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Poltergeist
25th Anniversary DVD
“They’re heeeere....”. Probably one of the most iconic lines amongst the paranormal movie genre and perhaps one of the creepiest as well. It comes from the movie Poltergeist, a hit movie about strange happenings that was released in the 1980’s. For someone who has a keen interest in the paranormal, I am surprised I have only just watched this film as not only is it one of the top in its genre, but it is also a really great film!
As we now live in 2010, the style of movies and special effects have changed greatly and have improved to such an extent that 3D effects and million-dollar stunts are the norm. This always makes going back to a film made over 25 years ago quite tough because, simply put, the technology was not available to create overly realistic effects. However, Poltergeist manages to use the technology available at the time to a high standard and I’d say 90% of the scenes are very believable. Either that, or the story is that involving that you overlook the effects and enjoy the film. I guess it is a bit of both!
The story focuses around the Freeling family, your typical American nuclear family, comprising of a mother, father, teenager and two young children. They live in a big house on a new development in the Californian suburbs. This development is built on top of land that shouldn’t be built on (not strictly an Native American burial ground, but there are lots of bodies under that plot that aren’t happy...). One night, during a thunderstorm, their daughter Carol Anne starts communicating with what appears to be benign spirits – using the TV set as a source of communication. It’s not long before Carol Anne makes the announcement that these spirits are here (the quote I started this review with should now start to make sense...). It’s not long before the other members of the household realise that there are spirits wishing to make themselves known and a whole host of bizarre events start to occur.
These events all are linked to poltergeist activity and slowly progresses to the climax of activity, where the spirits abduct Carol Anne through a portal in her room. The rest of the film follows the Freeling’s attempts to get her back, with help from paranormal investigators and mediums alike. All scary stuff!
The one thing I found bizarre with this film was the way it starts. There appears to be a lot of mismatched scenes that don’t seem to flow into one another. Whether or not this was planned, it does make the first 20-30 minutes quite difficult to track. My only thought was that it may have been done to fast-forward through the paranormal occurrences and scares before speeding on to the main story. After this, the film takes a relaxed pace and easy to follow.
Acting ability does play a great role in whether a film is a hit or a flop. I am pleased to say that the acting is brilliant in this film and special credit should go to Heather O’Rourke (who plays Carol Anne) who simply shines throughout the film with her performance. I have to say her premature death is a big shame as I am sure she would have been one of the top actresses in Hollywood today. The way the way the family meld together, you wouldn’t believe they are all acting. Simply perfect! With respect to the premature death, there is rumour that the film was cursed as another actress, who played the young teen Dana, died early. It is very odd that most films with the paranormal as the focus of the movie all seem to have a curse attached to them...
What made the film special for me was the amount of homework the scriptwriters had put into writing the film. Way too many films in this genre are made with little more than a 5-year-old’s concept of what a ghost is, combined with some old building with bats flying around in the thunderstorm above it and with a bottle of ketchup for the blood effects. This film takes a lot of the phenomena seriously and weaves the fact within the fictional story. Of course there is a lot of stuff made up to keep the film exciting and scary (the traditional poltergeist case doesn’t get more exciting than a chest of drawers shifting across the floor, some rapping sounds and a slight voice manifestation if you are lucky!). The use of terminology is spot on and the way us paranormal investigators are portrayed is so accurate it is scary!
I watched this movie on the 25th Anniversary Edition DVD and included upon it was a small special features. For an anniversary edition DVD, these special features were very thin on the ground. All that is included is two mini-documentaries which show real paranormal investigators at work and the world of mediums. Don’t get me wrong, both of these are excellent to watch (even worth buying the film for) but I would have expected more. Still for the price you can buy it for now, you can’t complain.
One other niggle I have with the DVD is that there is one scene where the images freezes momentarily and then skips onto the following scene. I first thought it may have been the disc I was playing, but from looking across the internet and discussing the film, it seems to be a flaw when producing the disc. It is only a minor niggle, but I would have thought for a special edition they would have checked this, but never mind!
Overall, I really enjoyed this film and it has made it on to my top ten films of all time. The soundtrack is heart-warming, the plot easy to follow and special effects (for the time) top-notch. It truly fits into Steven Spielberg’s theme of extraordinary things happening to ordinary people. If the DVD was more feature-packed and didn’t have that glitched moment with scene-skip, the product would have scored well over 95%. However, taking the package as a whole I have to feature this in to my final score and that is why I am giving it a fairly respectable 90%
In my opinion, it’s a must buy!
90%
HM/Jason Ghosts...and More
25th Anniversary DVD
“They’re heeeere....”. Probably one of the most iconic lines amongst the paranormal movie genre and perhaps one of the creepiest as well. It comes from the movie Poltergeist, a hit movie about strange happenings that was released in the 1980’s. For someone who has a keen interest in the paranormal, I am surprised I have only just watched this film as not only is it one of the top in its genre, but it is also a really great film!
As we now live in 2010, the style of movies and special effects have changed greatly and have improved to such an extent that 3D effects and million-dollar stunts are the norm. This always makes going back to a film made over 25 years ago quite tough because, simply put, the technology was not available to create overly realistic effects. However, Poltergeist manages to use the technology available at the time to a high standard and I’d say 90% of the scenes are very believable. Either that, or the story is that involving that you overlook the effects and enjoy the film. I guess it is a bit of both!
The story focuses around the Freeling family, your typical American nuclear family, comprising of a mother, father, teenager and two young children. They live in a big house on a new development in the Californian suburbs. This development is built on top of land that shouldn’t be built on (not strictly an Native American burial ground, but there are lots of bodies under that plot that aren’t happy...). One night, during a thunderstorm, their daughter Carol Anne starts communicating with what appears to be benign spirits – using the TV set as a source of communication. It’s not long before Carol Anne makes the announcement that these spirits are here (the quote I started this review with should now start to make sense...). It’s not long before the other members of the household realise that there are spirits wishing to make themselves known and a whole host of bizarre events start to occur.
These events all are linked to poltergeist activity and slowly progresses to the climax of activity, where the spirits abduct Carol Anne through a portal in her room. The rest of the film follows the Freeling’s attempts to get her back, with help from paranormal investigators and mediums alike. All scary stuff!
The one thing I found bizarre with this film was the way it starts. There appears to be a lot of mismatched scenes that don’t seem to flow into one another. Whether or not this was planned, it does make the first 20-30 minutes quite difficult to track. My only thought was that it may have been done to fast-forward through the paranormal occurrences and scares before speeding on to the main story. After this, the film takes a relaxed pace and easy to follow.
Acting ability does play a great role in whether a film is a hit or a flop. I am pleased to say that the acting is brilliant in this film and special credit should go to Heather O’Rourke (who plays Carol Anne) who simply shines throughout the film with her performance. I have to say her premature death is a big shame as I am sure she would have been one of the top actresses in Hollywood today. The way the way the family meld together, you wouldn’t believe they are all acting. Simply perfect! With respect to the premature death, there is rumour that the film was cursed as another actress, who played the young teen Dana, died early. It is very odd that most films with the paranormal as the focus of the movie all seem to have a curse attached to them...
What made the film special for me was the amount of homework the scriptwriters had put into writing the film. Way too many films in this genre are made with little more than a 5-year-old’s concept of what a ghost is, combined with some old building with bats flying around in the thunderstorm above it and with a bottle of ketchup for the blood effects. This film takes a lot of the phenomena seriously and weaves the fact within the fictional story. Of course there is a lot of stuff made up to keep the film exciting and scary (the traditional poltergeist case doesn’t get more exciting than a chest of drawers shifting across the floor, some rapping sounds and a slight voice manifestation if you are lucky!). The use of terminology is spot on and the way us paranormal investigators are portrayed is so accurate it is scary!
I watched this movie on the 25th Anniversary Edition DVD and included upon it was a small special features. For an anniversary edition DVD, these special features were very thin on the ground. All that is included is two mini-documentaries which show real paranormal investigators at work and the world of mediums. Don’t get me wrong, both of these are excellent to watch (even worth buying the film for) but I would have expected more. Still for the price you can buy it for now, you can’t complain.
One other niggle I have with the DVD is that there is one scene where the images freezes momentarily and then skips onto the following scene. I first thought it may have been the disc I was playing, but from looking across the internet and discussing the film, it seems to be a flaw when producing the disc. It is only a minor niggle, but I would have thought for a special edition they would have checked this, but never mind!
Overall, I really enjoyed this film and it has made it on to my top ten films of all time. The soundtrack is heart-warming, the plot easy to follow and special effects (for the time) top-notch. It truly fits into Steven Spielberg’s theme of extraordinary things happening to ordinary people. If the DVD was more feature-packed and didn’t have that glitched moment with scene-skip, the product would have scored well over 95%. However, taking the package as a whole I have to feature this in to my final score and that is why I am giving it a fairly respectable 90%
In my opinion, it’s a must buy!
90%
HM/Jason Ghosts...and More
Page:
OMG! N00B alert! :D
Don't worry HM, he already had a tango with me ;D I released the Butch on him ;P
I would have taken any punishment to get that pun out.....
Warhunt wrote:
> Jeez, talk about being "case" sensitive! :D
Is a staffie being put in place by a Just Arrived? Yesterday it was Butch, today it is you...
Lets hope it doesn't start on the regular moderators next...
> Jeez, talk about being "case" sensitive! :D
Is a staffie being put in place by a Just Arrived? Yesterday it was Butch, today it is you...
Lets hope it doesn't start on the regular moderators next...
NOOOOOO!!!!!! Playing midnight club la. I am in a race and I just had a HUGE crash.
Jeez, talk about being "case" sensitive! :D
Get My name right. It is L33T, not L33t
I'm shocked enough to copy and paste L33tGAM3R's response
:O
:O
:O
pb wrote:
> Staggers back in disbelief. You haven't ever seen it? One of
> the greatest films ever made?
I may have seen it with the parents when I was younger, but never actually sat down to watch it properly.
I keep meaning to though!
> Staggers back in disbelief. You haven't ever seen it? One of
> the greatest films ever made?
I may have seen it with the parents when I was younger, but never actually sat down to watch it properly.
I keep meaning to though!
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