The hidden ghost in Steven Spielberg’s ‘Poltergeist’
Horror has never been Steven Spielberg‘s genre of choice, making it fitting that when he was unable to direct a scary movie that he had his eye on, it ended up going down in history as one of the greatest ever made anyway.
That’s not to say Poltergeist would have been any better or worse were Spielberg the one calling the shots from behind the camera, but recruiting The Texas Chain Saw Massacre‘s Tobe Hooper to helm the project was nonetheless a stark counterpoint to the former’s schmaltzy and sentimental stylings.
Of course, reports vary as to how heavily Spielberg was involved in the filming process, with several members of the cast and crew suggesting that Hooper was only there as a placeholder so as not to void the contractual obligations that forbade the Jaws architect from directing the film himself.
As a result of his deal with Universal, Spielberg couldn’t direct a feature while in pre-production on E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, with Poltergeist crediting him as the brains behind the story, in addition to a co-writing and producing credit. Hooper denied that he’d been usurped throughout the production, but that wasn’t the way everybody told it.
Star Zelda Rubinstein claimed to Ain’t It Cool that “Steven directed all six days” she was on set, suggesting “Tobe was only partially there.” On the other side of the coin, while Martin Casella acknowledged how “so much of Poltergeist looks and feels like a Spielberg movie,” his remembrance was “that Tobe was mostly directing.”
Not that critics or audiences cared either way, with Poltergeist going on to become one of the highest-grossing films of 1982, prior to securing a trio of Academy Award nominations and launching a franchise that’s so far given rise to a pair of sequels, a remake, and an in-development TV series.
Cutting-edge visual and practical effects were used to heighten the terror of the titular ghoul, making life a misery for the Freeling family, but one of the most unsettling moments in the film is so subtle that it may have passed a lot of viewers by entirely upon their first time experiencing Poltergeist.
In the scene where JoBeth Williams’ Diane Freeling ends up crawling around on her bedroom walls during a bout of possession, a collection of innocuous family photos are seen sitting on a nearby dresser. However, once the malevolent spirit begins to exert its control over the situation, a ghoulish transformation takes place.
The next time the photos are seen on-screen, each of the photographs has been replaced by the face of a demonic entity, signifying that the poltergeist has grown more powerful than ever before. Beyond that, it’s a sign of how the things going bump in the night have both physically and psychologically infected every aspect of the Freeling clan’s lives, to the extent not even their cherished memories are safe.
