Transcript of 70mm’s Poltergeist (1982) Episode.
SLIM Hiiiii, it’s your old pal Slim and this is 70mm, a podcast for film lovers just like you. Every Monday I chat about recently watched movies with my close friend and artist, Danny Haas.
DANNY The finale of this movie, the final act. I was like leaning forward on my chair. I couldn’t get enough of this finale.
SLIM And our spiritual advisor and Movie Insider, Protolexus.
PROTO That’s what people want though. People want to be horny, they want to watch morning movies.
SLIM Our featured discussion later in this episode kicks off Hauntvember with Danny’s pick, Poltergeist from 1982. Feel free to use the chapters in your podcast app to skip right to that discussion. With Poltergeist, do the Amblin vibes keep the magic alive for this all-ages horror movie? Or are ghosts and the paranormal just a bunch of mumbo jumbo? Let’s find out…together.
[70mm theme ramps up, plays alone, fades out]
SLIM Last week, we had our vacation and we recorded two episodes together in the same room. We recorded an Andor episode, Pilot episode for our supporters, and a Twin Peaks episode. We were in the same location. How about those recordings? You know, we had those episodes done and dusted in an hour and an hour later they were out, Proto, into the world.
PROTO It was it was fantastic to sit in the same room and be able to record. You know, we thought about how can we make this happen —
SLIM Bigger.
PROTO Bigger. You know, bundle them up and you know we did two but we were thinking why not more? How much could we do if we really sat down in front of a TV and watched a lot of things and then recorded?
DANNY We can knock a whole year out!
SLIM Should we pull the curtain back even more? I mean we were talking, we were brainstorming.
DANNY Oooh! [Slim laughs]
SLIM I don’t even know how to interpret that noise.
PROTO Oooh!
SLIM Oooh! We were planning, you know, what if? What if we do hangout for a weekend? And we spend like, let’s say we travel somewhere — East Coast obviously, we’re on the East Coast. We travel somewhere, 70mm summit, we get up early Saturday.
DANNY Oh my gosh.
SLIM What if we just record for the whole day? We get a year’s worth of supporter episodes done in 24 hours, Proto.
PROTO God, we just get like a stack of, you know, breakfast egg muffin sandwiches. You know, you get some scrapple…
SLIM Scrapple?
DANNY What is scrapple?
PROTO You get some bacon, you get a pot of coffee. Just watch some TV.
SLIM “Keep the pot on!” We’d be saying to the back, “Keep the pot on!” [Danny laughs]
PROTO I need a warm up.
DANNY Dale just servin’ it up.
SLIM Nobody Google scrapple. It’s probably so gross. Whatever it’s made out of, the ass of a pig of some kind. [Danny & Proto laugh] I don’t know. The innards… We also planned, you know, what if we bring our lovely wives on the trip? You know, we record during the day, we ghost hunt at night. Is this the greatest weekend in the history of humanity?
DANNY Gosh.
SLIM It’s got to be, right?
PROTO It’s looking that way.
DANNY Yeah. It’s shapin’ up.
SLIM So we have Andor in the can and Twin Peaks. If you’re a supporter on Patreon, Apple or Spotify, you can listen to those episodes. And real quick, before we move on, we should hello to some new friends on our Patreon. John, Tom, James, Pat, Oceanghoul, Colin, Jacob, Jonathan, and Joseph. A lot of J’s on that list.
DANNY What the!
SLIM They all joined since we were last recording together. They got access to our uncut episodes, the Discord, the vault — 30+ episodes in there as we just mentioned.
PROTO Pat’s here tonight.
SLIM No!
PROTO Hey Pat.
SLIM Pat in Discord tonight.
SLIM Do we want to talk about Proto watching a vampire movie? We’re in Hauntvember and Proto was dropping logs on vampire movies on Letterboxd.
DANNY Excuse me.
PROTO I had to get a log in before the show. [Danny laughs] I was looking at my Letterboxd watch list, and I was doing what everyone should do in October. You take your watchlist, you filter by Horror, filter by streaming of course, as well.
SLIM Of course.
PROTO And I was looking in there and I was looking, you know, what do I have? So I had a few vampire movies that I’m going to try to get to. I have the Tony Scott’s The Hunger, I got the — what’s the other one that’s on there?
SLIM The Addiction?
PROTO Well, The Addiction is the one I watched, but there’s the — I want to get his name right. Is it Chan Woo Park who did The Handmaiden? He has a vampire movie called Thirst. That I was, that was the one I was going to watch. But then, you know, I just wasn’t in a subtitle mood, the other night. You know when you want to sit down to watch a movie, but you don’t want to have to read. Danny knows what I’m talking about.
DANNY 100% know what you’re talking about.
PROTO I just didn’t feel like it. So but I saw, I had The Addiction on my list, which is directed by Abe Ferrara who he had another movie that I watched earlier this year. I think it was Miss 45. Yeah, I watched that in May of this year, which was a banger, if you haven’t seen it. Great movie. But The Addiction, yeah, it’s a vampire story. It’s about a graduate of philosophy graduate student who’s walking home one night in New York City and gets bit by a vampire and turns. Most of it, it seems like most of Ferrara’s movies are set in New York City. So it’s very much of the city of the time. This was made in 1995. But man, this movie was so, so good. And so much fun. I mean, it looked incredible. It’s black and white — spoilers, also. And also, you know, I know, not for everyone, black and white, but I had the greatest time with it. It was like the perfect movie I think to set off. It was, I love vampire stories, and especially ones that get away from the Dracula, you know, story. How many times have I seen — how many times have that has played out across my screen?
SLIM Dracula.
PROTO Too many. So just having someone have a original vampire story to me, is great fun and just kind of like the themes that it revolved around and like the question it was asking. And often this guy’s movies they’re all like under, they’re always under two hours. This was 82 minutes.
SLIM Oh my word.
DANNY Goodness. No excuse.
PROTO So I mean, you start it and before you know it, it’s already over. Yeah, it’s fantastic. So I gave it four stars.
SLIM Yeah, quote, “is this the greatest vampire movie I’ve ever seen?” I think was the review. I have the Blu-ray under my TV. I’ve yet to take the saran wrap off. This was a — I don’t know —
DANNY A White Elephant gift. [Slim laughs]
SLIM It did not get that as a gift. Abel Ferrara… King of New York, have you seen that with Walken?
PROTO I haven’t. No, but I remember you watching it. You didn’t like it right?
SLIM I have seen it. Body Snatchers… He did that kind of like remake of Body Snatchers, which has this iconic screaming scene in it.
DANNY You love a good scream scene.
SLIM How was Walken in this?
PROTO Walken has a small part. It’s maybe ten or fifteen minutes in the movie. But it’s great. He has kind of like a scene that he comes on for in the middle of the movie. And then he’s gone for the rest of it. But he’s a perfect casting for this role. That’s all I’ll say.
SLIM The scene in Body Snatchers is when like one of the characters talks to someone who’s trying to evade them. She’s like, “What are you gonna do? Where are you gonna go?” Just go on YouTube and watch that clip. It’s amazing. [Danny laughs]
DANNY Proto, you should add, if it’s not on your watchlist, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night for the vampire movies.
PROTO I’ve heard mixed things about that, I feel like.
SLIM Mixed?
DANNY It’s a mixed bag.
SLIM You shared a Letterboxd list of movies that you’re thinking about choosing for Hauntvember this month, our spooky season. And Bram Stoker’s Dracula was on there at one point.
DANNY Was it?
PROTO It is still on there.
SLIM Ooooh.
DANNY That can’t be the pick.
SLIM It could be the pick!
DANNY I watched it this week!
SLIM You didn’t give it a star rating.
PROTO That has nothing to do with what I’m doing. [Slim laughs]
SLIM You also have Hellraiser on there.
DANNY Oh my god!
PROTO Yeah. I do have Hellraiser on there.
SLIM Extremely horny movie.
DANNY Oh, really?
SLIM Yeah. Extremely. Don’t watch that with your family.
PROTO That’s what people want, though. People want to be horny. They want to watch morning movies.
SLIM The amount of DMs I’m getting, “please make 70mm more horny.”
DANNY Really? Release the DMs.
SLIM I would never release DMs. It goes against all the core of my being. I refuse. Danny, did you watch anything you want to talk about this week?
DANNY Dracula. I watched it this week. And it was insane. I had never seen this movie and then anytime Gary Oldman was on screen, all I thought of was you, Slim. [Slim laughs] I feel like you’ve quoted this movie so much that I kept picturing you as Gary, and it just drove me nuts. [Slim laughs] You feel like you’ve quoted this movie out the ass and here I am watching it and all I could think of as you while I watched the film.
SLIM I’m surprised I haven’t seen any FaceApp of me wearing that red gown with his hair up.
DANNY I need to! What a movie. And on top of thinking of you the whole time,. we have Keanu doing his British accent. And it is unreal. This movie is bonkers. I had a great time watching it. I really did. But one movie I definitely want to talk about I watched was Chloe Okuno’s, Watcher.
SLIM Ohhh yeah.
DANNY I watched that on Shudder. And someone had tweeted like, this felt very, like a Hitchcock movie. And I’m like, well, I’m into that. So I’m gonna watch this. And what a gorgeous film and a great little story. I mean, I had a great time watching it. It’s just, it has that Rear Window, vibe to it with a little bit of stalker killings and it says a great little story in Romania. And I loved it.
SLIM I loved how she moves to Romania with her husband who speaks the language makes friends. They have like a dinner party at the house. Yeah, they don’t translate when he’s speaking to the friends in front of her. So you feel like annoyed with her and out of the loop. Yeah, it was pretty cool.
DANNY Yeah, it was a good movie. I had a great time watching it.
SLIM Maika Monroe.
DANNY Maika. Yes, yes, yes. And then I fired up The Witch.
SLIM Oh my God. What a week!
DANNY What a week. Three and a half stars, had a good time. It’s a little slow. I loved the ending. But I wanted more of that in the movie, I think. If you’ve seen the movie, you know what I mean. There’s a little bit — I just wanted more witchyness in the movie, I think. That’s what I wanted. But it’s a good movie. I really enjoyed it. And then I turned off The Munsters from Rob Zombie because it sucked.
SLIM DNF.
PROTO Wooow.
DANNY Could not finish it.
SLIM Sheesh.
PROTO Is that streaming somewhere?
DANNY Yeah, Netflix. It’s a Netflix jawn.
PROTO Oh, boy.
SLIM This movie has gotten very strange release. I think it was on Blu-ray before it even hit Netflix. I don’t know what happened behind the scenes with this movie. No idea. Also, isn’t it Universal? Why isn’t this on — just rename the app Universal. Please! [Danny laughs] I’m tired of it.
DANNY So that was my week.
SLIM Josh says “Speak No Evil 70mm ep when?” Never. I would never want to force anyone to watch that movie.
DANNY Oh.
SLIM I want them in prison. Everyone involved.
DANNY That’s a new one that you watched, right?
SLIM Yeah.
DANNY I caught your review on that.
SLIM I should have, I should have researched further.
DANNY I’m reading you loud and clear — wink. I’m reading the tea leaves.
SLIM Thank you. Every week we give out a free year of Letterboxd Pro to someone who shares the show on social media. Gets rid of ads, you can see where those movies are streaming, you can find out where Dracula is streaming, you can watch it. I think it’s getting a 4k release soon if I remember.
DANNY It is.
SLIM I’m going to read an iTunes review. And whoever left this review, send us an email to 70mmpod@gmail.com to claim your winnings. This is from lealca. I’m not sure what to say for that username, but, “Listening to this podcast is like hanging with your three best friends who introduce you to new films and make you giggle for an hour straight. I love their dynamic and has quickly shot to my top five podcast list. I actually won’t stop telling people about it. In a sea of underwhelming voices in the pod world, this one is worth every minute. 70mm does something special, protect this pod at all costs.”
DANNY Oh my gosh.
PROTO Wow!
SLIM Beautiful review.
PROTO Beautiful. Thank you for those kind words.
DANNY I need to know those other four podcasts. [Slim laughs]
SLIM It’s Film Hags, it’s Lost Light, it’s Twin Vipers. We should call out Twin Vipers, Jonesy, who was on our Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade episode, longtime friend of ours. And Pham, another close friend of ours, just started a podcast about martial arts and action movies. So if you have that itch to scratch, search up Twin Vipers in the Episode Notes and start listening their pod. What do I want to talk about? What do I want to talk about?
PROTO Tell us about this Bad Taste movie?
DANNY Ohhhh, yeah.
SLIM My god.
DANNY Bad Taste. My boy.
SLIM Peter Jackson. Peter Jackson. He was in his mid-20s making this movie in New Zealand. It’s just about — it’s so goofy. It’s like New Zealand Evil Dead. You know how Evil Dead has kind of like “do it yourself” vibes, very grimy. But you know, super cool. Well directed. Like the person on the camera has some vision and some style. It feels like that. So these group of dudes who uncover an alien invasion, and they, they look like regular people, but they’re wearing denim. So they fight and they have to, like, get to this location to beat the head alien before it gets too crazy. And apparently the story as the story goes, Peter Jackson and his friends just film this movie on weekends themselves. And he was in his I think he’s like 23 or 24. And it’s so fun. i We, the reason I watched is because we interviewed Ti West, the director of Pearl and X. And this was one of his four favorites for the letterbox show. I loved it. If I said on the show, if I had seen this movie, when I was a kid, I probably would have wanted to make movies. Because I can see like these young people making that with nothing on weekends, and it’s so fun. It still holds up. It’s so cool. Like see how they did the stunts. Like there’s one scene with a rocket launcher, and they shoot it and it’s like, pretty obvious that the rocket is on like a string, you know, across the yard and you can see it just like go but it’s so cool that like they did that. There’s also a scene where the head alien guy who’s like posing as a human is upstairs in a room and the cameras looking at him but there’s a light in the room. And he at least see his shadow but he just moves closer to the light to make it seem like he’s getting bigger and changing into alien form. It’s like tons of cool innovative things when you don’t have the technology that just spoke to me on like a huge level. So it’s it’s on to be right now and hoopla. So I definitely recommend it. Also he plays two roles in it. He’s in it, Peter Jackson. Should we talk about our movie?
DANNY I think it’s time.
SLIM Our movie, this is Danny’s — whose pick is this?
DANNY You’re right.
SLIM Danny’s pick. You traded up the draft.
DANNY Traded up.
SLIM Poltergeist. Tobe Hooper. Hooptember. It’s happening right now. I don’t know the backstory — Tobe Hooper allegedly directed this. Maybe it’s true. Maybe it’s not. This is streaming on HBO Max. There was a 4K release that just came out. Proto, what’s Poltergeist?
[music from Poltergeist plays]
PROTO Steve Freeling sells model homes in sunny California. Him and his wife Diane, along with their three kids live in one of these homes. But when objects begin moving on their own, and their youngest daughter Carol and starts talking to the static on the TV, the home and neighborhood begin to look less idyllic. Then when a kid gets sucked into the closet and deposited into some Fantasma holding space, we know it’s not ideal. The Freelings will stop at nothing to get their kid back — even hirer an Ewok-looking spiritual medium to cross the divide and pull their child out of the jelly. Poltergeist… [Danny laughs]
SLIM My word. Vicious.
DANNY Jesus Christ.
SLIM Danny, was this your first viewing? This was, right?
DANNY Yeah, I wanted to watch it a couple years ago. I mean, obviously this is it’s 40th anniversary.
SLIM Cripes.
DANNY I didn’t do horror movies. I’ve said it before, but I wanted to wait this one out because I figured we’d watch at some point on the podcast. So no better time than now.
SLIM 1982, I have seen this countless times.
DANNY Really?
SLIM Yeah, I remember seeing it, maybe it was like a tape rental when I was a kid. So I have vivid memories of the tree, the clown, like I’m right in the timeframe where you, this is probably where your scarring of clowns comes up.
DANNY I bet, for sure.
SLIM What about you, Proto?
PROTO I’ve somehow avoided I think all mentions or even scenes from this movie. I think you know the clown was recognizable but I didn’t know is from this movie. So yeah, I got to somehow I got to 2022 without really knowing anything about Poltergeist, other than seeing the cover, of course, and the TV and the clown.
SLIM Craig T. Nelson.
PROTO Craig T. Nelson.
SLIM In peak physical condition in this movie. Can we talk about that? An Adonis.
PROTO Yeah, that scene where he went into his daughter’s room without a shirt on, like he was in his jammie pants. Yeah, target. It felt like, like, I don’t know, like, just put a shirt on Craig. [Slim & Danny laugh] I just felt so uncomfortable seeing him without a shirt, the hair, the amount of hair. Like, you know, he’s, he’s a well built. Man.
SLIM Crash is asking about Jobeth. Jobeth… Jobeth, call me, please. I’d love to go out, a walk on the boardwalk. Just just to just to chat. We can hold hands you know, as friends. JoBeth is an absolute fox in this movie.
DANNY Mamma mia.
SLIM But we need to get into our discussion, our round table, top threes all around the room. We jot down some notes for this viewing. And since this is Danny’s pick, Danny, you’re going to lead us off.
DANNY Okay, let me let me just see where I want to lead us off with. Let’s talk about Heather O’rourke. The little girl in this film. I couldn’t get enough of her. She was creeping me out from the get go. When she first walks down the stairs. She walked down the stairs. Yes, because Craig is sleeping there. Her first interaction with the TV. And she’s like talking back to it. Yeah, as in you don’t know what that’s saying to her. And I was hooked right away from that. Like I first of all was having a stroke from the strobing lights. Because that was insane. But I loved her in this film. She was amazing.
SLIM It’s It’s creepy. Like if you walk downstairs and your daughter, her child is talking to TV like that. I might move right then. Like right off the bat. This is too much, Carolyn, please.
PROTO Yeah, that’d be unnerving. Yeah, I was getting Alvin vibes. Skirt little girl Carolyn’s reminded me of my own son. Oh, no. Your son
SLIM would probably throw the TV across the room and end this away. Right?
PROTO Yeah, I don’t know if he would put up with people talking to him through a TV or not.
SLIM No, it’s off. There’s also like, the I was going through my notes. I mean, the they’re here line like that has, you know surpassed the movie, at least in my opinion and hit you know, pop culture for decades to Purdue. Remember that line when you’re watching? That like ringing the bells when she actually
PROTO did? Does the Kerlin sign say that? I was trying to think of like, I feel like I’ve heard that like exact line as an Omani do signs again,
SLIM sidewalks.
DANNY Oh, man. One last ride. Yeah, Megan
SLIM points out in chat. She does appear in the other poltergeists. Unfortunately, she died very young. She had some health issues. She
DANNY died during the third movie, the third poltergeists because they diagnosed her with Crohn’s, and was treating her for Crohn’s. But that’s not what she had. She had some other birth defects on her intestines, and it’s ruptured and she died in during the making of poltergeist three G’s. And the director was so close to her that he refused to finish the movie and whatever company was forced him to like the end of poltergeists three is like, a body double with a blonde wig on and he said it was the creepiest thing he ever did. Oh, my
SLIM God, it Tom scared and Nancy Allen were the main leads and poltergeists three, I watched that I think currently in like lives with her aunt and uncle to try to escape like the ghosts. Yeah, it was chasing her.
DANNY Yeah, I mean, there’s a whole on shutter. There’s a whole episode on curse films and poltergeist the whole trilogy is on there and talk about it skip by and maybe Dominic the older daughter in it. She was murdered by her boyfriend. Dominic Dawn is this younger sister of the other actor in America. Can werewolf in Paris?
SLIM Should we end the show right now? We have to power. Let’s recalibrate. We have to turn this car around right now. Let’s what’s my number one? I love Craig T. Nelson and Jo Beth together. Their marriage in this is dynamite. I love it. They’re hanging out. They’re smoking marijuana in their room joints in their bed in their bed. They’re laughing and they’re cracking each other up. He’s reading Reaganomics or whatever the hell it is written that book. In front of the TV. True Lies is our last episode, right? This is back to back marriage banger movies. I love it. I need more. You know, I want to say like, you know, with married couples, but like, I think the casting really helped out like their, their charisma, their charisma together, which is great. You know, I love seeing them interact together on screen.
DANNY I had in my notes, ‘I see your nuclear bomb kiss and raise you kissing in front of spectral light in the closet scene.’ [Slim laughs]
SLIM Endoplasm all over your face, or whatever that was.
DANNY My god. What a shot.
PROTO I don’t know if I’ve seen Jo Beth in anything else. I’m looking at her movies now. I mean, jungle two jungle. Saw that. Oh, my God. I don’t remember why. I mean, yeah, she has some she has some serious movies. But yeah, she was kind of like, new to me. Yeah, what a relationship.
SLIM How about? Sorry, interrupt me. You do the math. She had her eldest when she was 16. That’s when she first had her daughter. Because she says like, I think either he’s talking about how old she is. She’s 32. And she’s 16. Oh, gosh. So you do the math. Maybe like when they were getting prom king and queen? Crowned? She was popping that baby out? Correct?
PROTO Please, your your math is correct. Different times.
SLIM Thank you. Very rare occasion when my math checks out
PROTO when you had time to prepare
SLIM I mean, just related to their marriage, the scene where he is like she’s going into the upside down essentially. And she’s tied with the rope he shakes his head there. She has some really great marital moments in this movie that just still hold up for me. Pro tip number one.
PROTO My number one is this had a lot less horror than I was expecting. And I think horror in the sense that I thought of me being scared of what I was watching. When I turned this on the other night to watch it. My my oldest daughter, she she came up and she was like, Hey, what are you watching? Can I watch it with you? And I was like, Nah, you can’t watch it. It’s a it’s a horror movie. It’s It’s scary. Like, you know, but you know, like when you’re old enough I go Oh, watch it with you. But as I was watching it, I thought man, she definitely could have watched this with me like, except for maybe the one scene where the dude has like the vision of him like ripping his face off. Oh my god. That was like the only the only scene that like to me like crossed the line of like, Whoa, this is way over the top. But everything else. It felt very much like Amblin does a horror movie. Right the the Amblin vibes were off the charts in this to me.
SLIM I love that melting face stunt too because it you almost like feels obvious that the person’s hands are not connected to the body. So like the angle of the hand moving just don’t fit where the head should be
DANNY at the snap back is so good though, when he snaps out of it. Really love to come back to it.
SLIM Yeah, I was thinking about the same thing with James. I asked him if he wanted to watch poltergeist scary movie. And he said no, but I mean, I don’t know my memory. Maybe my memories aren’t right, but I just feel I was very scared by this movie. And I wonder if James would be still now considering what he’s seen elsewhere like on so many other screens? Where like maybe this isn’t as scary to him were like, my entrance into her anything was probably this and like other movies, otherwise you’re not seeing her or scary things anywhere else. Like he’s got YouTube doing goofy fake prank shows and you’re getting almost kind of like immune to jump stuff. I don’t know.
DANNY Yeah, I watched it with olives. She’s 14. And she loved it. She just was like it was just gross. It wasn’t scary.
PROTO Yeah, well also, I think when we were younger, you know we would we would maybe catch something on TV. And we had no idea what we are necessarily watching, either, you know, it’s like, oh, this thing is on TV. Let me watch it little did we know we’re watching a horror movie. Whereas now like anything, you know, the kids have watched they kind of they can know beforehand what is or if like, you know if we’re sitting down to watch a movie with them where I guess I guess my kids could, you know, just come across something and watch it. But at this point, they’re not seeking these kinds of things out and you know, no algorithm is handing them horror movies.
SLIM Also the idea that like the only thing you’d know about the movie poltergeist is the VHS sleeve. And whatever is on the back, like that’s all you got. That’s it. Yeah. Danny, what was your number two?
DANNY The practical effects in this movie. Were like chef’s kiss. I loved them so much. The tree coming through the window and grabbing the boy but also starting to swallow him was incredible. I didn’t expect that aspect of the tree to be happening. The habit when he had tree blood on him. This Yeah, the sappy tree blood like what is happening right now. They like esophagus looking closet at the end. And then what else was it like the even the the the guy picking his face off in the mirror was disgusting, but looked incredible. I know you watched both versions of Switzerland. But the only thing that threw me off in this was when the investigative team first opens the girl the kids room. And all of the stuff is flying around the room. I looked absolutely terrible on any 4k Like it was one time I’m like, Holy shit, that looks bad. When I watched the other version this week, it didn’t look as bad. It wasn’t as jarring as the 4k version. But other than that, so much of this film holds up really well. And I was just instantly thinking of Stranger Things with the rope. Going through the upside down like that was that I didn’t even realize that was from this movie or then was like a callback to this. But what a scene
SLIM mean either I wrote in my notes, did they invent the upside down? In poltergeist? I kind of forgot that this was you know such a big part of the plot. Yeah, that one scene in the in the room doesn’t hold up probably still looks great on VHS though. No intensity pay
PROTO this it did feel like almost like a demo for Ilm. Here’s everything we could possibly. And they were just having so much fun doing it. I remember there is that ILM doc that’s on Disney when it showed the scenes of them working on poltergeists it just seemed like that, like they were in, you know, just kind of like firing on all cylinders. You know, everyone’s just like revved up, like what could we do in this movie? And just having the time of their lives? You know, coming up with these effects.
DANNY I mean, it’s really true. I mean, if you think about it, it looks like they threw everything at it that they could do the giant matte painting of the cemetery on the Hill looked at
SLIM credit my god yeah. Oh my god. It was so nice. And there’s
DANNY everything in this film. It’s nuts.
SLIM Yeah. That was like one of my main things was that matte painting. Oh my god, it’s so gorgeous. I mean that it’s hard these paintings I need to see we need them on display. Presley you do you have these paintings? In your in your basement? Can I took so many notes how about that Vader poster in that one in the bedroom?
DANNY All the Star Wars stuff. And
SLIM how gorgeous was that? Presley?
DANNY do have that poster? Breathless does the OG Star Wars one up there? It’s
SLIM amazing. It looks so yeah and alien person Paul said um what do I want to talk off my number two? We don’t really talk we haven’t covered a paranormal movie. Right like in a while maybe like a ghost. Move halfway. I don’t know. Baba de Paul says but I don’t I don’t know. I don’t consider that Blair Witch. Blair Witch but this one is I mean this one has like a clairvoyant in it. They have go quote unquote ghost hunting people. But it’s like grounded in like a pseudo scientific thing. Like they come in and they bring in all these TVs. Oh my god, this TV is gorgeous. That was my other note about that. Kitchen TV. I need a Kitchen TV. Like maybe like another site like a sub business we can get into is retrofitting those things. Just put like a small tablet in there so that you have like a faux old school CRT mini TV. I’m going on a tangent but in terms of tangent this age like your dad falling asleep watching the TV yeah with like a beer in his hand like is that just does that people even do that anymore? Do you fall asleep to the TV in the living room and then like have to pick yourself up at 1am to go to bed
DANNY there’s no time to fall asleep the intro with the guy riding the bike with the beers Yeah, was real. And then getting into the room with all the dads or the all the grown men watching this football game. And the one guy say, Man, I have my life’s savings riding on this game or something he shouts at me like how, like why? Like, it doesn’t matter if you watch it or not, you still bet all your money it was just that whole bit was hilarious with the remote controls. I liked how that was like playing into the fact that there’s other things that could be causing stuff inside this house messing up like you have the kids with the remote control cars that are driving them around causing this guy to wreck and then you have the neighbor with the remote messing up the TV next or like there’s all these other outside things that you could you can explain the phenomenons that are going on in this house. I thought that was kind of smart way to start the movie off.
SLIM That guy 100% had a DUI that’s why in the last week he probably got pulled over but yeah, the paranormal stuff like there are so many scenes like to after they see what’s going on in her bedroom. Like they go downstairs they’re having like a mini discussion like you know that could be the humidity from the roof expanding the tiles or it could be a you know, car starter down the street making all this noise like what did you not see what you just saw in that veteran? Like, what are you trying to debunk at this point with science, it’s over like it’s happening that’s in front of you. I also love how like dated the kind of like ectoplasm was look sort of like ghosts that left the 80s and never came back after that. I think it stayed in the 80s Proto number two.
PROTO My number two is just the amount of weird bits in this movie that don’t happen anymore. The one was the beer Ron that Danny mentioned, it’s just so insane. This guy draft drops, like you know, 20 cans of beer and only, like saves for like four of them. And they’re spraying every it’s just so insane in the room. It just makes no sense. But there’s a few moments and like there’s the other scene where I think someone’s working in the backyard. He’s like at the window and there’s soup on the stove. And the Riedel and he just like takes a taste. Like right there out of the bowl. Yeah, I’m just thinking like, what is this guy who is I would slap this guy in the next week. If somebody did this to whatever, you know, sauce. My wife’s was he getting there?
SLIM Was like, his name was like workout or some dairy like go get back out there. I mean, also, there was the scene too, right after that where the daughter goes, leaves. And they’re hooting and hollering like, Oh, baby, I’m in love with you. And the mom is like in the kitchen just kind of observing her flipping them off. And she’s like, approving like yeah, that’s my daughter. Like these dudes adda here like What a difference 40 years makes I guess like that would just those dudes those dudes would be like arrested
PROTO the other thing was the guy so the paranormal crew is that the house and they’re setting everything up. And at one point, the one guy, the camera guy, he stops to get something to eat. He goes into the fridge, and he pulls out like a whole steak and slaps it down on the countertop. What are you do and like who wrote the scenes? Like In what world? Does this make any sense? But there is definitely like a thing of this time period where movies just have like this weird these weird behaviors from character and I love it. I just don’t know like what caused it or like where that where that went in movies.
SLIM He’s I mean, he’s roughly around their their fridge. He’s eaten the fried chicken. I mean, if that was my bucket of KFC and I saw this ghost hunter, slow down pal. Okay, you can have some potato chips and weave the meats alone, please. It’s not yours. How about the old school Cheetos bag though? The design of that bag odd. Frig me, Danny’s number three,
DANNY The finale of this movie the final act. I was like leaning for Read my chair. I couldn’t get enough of this finale. First of all, we’ve already gotten the child back out of the paranormal. It’s fixed the idea that they would spend the night and put their kids back in this room is asleep again. Yeah. After however long that they had been watch it, like, she opened the door and there’s like a scream or they would open the door in their stuff. And I’m gonna let’s just put our kids back in one more for one last ride. The tonight we’ll, we’ll put our kids to bed. And it all happens again. The clown wakes up. This Oh, this was in the cursed film to that clown animatronic thing when it chokes him and actually like malfunction and really jumped out that scary just like I think was like a bandaid anyway. That whole that whole scene. Craig’s are incredible. And it’s screaming when she’s going down into the pool, and all of the skeletons are coming up. And it’s just that whole final act is like, it’s what you signed up for it with this movie like this is this is what I was hoping would happen. The coffins bursting out of the ground. Yes, incredible. And then when he grabbed his boss and he’s like, You have moved the headstones but you didn’t relocate the bodies. He’s just yelling at him. Like that whole scene is incredible.
SLIM You just moved the headstones.
DANNY Losing his mind, it’s incredible stuff. I mean, I couldn’t get enough of that ending.
PROTO The fact that Jo Beth ends up in the pool outside like her kids are being attacked in a bedroom. I just imagine like Craig T Nelson, you know, later on as like, they’re debriefing at the Holiday Inn or whatever. Like, wait, so how did you end up in the outside in the rain? I still don’t understand why she was in the pool at this point.
SLIM Yeah, they’re smoking in the bathroom of the Howard Johnson hotel room lapping it up in there kind of recounting what happened. I found honey. Yeah, that the the scheme of them moving the headstones and just building over the bodies, which I guess none of these houses have basements at all. Otherwise, they would have probably ran into that stuff. Yeah, I love it. And I think I The Simpsons did a famous parody of that, of course, in Treehouse of Horror. I’ll maybe I’ll loop in the scene loop, but I think I’ve I saw the Sims in most movies. I’ve seen the Simpsons parody first, then the actual thing they’re parodying. And in this Treehouse of Horror, they move into this house and they find out that it’s like built on an Indian burial ground. And Homer calls his like realtor. He’s like —
[clip of The Simpsons plays]
HOMER Mr. Homer Simpson here. When you sold me this house, you forgot to mention one little thing. You didn’t tell me it was built on an Indian burial ground? No, you did it. Well, it’s not my recollection. Yeah, well, alright. Goodbye. You guys. You’ve mentioned it five or six times.
SLIM I love this. The idea that all the dead bodies are under these homes. It’s so cool. Yeah. It’s so sweet. Like when Frank comes in, sees like the house exploding and stuff. And he’s like, freaking out. Oh my god. It’s so rad.
DANNY Though enjoy Beth Jo Beth gets possessed in that room with a It looks like she’s getting on top of the room and she’s getting levitating. The idea that they had that rotating room at ILM, it looked incredible and looked like she was really like up onto the ceiling. I couldn’t it just it looked perfect, credible stuff.
SLIM There’s also a cool scene where she goes upstairs and that like Wolf Ghost Dog or whatever. It’s like yelling at her and it zeroes in on her face with her hair flying behind it and she has that like horrified yell and face. That is one of my favorite shots. The whole frickin movie. My number three gosh, we have so many notes. This is a goofy one. But one of my favorite scenes is when they finally do agree to like, get the kids out of the house. They send their son in a cab to taxi taxi cab you walking around with a suitcase it’s like he’s going to work. And there’s they they stand at the front of the house. The kid walks to the cab down the street they don’t go with him. She’s like call me the dog goes in and goes with the boy and then he just drives off one of the weirdest they this is back to protos 80s weird moments line but like what is strange exit for that so weird
DANNY even All of wall watches asked me if people did that. People did that. And I’m like, I don’t know I was never shipped off in a taxi anywhere. Call me okay.
SLIM I think my first feeling my tiny PVI I kind of zoned out once the Clairvoyant shows up. I feel like the movie kind of straight though. I don’t know, at least at this stage of my life at this amount of viewings of this movie, I kind of just zoned out when she is in there. Her scenes are kind of long, and I’m just like, this isn’t as fun anymore.
PROTO Yeah, well, that’s kind of my third. My third point is kind of just overall the, I feel like the story just kind of falls apart in the second half of this movie. Because it feels like there’s something there. It’s like, alright, Carol, and is on this other side. There’s others, you know, ghosts there. There’s people there. But then there’s this darkness, the stark presence there, as well. And it was like, oh, okay, like, there’s something else happened here. But then, by the end of the movie, there’s like no explanation to it. Or like what was really happening? Or is there a story behind like, this dark this evil dark presents that’s with her. There’s no like confrontation with it. It kind of just like turns into like, just fireworks, you know, like special effects, you know? smorgasbord at the end and they’re there. There’s nothing really there in terms of an ending with the story and it kind of drove me crazy. This whole light thing? Like the light don’t look at the light. No, open. No, you have to look at the light go towards the light. No, Carolyn, don’t go towards that. Like what is it? What is it? What are you supposed to do with the light it just seemed like a cup waffling back and forth. And I didn’t go I didn’t understand what’s going on. I was kind of checking out at the end there.
SLIM I actually forgot if the light was bad on this like, viewing too. I was like, Wait a minute. Are they supposed to go towards the light because I remember to change but then even I was confused. I’m like my 100th of viewing in this movie.
DANNY Then what do you think about the light?
SLIM Or the that entire kind of clairvoyant, I sat down.
DANNY I definitely agree with you. It is a bit a bit confusing, but I kind of loved that character. though. I liked the actress a lot. I thought she was she just has a she’s just odd. Her delivery her voice. There’s something creepy about her that I loved. There’s a great moment where they’re at the top of the stairs. And it’s like a nice little one shot that they do where each character kind of steps up and they’re looking at the ceiling talking to Carolann before they go into the room, I don’t know I just really loved that setup. I think visually inside of that room, the spectral light being shot across the room through the closet door and the rope scene looked incredible. Like I was visually like this is this is some awesome stuff. But it does get a little bogged down there’s so much shouting. Especially when the the the medium tells her like, don’t go towards the light and when they’re outside but they’re in there yelling at her to do it. It is getting a little bit muddy, but honestly, I was just kind of like visually struck at that moment.
SLIM It’s cool to see like on their monitors to like if they were there wondering if they recorded it and you can see like the the VHS tapes interpretation of what they filmed like the orbs kind of just like appearing. Yeah. There was a comment in chat about how like she really didn’t do anything she like made it worse. And on the way to our trip with Jonesy and proto. We listened to that podcast episode about the exorcist trainer to remember that Oh, yeah.
DANNY Sleeping. I wasn’t saying Yeah.
SLIM We listen to this podcast. What is the name of that podcast? Stories with Sapphire. We listened to talking possession with an exorcist trainer Adam Bly. So this is like a paranormal podcast we listened to on the trip. And it was about this lay person that trains exorcists in the Catholic Church. And he sounded like legit. It was really legit. I mean, how often do you hear someone talk about Catholic Church exorcisms? This was probably the most exhaustive one I’ve ever heard. And he talks about how he doesn’t like doesn’t like doesn’t like the TV goes hunting shows. Because they’re almost like this character from poltergeists like they come in. They make things worse, they don’t know actually what they’re dealing with. So he went hard into like, people that are almost kind of like in purgatory versus actual demons or like Satan trying to trick you into Oh, getting you into the dark side or, you know, whatever you call it. I thought it was pretty fascinating episode to be honest.
PROTO Yeah. Also he was saying that a lot of the people who do these, these ghost hunts actually have, you know, issues later on, like, you know, we’re just seeing what’s presented on the TV but he’s like, No, I’ve met a lot of these people and they get effed up from from doing these these ghost hunts. And then also, the funniest thing is like you’re listening to this you know, anyone who’s listening to this because they’re like, fascinated with this kind of stuff and ghosts and you know, what have you is on the other side, and his recommendation was not to ghost hunt, but to go home and pray for the dead. Like, Oh, thanks, buddy. Like, instead of ghost hunting, I should. Yes, sit at home at night and pray okay.
SLIM 5pm Every night just pick pray for those that have not gone to the other side. Yeah, Josie was up front as we were driving and we were talking about ghost hunting and he was just kept every time he made a comment about to never goes hunt. He just gave me a side eye. He’s like, we’re not we’re not where you want us to go. Who’s that? We’re never goes out. I think that is honorable mentions time and reading time. Danny.
DANNY Can you see my animal? Flushing a bird down a toilet? Oh, does that. Does that move us to bugs?
SLIM I think will clog the toilet. All right. That’s a big bird.
DANNY Craig do and Donald Duck noises and her response was I love when you talk dirty. Cop Hey, good. Yeah, and then kissing through the spectral light up. I had an amazing time watching this film. It has its moments of kind of, you know, slow and bogged down the storyline, but it’s exactly what I had hoped it was. So I’m gonna give it four and a half stars four and a half stars to talk about Spielberg either, but there was a whole Spielberg, Toby Hooper drama, with directing. And I watched a lot of the behind the scenes stuff and it Toby Hooper directed this film, but Solberg is on his ass the entire time. So I can understand how when you watch like Texas Chainsaw and you have that version of Toby and then you have this mainstream Amblin esque film and it is very Spielberg doubt it’s probably because it looked like Spielberg wasn’t giving him an edge to be the horror director that he actually has. That’s what it definitely felt like so it on paper, he directed this film. He was there for every shot, but also so a Spielberg
SLIM right. The movie starts out with I mean, does this happen often a Steven Spielberg production that he has not directed?
DANNY Yeah, I mean, here’s a bunch of stuff he’s produced. But like, you know, like Back to the Future, Gremlins, all that kind of stuff, but also those kinds of guys. Those directors have gone on and continued to be mainstream hits, but Toby didn’t so I feel like a lot of the Fallout was they probably really didn’t work well together.
SLIM He led there I think there’s like allege stories. We can’t be sued. I’m saying alleged.
DANNY It was like alleged Spielberg to sue me. I mean, I would love for that letter to come.
SLIM I’d be banned from seeing The Fabelmans because of the comment I made not poltergeists podcast, like in wrestling, pro wrestling parlance. If someone was addicted to drugs, they beat them that they fought deep. They had demons to fight they were flooding demons back then. So on set there was like, I think Tobe was fighting demons around this time. He was kind of a mess of that’s like the urban legend. Who knows if that’s true. I mean, he also went on to do other things. He did Texas Chainsaw Massacre to lifeforce Salem’s Lot, which I would love to do at some point on this podcast.
DANNY Yeah, I mean, I watched a more recent interview with Hooper. It seemed like if there was something to talk about, he has nothing really ever to hide anymore. It’s not like his like he’s not young in his career anymore. And if there was something issues with Spielberg, or I feel like he would have either hinted at it, but he really just kind of talked favorably on enjoying the filming of poltergeists and working with Steven and stuff, so I don’t honestly know. And I feel like it was just probably Spielberg being in there. And Ana’s asked all the time for a movie that Spielberg Rodas mass
SLIM sale was locked in at night 1979 That was another movie that I think I’d watched years after and that I thought was pretty spooky. And other Sims in the party scene. Are the kids flying outside the window? The ASMR my honorable mentions the ASMR of them in the bathtub with the ectoplasm is gross. It’s so gross here in the that jello move around.
DANNY Did you have headphones on watching this movie?
SLIM I didn’t. It was loud enough for me to get freaked out. dolly shot Oh yeah when she tries to save her kids in the in the hallway, amazing shots. I love that she is essentially responsible for saving our kids. It’s not Craig T Craig T does not come to save the day. My queen Jo Beth is responsible for saving her kids and she does it that whole that whole scene is awesome. I’m still a four stars for Poltergeist, I still have a lot of fun watching this. I think the the like, upside down stuff kind of just bores me a little bit. I don’t know if it’s just the amount of times I’ve seen it at this point. But this particular viewing four stars.
PROTO Yeah, the elongated hallway scene with the Jobeth running down. I love that as well. That might have been my favorite shot of the movie. Another funny moment is when Carol Ann is feeding the goldfish and just like is dumping the food in there. You know, it has like no relation to the story. It’s just kind of like one of those one off weird scenes again. Yeah, I had. Oh, he says, we said you only move the headstones why? I was waiting for his boss just to say money. Money of course. But I had a ton of fun watching this too. It’s it’s a good time. I could see myself returning to it. Yeah, at the end like the story. I guess. You know, it doesn’t matter so much that it doesn’t all make sense, right? Because you’re there for the effects and whatnot. So I’ll give it three stars.
SLIM Three stars for Poltergeist.
DANNY Definitely feels like you can just throw it in the Halloween rotations every year. Oh yeah, that’s for sure. Easy.
SLIM Easy. I mean how awesome is it to to like having a total mental breakdown and then be offered a better house on top of a hill if you try to like keep you out your job.
DANNY You know that house? Obviously it still exists but when they were filming it had just been built so no one owned it yet. So they did all the exterior filming and the guy that owns it is still the original owner of that house. Wow that lives there now and that’s shot on the hill with like the plots being laid out. Yeah, like cement floors. That’s that’s the actual neighborhood now like that was legit being built.
SLIM It looked like the Arrested Development lot. Yeah, it was a ton of houses like it almost looked claustrophobic with the amount of houses Yeah, on that view from down the hill.
DANNY How about the music? We didn’t talk about the music what a score to
SLIM who did the music Goldstein Goldstein added again? The gold standard Gosh, I really want to do Salem’s Lot now oh my gosh, I’m shudder right now. Whoa, is
DANNY this not are you pivoting right now? Live event on not
SLIM Pivoting?
DANNY How’s it sounds? Not a TV show?
SLIM Sounds like was a TV movie? Yeah, I think it was like two parts of the movie. 184 minutes 184 minutes? Yeah. TV movies ever heard of them? Classic. There was a Salem’s Lot too they did it sounds are sounds lol remake. This falls into like the it TV show for me like of like weird movie horror. That was probably spooky at the time, but maybe not anymore.
DANNY Yeah, the new one was supposed to come out this month. Pullman’s son was on it
SLIM late or something delayed till April. Is that going to be on a an app? Or is that a theater thing?
DANNY And maybe a Netflix John actually.
SLIM All right. That is the first movie for haunt vember
DANNY successful we’re off to a good start off to a big start this month.
SLIM Halloween is like real close.
DANNY So close.
SLIM We are forgetting about it. Alright, it’s time for my pick. I’m up next for haunt member and we were chatting in person you guys were like I asked you what you thought I was going to pick both of you almost like simultaneously set hereditary. But it’s not we’re not ready yet for hereditary on this show. We need more time. We maybe another year. Okay. Yeah. So my picks for this past are my past three or four picks have tried to bit had tried to be a little outside of the box. Less white, pretty much and what I saw a horror movie maybe a few years ago that I loved. It’s on Netflix, Count 2020 Everyone can watch this and has a Netflix his house from Remi weeks after making a harrowing escape from war torn. South Sudan. A young refugee couple struggles to adjust to their new life in a small English town that has an unspeakable evil lurking beneath the surface. Goodness So this is on Netflix bloom you know Mikey P executive producer of the movie mixtape I got five stars. Oh my gosh. Yeah. A beautiful shot and beautifully amazing performances great score what a movie is happening. So that’s some high praise. How about KK, who tell us force majeure Tintin episode on us three stars from caca
DANNY three stars
SLIM could be a dust that’s over so I’m excited to rewatch I’ve removed my rating I think oh in advance I did miles slide rating removal for the self removal self removed job. So I’m excited to rewatch and for those listening live recording early next week, it’ll be Tuesday night so his house on Netflix fired up to watch it together for one member 93 minutes to beautiful we’re already enforced our territory for Proto at anytime of that length, it’s hovering around that area. Proto, any closing thoughts for Hauntvember?
PROTO Closing thoughts for Haunt-November… not yet. I’m gonna save my thoughts for next week.
SLIM We’ll see everybody next week for His House on Netflix.
[70mm theme song ramps up, plays alone, fades out]
