Great movie!! Tobe Hooper is an amazing filmmaker and even though this feels more like a Spielberg (who wrote and produced this) film than it does a Hooper one, I can tell that he was still able to add some of his horrific charms to the final product. There’s a lot of cool stuff going on here. First of all, you got the classic Spielbergian family household/neighborhood that just screams 80s. Then there’s the hidden in plain sight clues as to what this movie is trying to say such as when the mom is smoking a joint as the dad is reading a book about Reagan or when the daughter who can communicate with the tv people is staring at static on the screen and the mom switches the channel to a violent war program because the static “wasn’t good for her and would hurt her eyes”. Obviously this movie is all about the dangers of television and the destruction of the family unit as a result of not only those dangers, but also the evilness of the Reagan era as a whole. Anyway, moving on from what the audience is supposed to take away from this, there’s still a lot of pretty gnarly stuff going on. For instance, the “They’re here!!” scene is as iconic as could be, the sound and visual effects are outstanding (especially anytime the light starts shining and the poltergeists are active), the gore is minimal but still impressive in large part due to the FACE RIP OFF SCENE, there’s a nasty maggot filled piece of meat that’s shown falling to the ground that reminded me that this was in fact a Tobe Hooper film, there’s a creepy clown doll that turns out to play an integral role near the end, the mom gets dragged across the ceiling of her room by ghosts A Nightmare on Elm Street style (minus the blood), and of course the climax that sees the mom going into the mysterious light to retrieve her daughter is an amazing and astonishing sequence that is full of Earth shattering sound and gooey red plasma like substances. This is a fun movie that starts off a little slow, but really turns on the jets during the second half and lets loose with insanity. This is a haunted house Amityville meets Close Encounters/ET thrill ride that now holds a very special place in my heart. It’s definitely not as scary as I thought it would be, but it’s full of cool ghosts, monsters, set pieces, and Spielbergian magic with a touch of Tobe Hooper nastiness. Also, I was very sad to find out that both of the daughters in this film died terrible deaths shortly after it was released. I honestly couldn’t believe it. May their souls rest in peace.
Great movie!! Tobe Hooper is an amazing filmmaker and even though this feels more like a Spielberg (who wrote and produced this) film than it does a Hooper one, I can tell that he was still able to add some of his horrific charms to the final product. There’s a lot of cool stuff going on here. First of all, you got the classic Spielbergian family household/neighborhood that just screams 80s. Then there’s the hidden in plain sight clues as to what this movie is trying to say such as when the mom is smoking a joint as the dad is reading a book about Reagan or when the daughter who can communicate with the tv people is staring at static on the screen and the mom switches the channel to a violent war program because the static “wasn’t good for her and would hurt her eyes”. Obviously this movie is all about the dangers of television and the destruction of the family unit as a result of not only those dangers, but also the evilness of the Reagan era as a whole. Anyway, moving on from what the audience is supposed to take away from this, there’s still a lot of pretty gnarly stuff going on. For instance, the “They’re here!!” scene is as iconic as could be, the sound and visual effects are outstanding (especially anytime the light starts shining and the poltergeists are active), the gore is minimal but still impressive in large part due to the FACE RIP OFF SCENE, there’s a nasty maggot filled piece of meat that’s shown falling to the ground that reminded me that this was in fact a Tobe Hooper film, there’s a creepy clown doll that turns out to play an integral role near the end, the mom gets dragged across the ceiling of her room by ghosts A Nightmare on Elm Street style (minus the blood), and of course the climax that sees the mom going into the mysterious light to retrieve her daughter is an amazing and astonishing sequence that is full of Earth shattering sound and gooey red plasma like substances. This is a fun movie that starts off a little slow, but really turns on the jets during the second half and lets loose with insanity. This is a haunted house Amityville meets Close Encounters/ET thrill ride that now holds a very special place in my heart. It’s definitely not as scary as I thought it would be, but it’s full of cool ghosts, monsters, set pieces, and Spielbergian magic with a touch of Tobe Hooper nastiness. Also, I was very sad to find out that both of the daughters in this film died terrible deaths shortly after it was released. I honestly couldn’t believe it. May their souls rest in peace.
