The Haunt Of Fear: ILX Top 100 HORROR Movies Poll Results Thread

I don't mind the "it was all a hallucination" aspect of the end, but I don't care for the way the explanation - in writing - undoes the mood it had going. xp

xxpost LOL!

"They're HERE, they're CLEAR, get used to it!"

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7072/7255248620_e01446f3f1_o.jpg

20. POLTERGEIST
Tobe Hooper, USA, 1982
(603 points, 23 votes)

the scene where craig t nelson is reading the Reagan book, while Jobeth Williams is getting high and talking about sleep walking into some guy's car. I love that scene
― Dominique (dleone), Sunday, January 14, 2007 9:47 PM (5 years ago)

that fucking clown doll in poltergeist gah
― Thu'um gang (jjjusten), Thursday, February 16, 2012 2:54 PM (3 months ago)

I will show mercy and not embed this image
http://www.thegreenhead.com/imgs/poltergeist-clown-3.jpg
― 鬼の手 (Edward III), Thursday, April 2, 2009 10:05 AM (3 years ago)

POLTERGEIST WAS PG ?????
― ☑ (Pleasant Plains), Friday, October 10, 2008 2:45 PM (3 years ago)

actually, since i've always considered (Spielberg) the unofficial director of poltergeist, i'll say poltergeist is his best film. cuz i love poltergeist.
― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, June 20, 2005 5:06 AM (6 years ago)

JL was written by Bruce Joel Rubin, who won an Oscar for an ever better film, GHOST

it's actually worse on subsequent viewings imho

xp

3 things you should know when considering my recommendation:

1) I almost universally dislike gore, with exceptions.
2) On a spectrom of comfortability with horror, I am probably equidistant between you and jjjusten
3) I love Shaun of the Dead. It didn't make my ballot for various reasons, but I'm happy seeing it place.

I LOVED Dead Alive. It was OTT and fun. I think you would actually think it is hilarious.

Poltergeist is my #4, not that I expected a top 5 finish for it, but I'm glad to see it in here!

Poltergeist was towards the bottom of my ballot. this placing seems a little high but whatevs.

The scene from which that screencap comes is one of my favorite movie jump scares EVAR.

Pillbox, your choice of screen grab from Let The Right One In is so brilliant that it's compelling me to wrestle with what I cannot stand about this genre.

And lo, mere moments later, this Tarkovsky quote EIII posted pinpoints what's getting under my skin: The aim of art is to prepare a person for death. Look, Andrei, I prepare for death every time I get into my car. Constantly facing an uncertain future, I know life is nasty, brutish, and short. I don't need horror films (and sometimes Tarkovsky films when I'm feeling snippy) to tell me that. In fact, I despise films like Hostel and Inside and The Descent (and Man Bites Dog and Funny Games) because they contribute to a nasty, brutish, and short life. Which means I despise them precisely because they work on me - they make me feel helpless and scared. But more so than I already do and there's the rub.

And then there's...that dog in the Let The Right One In screen grab. If there's a better snapshot of the nastiness of life, keep it to yourself. I won't be able to stand it. The dog's inability to intervene underscores the helplessness of the situation and adds to the sense of life as one long, nasty drip towards eternal unconsciousness. But where the pieceashit films listed above stop there, it will be the project of Let The Right One In to intervene on behalf of the brutalities that arise from its recognizable working class locale. In short, it tries to make life liveable rather than adding to its nastiness. It's no masterpiece and didn't even make my ballot. But that screen grab begs for another viewing.

Where this leaves Zulawski I couldn't say except to note that fans of his wall-to-wall screeching will get something out of Juan López Moctezuma's Alucarda. Also, this sounds like a plot synopsis for a wild meta Zulawski film: I've had a copy of (Possession) sitting in my hose [sic] for a year.

KJB, you are entirely too smart to hate horror.

Poltergeist is like 5 horror movies (ghosts! slime! hallucinations! vortexes! zombies! mean trees! clowns! evil corporations!) squashed into one, all of them good.

well to be fair to tarkovsky, I was being a bit cheeky in misusing his quote for my own sick ends

The scene from which that screencap comes is one of my favorite movie jump scares EVAR.

There's a rather inspired homage to this scare in Paranormal Activity 3.

I love Poltergeist. Because of it I get uneasy every time one of our dumb cats states raptly at a point midway up a wall.

I think my list was mostly horror comedies.

and yeah if you like horror you're going to end up hanging around a ghoul or two

There's a great story in this book

http://www.utexas.edu/opa/blogs/culturalcompass/files/8/TomSmithBookCoverBlog.jpg

about the crew on E.T. being gathered to watch dailies one afternoon. Spielberg had asked ILM to shoot over the reel with footage of the house implosion gag from the end of Poltergeist so he could see how it looked. So after a bunch of innocuous E.T. dailies, the crew saw this suburban tract home implode on itself and disappear. After a moment of stunned silence, one of the folks just said, "What the hell was that?"

xxp really? Maybe I should watch those other two Paranormal Activity movies.

Poltergeist is one of those iconic movies for me. Not that I loved it a ton, or even watched it a ton, but I was about the same age as Carol Ann when it came out, and it was everywhere all over the news and people just seemed to talk about it, and then when it came out on video it'd be playing in the store, and that 'mommmmmy?' clip, ugh. I was still a kid so seeing those clips of her stuck in the tv scared me enough that it was YEARS before I'd even think about watching it. This will sound really weird but those scenes were so vivid they felt like, I dunno, childhood memories or something...it was really fkn weird.

Craig T Nelson is one of my favorite dad actors. He's just crabby enough to be believable.

TBH, E.T. winning the VFX Oscar over Poltergeist and Blade Runner always seemed to be kind of a travesty.

Shameful confession: I don't hate Poltergeist II and I can even find room in my heart for whichever sequel took place in a haunted high rise, mostly bc it's completely absurd.

Not shameful! Poltergeist 2 & 3 have great stuff here and there.

I had a feeling you'd back me up on that one.

the preacher in Poltergeist 2 seriously gave me nightmares

still kinda freeze up a little when I see him

just wanna say if return of the living dead doesn't place I'm gonna be kinda mad at y'all

Ha! That's my controversial "sequel ranked higher than critically acclaimed original" vote.

Edward III otm

some interesting reading FYI FWIW TBH

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poltergeist_%28film_series%29#The_Poltergeist_curse

xxp really? Maybe I should watch those other two Paranormal Activity movies.

Just watched PA2 last friday; it is SCARY AS FUCK. Superior to #1 except for the fact that it depends on #1 to make sense.

Poltergeist is one of the few horror movies that is actually scary, but it's also fun and funny. Very intense for PG, too. Much more so than Gremlins and Temple of Doom, which are always credited for Pg-13.

the real-life fate of carol anne is really heartbreaking

I'm telling you, all the Paranormal Activities are good. We just don't want them to be good.

Before Poltergeist, was there another horror movie that found scares in the suburbs and domesticity?

(I mean, that's a real setup for you jokesters, but I;m serious).

most of the stuff in poltergeist could've slid under the PG rating except for the scene of the guy who basically tears his own face off. some kinda tribute to spielberg's mojo that he was able to strongarm that past the MPAA.

Lots of dead bodies. Also, kids in danger and intense killer tree/clown.

Did Night of the Creeps place yet?

Before Poltergeist, was there another horror movie that found scares in the suburbs and domesticity?

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

that one about the robot wives, to a lesser extent

The Blob?

well the options at the time were PG or R, dead bodies and kids in danger were definitely PG material, how else do you explain this

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8e/Just_You_and_Me_kid.jpg

Yeah, poor little Heather O'Rourke. :( That scene near the end, when they think it's all over, and the closet door opens up and the lights and sounds start, and she just gets the saddest look and says, "No more . . ."

BTW to Edward III, Return of the Living Dead is on my ballot.

I think the genius of Poltergeist is that it's not just the suburban setting but the hallmarks of the suburbs itself that are the threat: TV room, spacious closets, swimming pool, big tree in the yard, huge bedroom.

thought I had voted for deadalive but I guess it was a late-breaking cut

ah well, I gave it love in the comedy poll so

I am realizing a few things that are missing at this point and holding back srs nerd rage because they probably aren't going to make it

rage away
you can rage all day
if you want to

oh i might

me too