I give it a 6/7. It's a "gotcha" and it confirms what we already know about clowns, spooky dolls, and things under the bed. So it's a Kid Nightmare Trifecta.
But many other parts of the movie are scarier, and lasting scares, and scares that you can carry with you into your actual life later.
Reading this thread has me kind of thankful I've never seen Poltergeist.
I haven't either.
Yes, even though Mom and I consider "Serpico" a girlie bonding flick.
I'm kind of gutless when it comes to supernatural horror, though.
I was sure I'd seen it but I don't remember any of this stuff. This is the movie where the girl goes into the TV, right?
I give it a 6/7. It's a "gotcha" and it confirms what we already know about clowns, spooky dolls, and things under the bed. So it's a Kid Nightmare Trifecta.
YES. And in my case, not helped by my mother saying after the movie "Oh, you have a clown doll like that. I think it's in the attic". THANKS MOM.
But many other parts of the movie are scarier, and lasting scares, and scares that you can carry with you into your actual life later.
The crawling steak. Carol-Anne looking around from the static-y TV and saying the classic line.
And of course, the quotable lines.
"Run to the light, Carol-Ann!!"
The scariest thing about Poltergeist to me is that both girl-children died within years of its release.
My favorite moment, though, has to be before all the weirdness starts, Steve and Joanne are getting ready for bed and Steve does the suck-in-stomach move, and then pooches it out. "Look, Joanne--Before, After. Before, After." It's such a married moment, ordinary, sweet, and funny, before all the scary.
Nelson and Williams are very convincing as a long-married couple in that movie.
I brought this question up at dinner last night, and the DH (who has the same reaction to clowns and creepy dolls as any right-thinking person) said "I don't remember that part."
And then went on to say that he didn't think
Poltergeist
was all that scary. In fact, at one point he said it reminded him of
The Neverending Story.
Between that and his statement last week of "I don't know anyone who actually likes
Glee,
" I'm getting concerned that his worldline is happening in an alternate universe.
Raq,
I don't mean for you to doubt me as well, but I don't remember the clown thing either. I was afraid to say it earlier.
I do remember the movie as being troubling, especially the face in the mirror scene and the "after birth" - my teenage self said "man, that's gross."
How old was he when he saw it. Perhaps if you were older than 14 or so, it didn't hit you the same way?