Did Steven Spielberg ever admit to directing ‘Poltergeist’?
In 1982, a horror classic was released that became the eighth highest-grossing film of the year and was nominated for three Academy Awards. Poltergeist’s tale of a suburban family plagued by malevolent ghosts that pull five-year-old Carol Anne into their spirit realm has been imitated countless times in the decades since. The film is famous for its tone, which resembles a scarier version of Steven Spielberg‘s classic Amblin approach, and this makes perfect sense considering Spielberg spearheaded the project.
However, rumours have abounded for years that Spielberg actually shadow-directed most of Poltergeist instead of its credited helmer, Tobe Hooper – but has the iconic director ever admitted there was any truth to this?
Poltergeist began when Spielberg offered Hooper the chance to direct Night Skies, a script he’d been working on as a sequel to Close Encounters of the Third Kind. He envisioned the film as darker and more horror-centric than Close Encounters, but Hooper admitted he wasn’t interested in the sci-fi elements. But, if it was a supernatural tale, then he’d love to get involved.
Spielberg, therefore, began developing a spooky script with the writing duo Michael Grais and Mark Victor. Amazingly, he even attempted to throw another writer in the mix: the ‘King of Horror’ Stephen King. By the time King received Spielberg’s offer, though, he realised there’d be no point in replying. Why? He knew the director would already have moved on because he was on a ship making its way across the Atlantic Ocean to England.
In truth, most signs point to Spielberg wanting to direct Poltergeist himself, but his contract with Universal prevented him from directing it while simultaneously developing another movie with the studio. He, therefore, signed Hooper up as director and installed himself as producer. He was disappointed, but it made sense because the other movie that was taking up so much of his time was hardly a small production. You may have heard of it: a little family adventure called ET the Extra-Terrestrial.
Ultimately, both movies were released only a week apart in the summer of ’82, dubbed the “Summer of Spielberg”. Even around the time of release, though, the scuttlebutt had already begun that Hooper didn’t direct the film despite receiving sole credit. In truth, people had every right to believe the rumour – because Spielberg didn’t exactly go out of his way to deny it.
But why do people think Steven Spielberg directed Poltergeist?
In a Los Angeles Times interview from May 24th, 1982, Spielberg revealed, “Tobe isn’t a take-charge sort of guy. If a question was asked and an answer wasn’t immediately forthcoming, I’d jump in and say what we could do. Tobe would nod agreement, and that became the process of collaboration.” In addition, producer Frank Marshall said, “The creative force of the movie was Steven. Tobe was the director and was on the set every day. But Steven did the design for every storyboard, and he was on the set every day except for three days when he was in Hawaii with Lucas.”
Thanks to quotes like this, the Directors Guild of America opened an investigation into the production to ascertain if “Hooper’s official credit was being denigrated by statements Spielberg has made, apparently claiming authorship.” Ultimately, Hooper retained his credit, and MGM was forced to pay him $15,000 because it gave Spielberg a larger credit than Hooper in the trailers.
To be fair to Spielberg, he realised that his comments had the potential to devastate Hooper’s career, so he published an open letter to the director in The Hollywood Reporter the week the film came out. It read, “Regrettably, some of the press has misunderstood the rather unique, creative relationship which you and I shared throughout the making of Poltergeist. I enjoyed your openness in allowing me, as a writer and a producer, a wide berth for creative involvement, just as I know you were happy with the freedom you had to direct Poltergeist so wonderfully.”
In 2022, star JoBeth Williams told Vanity Fair that she believed Spielberg had his heart set on directing the movie and that his creative input on the film was substantial. She mused, “I’m sure there were times when it drove Tobe crazy to have Steven so actively involved, but he never let on.” She claimed, “Tobe would give direction; sometimes Steven would add to that or give other direction. But, I think it’s fair to say that it was sort of a combo of the two of them.”
For his part, Hooper – whose career never again hit the heights of Poltergeist – told Film Talk in 2015 that the whole thing was blown out of proportion. He claimed that the LA Times article caused a fuss, but before that was published, he hadn’t even considered there would be a question about whether he directed the film or not. He said, “From there, it became its own legend. That is how I remember it; I was making the movie, and later on, I heard this stuff after it was finished. I really can’t set the record much straighter than that.”
So, there you have it: did Steven Spielberg ever admit to directing Poltergeist? Yes and no.
