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Post by erik on Jun 6, 2017 8:53:40 GMT -5
Thirty-five years ago, the film that became the most commercially successful horror film of the 1980s, POLTERGEIST, was released. But there has always been a certain controversy over who actually directed this parapsychological masterpiece: the actual credited director Tobe Hooper (of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE fame), or the film's co-writer and co-producer Steven Spielberg. None of this really diminishes the idea of this being one of the few horror films of that decade that can be called a masterpiece, but it is a controversy that still fascinates: www.moviefone.com/2017/06/05/did-spielberg-direct-poltergeist/ |
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Post by the Scribe on Jun 10, 2017 7:10:32 GMT -5
I never realized that. One scary movie to be sure with lots of mysterious happenings inside and outside of production.
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Post by erik on Jun 10, 2017 23:35:45 GMT -5
Aside from the two tragedies that surrounded the film (Dominique Dunne being killed by her boyfriend shortly after the original's release, and Heather O'Rourke dying shortly after the 1988 release of POLTERGEIST III), I tend to believe that the original film is largely Spielberg's in concept (it is his story, though it was partly inspired by the 1962 Twilight Zone episode "Little Girl Lost", written by Richard Matheson), but that Hooper's direction does bring out the ghoulish elements. For my money, THE SHINING is the only other horror film of the 1980s that I would legitimately call a masterpiece without question.
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