yes (1945); Sister Kenny (1946); Startime (1959); Summer Theatre (1958); Take a Letter, Darling (1942); Tell It to the Judge (1949); That's Entertainment! III (1994); The 16th Annual Golden Globe Awards (1959); The 17th Annual Tony Awards (1963); The 18th Annual Golden Globe Awards (1961); The 1974 Annual Entertainment Hall of Fame Awards (1974); The 1975 Annual Entertainment Hall of Fame Awards (1975); The 19th Annual Golden Globe Awards (1962); The 20th Annual Golden Globe Awards (1963); The 29th Annual Tony Awards (1975); The 30th Annual Academy Awards (1958); The 31st Annual Academy Awards (1959); The 34th Annual Academy Awards (1962); The 37th Annual Academy Awards (1965); The 39th Annual Academy Awards (1967); The 40th Annual Academy Awards (1968); The 41st Annual Academy Awards (1969); The 43rd Annual Academy Awards (1971); The 45th Annual Academy Awards (1973); The Best of Hollywood (2017); The Candid Camera Story (Very Candid) of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures 1937 Convention (1937); The Casino Murder Case (1935); The Citadel (1938); The Crooked Hearts (1972); The David Frost Show (1971); The Ed Sullivan Show (1955); The Fabulous Allan Carr (2017); The Feminine Touch (1941); The Girl Rush (1955); The Guilt of Janet Ames (1947); The Half of It (2020); The Linkletter Show (1964); The Loretta Young Show (1955); The Merv Griffin Show (1971); The Mike Douglas Show (1971); The Miracle of Sound (1940); The Movies (2019); The Movies March On (1939); The Night Is Young (1935); The President Vanishes (1934); The Romance of Celluloid (1937); The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1971); The Trouble with Angels (1966); The Unguarded Moment (1956); The Velvet Touch (1948); The Women (1939); The Women (1939); They Met in Bombay (1941); This Thing Called Love (1940); Trouble for Two (1936); Twilight Zone: Rod Serling's Lost Classics (1994); Under Two Flags (1936); West Point of the Air (1935); What a Woman! (1943); What's My Line? (1953); Where Angels Go Trouble Follows! (1968); Women He's Undressed (2015); Wonderful Town (1958); You Can't Fool a Camera (1941).

Born on this day – Patience Strong:

Patience Strong

Writer

June 4, 1907 – August 28, 1990

Credits:

Books:

A Christmas Garland (1948); A Joy Forever (1973); Beyond the Rainbow (1957); Come Happy Day (1966); Fifty Golden Years (1985); Give me a Quiet Corner (1972); Poems from the Fighting Forties (1982); Quiet Corner (1936); Quiet Corner Reflections (1938); Quiet Thoughts (1937); Tapestries of Time (1991); The Blessings of the Years (1963); The Harvest Of Dreams (1948); The Morning Watch (1951); The Patience Strong Bedside Book (1953); Wayside Glory (1948); With a Poem in My Pocket (1981).

Spoken‑word albums:

The Magic of Patience Strong (1978); The Quiet Hour (1963).

Born on this day – Helen Wood:

 

Helen Wood

Actress

June 4, 1917 – February 8, 1988

Credits:

A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935); Almost a Gentleman (1939); Anna Karenina (1935); Can This Be Dixie? (1936); Champagne Charlie (1936); Charlie Chan at the Race Track (1936); Crack-Up (1936); Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935); High Tension (1936); In Caliente (1935); Kid Millions (1934); Mary Jane's Pa (1935); Moulin Rouge (1934); Musical Comedy Time (1950); My Marriage (1936); Roman Scandals (1933); She Married Her Boss (1935); Sing, Baby, Sing (1936); Sis Hopkins (1941); Sorority House (1939); The Colgate Comedy Hour (1950–1951); The Goose and the Gander (1935); The Pilgrimage Play (1949); The Ted Steele Show (1949).