Are We Still Cowards?: Poltergeist (1982)

Gathered together from the cosmic reaches of the universe, here in this great screening room with comfortable recliners, are the most powerful forces of good ever assembled. Keith.

Nobody will know this but me and you.

Terry.

Get rid of it if it bugs you that bad. Just get rid of it. Why you set it up on that chair staring at your bed every night? Why not just keep it in the closet at all times?

Derek.

Yeah, it's like the Doctor Who TARDIS of steaks.

And the power twins, Zap and Jordan, with their magical lemur snort dedicated Welcome back to Fumbling Their Way Through Movies, one forgotten gem at a time.

We're here with 1982's Poltergeist.

This is Fumbling Through Film.

Mommy, help me, please! Carol Anne? Honey, do you see a light? Mommy, please!

Mommy! Shh! Shh! Tell her to go to the light. No! They'll follow her, they've been following her for weeks! Now tell her to go to the light! It's alright, it's alright, it's alright, Carol Anne!

Mommy, I can't breathe!

Run to the light, Carol Ann! Run as fast as you can! Mommy was alive!

No, honey, no. Tell her the words. No, it's a lie! You can't choose between life and death when we're dealing with what is in between. Now tell her before it's too late.

Run to the light, baby! Mommy is in the light.

Tell her you're waiting for her.

Mommy is waiting for you in the light. I hate you for this.

Now clear your minds. He knows what scares you. It has from the very beginning. Don't give it any help, it knows too much already. Now open the door.

Hello and welcome to another one-of-a-kind, genre-defining, brand new episode of Fumbling Through Film, the only show that dares, dares to bring together 3 dudes to talk about movies. These, however, They aren't just any movies.

Not at all. Even the paranormal specialists say this is true.

Well, they get to a point because they got their hands to their temples and their eyes are closed and they're thinking they could feel it. These are the movies that you've either missed, overlooked, or feel are simply worth revisiting.

Or they have passed through some kind of weird—

They've passed through something. They filmed these videos and they move slowly over the course of 12 hours from one end of a table to another, and they're any movie. That's what they are. And they say that.

That's what paranormal specialists say?

Yeah.

I must have left the room when they said that. I missed that whole part.

Yeah, well, it took a long time for him to get there.

And they're like, yeah, it's not just any movie. And I was like, cool. And I was like, all right, time to go.

Peace, I'm out.

That's all I needed to hear. Oh, dang it. And then there was like a long comment after that.

Yeah. As soon as they realize that these are the ones we've missed, overlooked, or feel like something— then it's like that's any movie. My name is Derek and I am a fumbler. Joining me here in the haunted Fumble Dome where caskets are popping out of the earth is the Prime Minister of Fumbling and Film, Keith.

Hey, what's up everybody? KG Fumbler extraordinaire. And I, I swear to God, they told me they moved the bodies and the headstones when we first built this place.

Yeah, this one's on you, Keith, for not making sure there weren't corpses in the dirt.

Yeah, you really should have dug around a bit before we built the TumbleDome.

Yeah, no, I've got the— I've got our lawyer people looking over the fine print to make sure. I signed off some stuff and maybe I okayed this without knowing, but I didn't do it on purpose, so.

You didn't check for the corpse clause.

No, no, it's— I saw them move some headstones. I was like, awesome, they're taking care of it, great. Next thing you know, the Fumbledome was here. And weird things happen every now and then.

Yep.

I try to throw— I try throwing a tennis ball up against the wall and it keeps disappearing.

And it happens. The other person that's afflicted with Corpse Claws, oh, his hands are all gnarly.

This is a, um, Corpse Claws is a zombie, uh, Santa. Christmas movie.

But Terry's got— the Dr. Dre of Kansas, Terry, he's got these claws. They're corpses.

Yeah, I've actually, uh, been collecting all the hands of all the corpses and sewing them to my own so I can have—

so many corpses.

I mean, there's so many, why not?

I know, there are fresh corpses every day.

And I can just take those hands, sew them on, and it's like my hands are getting bigger and more powerful. So it's kind of nice.

Yep. You're like, um, what's the bad guy's name from My Hero Academia? He's got all the hands on him.

Oh, uh, Shigaraki. Yeah, the resolve guy.

You're our very own Shigaraki.

But I'm good.

Yes, as far as we know.

I'm good. I'm just collecting corpse hands and sewing them on myself. I'm a good guy.

Yeah, tell it. I'm a good guy.

Don't let the dead hands fool you.

I might stink and I might have nasty corpse flesh all over me, but I'm a good man.

Yeah, I agree. You know what else stinks and has corpse flesh all over it?

I don't know.

This podcast?

This podcast.

So we should probably tell people what it— why we have corpse flesh on us.

Please do.

There's good reason. It's good reason.

Every week we watch movies, but not just any movies. No, nope, nope. Every month one of us chooses a theme, a genre, a guiding light. Oh, there's so many to choose from this one. Some sort of rotting steak on a counter. Oh, it's just that steak erupted with Dead meat.

I didn't like that. It was more meat inside than there was.

Like, yeah, it's like the Doctor Who TARDIS of steaks.

You just keep— there's more meat on the inside popping out.

Yeah, normally I— normally I would be all for that. Like, if a restaurant had that and just like exploded more meat, more steak on the inside.

The TARDIS of steak is an amazing idea.

Mhm.

We've stuffed more steak on the inside every week.

One of us chooses a movie that adheres to that TARDIS of steak or the theme. And then on the 4th week, we truly fumble and we let the wheel divine us a movie and we watch that. This month is DTF, Down to Fumble. Y2, year 2, M11. The M stands for month.

Okay.

Ah, okay.

And that's a Keith month. So Keith, This is spooky season. We're in October. We're deep in October. Heart of October. Heart of October. What did you give us for this month?

I went nice and simple. I just said, hey, what is a movie that scared you when you were younger that you haven't really taken a chance to rewatch again? Uh, and let's, let's check them out, see if they still scare us.

Yeah, in a, in a month we, we've lovingly dubbed, Are We Still Cowards?

And the answer is maybe.

Maybe. Dub 1 was Keith Dub because it's your month. So what'd you give us?

I went with the extremely scary Arachnophobia.

Terrifying Arachnophobia.

Thrilling, adventurous, and, um, Humorful as well.

It had the heart of one of the greatest movies ever and the thrills of another great movie. I can't remember what.

Jaws, Aliens, and, uh, something.

Oh yeah, Jaws, Alien, and Back to the Future. The combination of those 3 and the birds.

Oh yeah, the birds are there too.

And then dub 2 was a Terry dub. Terry, what'd you give us?

Exorcism of Emily Rose.

The terrifying court docudrama. Yeah, yeah, the law and order meets, uh, based on a true story that took place in Germany but got set in Minnesota.

Yep. The most horrifying state.

The most natural setting. The most natural way to retell a German movie.

Yeah, I, I agree. And there's— if you're gonna tell a German story, tell it in Minnesota.

I think all the Germans would agree with that.

And then that means this is dub 3. It's a me dub. And at the end of the last episode, I gave the history. I had a whole bunch of movies that I was a terrified young man. Everything scared me as a little one. Uh, my cousins are mostly responsible for that because they'd expose me to things I shouldn't have been, and they thought it was hilarious when I would cry myself to sleep. Jaws was removed from the list because I recently rewatched that, but Poltergeist is a movie they exposed me to when I was, I don't know, maybe 9, 8, 9. Shouldn't have watched it because I'm just too young Too, uh, what's a word? Impressionable? Impressionable.

Innocent.

Innocent. I had a hard time at that age going, is that real or is that TV? I don't know, I can't tell. Like, there's a, there's a point where like a child understands that fiction is fiction and real is real. I couldn't tell that till I was like 18, probably.

I think I'm still figuring that out.

Yeah, sometimes it's tough. So I chose Poltergeist from 1982, the summer of '82. Now, before we talk about our viewing of the Poltergeist from the summer of '82, and before we do a deep dive into Poltergeist from the summer of '82, did any of us have any previous knowledge, history, and/or experience with Poltergeist from the summer of 1982?

Uh, I've seen it before, but it's not something I watched as a kid. It was definitely like later when I was getting into like movies and horror movies and stuff.

Sure.

I watched this like just a year ago with, uh, my wife and my oldest son. Also, like, I— you say it came out in '82. I think I saw this very close to when it came out.

Oh, in theaters?

No, maybe like the following year, I guess.

No, you were a big moviegoing family, Keith.

That's true. You even saw Jaws 3 in theaters.

Yeah, I did see Jaws 3, but like, I don't know, we didn't treat Jaws like a horror film. My family wasn't big on horror movies. Um, and I know a couple years later Gremlins came out and like that freaked me out big time. And I had to— I was staying at my friend's house next door and I had to come home.

Yeah.

But I, I'm pretty sure I'd already seen Poltergeist. I do know like my, my sister, this like, she— this movie scared her. Completely. Yeah, um, she's a couple years older than me, but this like is a movie that she had always said was like her, you know, big scary movie growing up. And so I think I saw it at a very early age. Yeah, like maybe 8, 9 at the latest.

Like I said, I watched it, some of it, uh, when I was a kid. My aunt and uncle had not LaserDiscs. I, I spoke— I misspoke last week. I had to look it up. They are RCA video discs. They were big and they like came in like this cardboard sleeve that you pushed into the player. I'm gonna play the movie off. Not like a LaserDisc? Not a LaserDisc. LaserDisc was like a— looked like a big CD. This was like a pizza box that had a movie in it.

Oh, a little bit skinnier.

You shoved it into a player.

An oven?

Kinda, yeah. I saw it up to a point, uh, and I had never seen it again. Now what's funny, I went to Letterboxd and apparently I gave it a score on Letterboxd of 4 stars prior to even— I guess even like, I don't know if it's one of those things where it's just like, I know when I joined Letterboxd, I'm like, I gotta rate every movie I've ever seen. Yeah. And I was like, Poltergeist is a classic, but I'd never watched all of it because After a point, it was all new to me. Uh, so that was interesting. So that's where we're at. That's what we're watching, Poltergeist. We're gonna find out if I'm still a goddamn coward, but we won't find out until afterwards. After Keith and Terry, you guys relax because I'm gonna take you both closer to Poltergeist than you could have ever imagined.

Closer to that light than we ever have.

Yeah, we're gonna go into the light with another patent-pending Fumbler's Deep Dive.

Keith and I are gonna hold the rope, we're gonna wrap it around Derek's waist, and we're gonna send him out into that, that beautiful light.

One of you is gonna have to sit and catch me as I come through the ceiling.

Yeah, that's—

everyone's gonna have to hold the rope and make sure that I don't fall all the way in.

Yep, so it's a fine balance.

Now Keith has often talked about his prowess in tug of war, so maybe he should be the one. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And everybody knows I was basically the best catcher of all time.

So the catcher of Dead weight as it falls.

The catcher of man as it is. Yes, I could catch that easy.

All right, Poltergeist. This son of a bitch came out on June 4th, 1982. It's rated PG. It's 1 hour and 54 minutes. A family's home becomes a center of paranormal activity that opens a doorway to the other side. With help They must cross over to get their daughter back.

Sounds right.

Spot on.

Gets a 7.3 on IMDb, 89% after 80 reviews, and it's Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Oh, a couple, couple of those Rotten Tomatoes blurbs. In 2005, Nick Schager of Lessons of Darkness said this: cut from the Spielberg mold.

Okay.

And in 1999, Almer Hafeldassen of the BBC said this. This is a film that tends to annoy. As if it had been more taut and consistent, it could have been far more exciting.

Hmm, interesting. Tends to annoy. That's a fun way to say that.

It earned $77 million at the box office during its theatrical run. On roughly a $10.7 million budget, certified hit, the kind of thing that would get you sequels. It opened at $10.4 million and was good enough for 3rd that weekend.

Nice.

So the top 10 box office movies for the weekend of June 4th, 1982.

Let's see.

Number 10, in its 3rd week, Road Warrior.

Oh, cool. Nice. The sequel.

Yeah. And number 9 in its 7th week, The Sword and the Sorcerer.

Okay, the animated movie?

No. Oh, that was The Sorcerer's Sword in the Stone. I don't know what it was. Number 8 in his 3rd week, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid.

Okay. I like that title.

At number 7, I'm not looking deep diving into these titles. Number 7, in its second week, Visiting Hours.

I don't— I have no idea what this is. That does not sound good.

Nope. And number 6, in its 12th week, Porkies.

Ooh, all right.

At number 5, in its 4th week, a Fumbler favorite, Conan the Barbarian.

Yes. Huzzah! By Crom, he did it!

By Crom, he did it! He's still in the top 5, 4 weeks later. At number 4, opening that week, Hanky Panky.

And we're not doing deep dives.

Nope.

No, it's— I think it's another one of those like '80s, uh, yeah, probably like sexy comedies.

Yeah.

Number 3, Poltergeist. Number 2 in its second week, Rocky III.

Oh, nice. Okay.

My favorite of the Rockies.

That's your favorite?

Yeah.

Okay. Also opening that week, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

Ooh, that's another favorite of the, uh, show here. We've mentioned that one a lot.

We've never watched it though. With the assistance of the Enterprise crew, Admiral Kirk must stop an old nemesis, Khan Noonien Singh. from using the life-generating Genesis device as the ultimate weapon. Directed by Nicholas Meyer, stars Shatner, Nimoy, and DeForest Kelley, and also Ricardo Montalbán as Khan.

I watched that semi-recently. I watched the first Star Trek and the second Star Trek.

Wrath of Khan is considered to be like the best of them all, I think, of all the Star Treks. I think—

Some people say— I think I like the first one a little better, but The second one's really good too.

This movie is directed by Tobe Hooper.

Oh, yes.

He has 46 directing credits in TV and film going back to 1959. He did an episode of Tales from the Crypt. He did an episode of Freddy's Nightmares.

Oh, really?

Yep. And movies like Djinn, The Mangler, Spontaneous Combustion, Invaders from Mars. But in 1974, he directed The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Yes, yes.

In 1986, he directed The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2.

Ugh, unfortunate.

The first one, 5 friends head out to rural Texas to visit the grave of a grandfather. On the way, they stumble across what appears to be a deserted house, only to discover something sinister within. Something armed with a chainsaw.

Oh, that doesn't sound so bad.

No. And number 2, a radio host is victimized by the cannibal family as a former Texas marshal hunts them. Stars Dennis Hopper, Caroline Williams, and Jim Sidow.

That second one is a bit— it's a bit much. It's very— it's supposed to be more of a comedy and it's just obnoxious. Oh, really? Yep. Yeah, the first one's really good. First one's amazing.

Uh, the first one was actually almost the choice that I almost picked for, uh, in place.

He is the, the master of near misses.

He almost, he almost picked it. That would have been a good pick though. That's a good movie. I really like that movie. I can't believe he did The Mangler. That's a Stephen King adaptation.

He did a lot of horror. That's like his jam.

The Mangler's supposed— I really like that short story, but I've heard that movie is horrible.

He also did Spontaneous Combustion, and I remember when that came out somewhere, like I was in like grade school, like 5th grade or 6th grade, and there were people that had seen it and they kept talking about it. I was just like, when people just igniting on fire.

I had a, I had a book, I don't remember where. I think my dad gave me this weird book about like the abnormal, like it was one of those like paranormal books where like there's recorded instances of raining frogs and stuff like this, and there's a whole like chapter on spontaneous combustion. That book was like so cool when I was a kid. I read all these things. I just remember being like, and it's like, we're not sure how this happens, but there's scientific proof that this is happening. I'm like, okay.

Reading Little Terry to put him to bed at night.

Yeah. And then going to school going like, hope today's not the day I spontaneously combust.

No, don't do that. Whatever you do.

Yeah.

If I was told that that was a real thing, I would've been worried about that as a child as well.

Yeah. It did cross my mind a few times and Well, hopefully I don't just burn alive randomly. If anything, I want it to be on purpose. I don't want to burn alive randomly.

At least if I'm gonna burn alive, better be like self-immolation and protest for something.

Yeah, to protest. Yeah, like, oh darn it, they didn't give me my chocolate milk in school.

Yeah, if any— that's one of the most compelling reasons to burn yourself alive.

Noble cause.

This movie has 3 writers. First one, Michael Grais. G-R-A-I-S. He has 16 writing credits in TV and film going back to 1976. He did an episode of Starsky and Hutch, an episode of Kojak.

Keith?

No, another one.

He did— he also wrote the movie that was a live-action animation crossover, Cool World.

Oh, oh wow, with Brad Pitt, right?

Brad Pitt, yeah. He also wrote Poltergeist II: The Other Side. But in 1981, he wrote Death Hunt.

Okay.

And that was the one that I was like, I gotta find out what this is.

I know, I wanna know what that is, yeah.

In 1931 Canada, Yukon trapper Albert Johnson has a feud with a dog owner who retaliates by publicly accusing Johnson of murder, Triggering a policeman hunt in the wilderness.

This is called Death Hunt?

Stars Charles Bronson, Lee Marvin, and Andrew Stevens.

He gets in a feud with a dog owner?

Yes. And then the dog owner says, you're a murderer.

I'm a dog owner. That's what I'm known as in 1931.

Yep.

Did he kill one of his dogs or something?

I don't know. That would be a feud, all right.

I'd be feuding about that. Yeah. That's very not what I expected in 1931.

No, me neither.

Canadian.

Like the picture was Charles Bronson. I was like, no.

So, uh-oh, what's Robert being for with this? Yeah.

Yep. The second writer, Mark Victor, he has 13 writing credits going back to 1976, and they are all things that Michael Grayus wrote, including that episode of Starsky and Hutch and that episode of Kojak and Death Hunt.

Nice.

So they work together.

Nobody's, nobody's ever seen the two of them apart.

Yeah, no, but, or in the same place.

That's what I meant. Nobody's ever seen them.

No, they're always together. They're sewed together, I think.

Attached at the hip, them two. The 3rd writer is some guy named Steven Spielberg. He has 28 writing credits in TV, video games, and film going back to 1961. He did 45 episodes of Amazing Stories. He wrote 32 episodes of High Incident. He was the writer slash creator of 7 different Medal of Honor video games.

Really?

Yeah. He also wrote some movies like The Goonies, Disclosure Day, The Fabelmans. But in 1977, he wrote Close Encounters of the Third Kind. An Indiana electric lineman finds his quiet and ordinary daily life turned upside down after a close encounter with a UFO, spurring him to an obsessed cross-country quest for answers as a momentous event approaches. Stars Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, and Teri Garr.

I've never seen that. I've heard it's good.

I watched it earlier this year.

Fantastic. It's a fantastic movie. I haven't seen it in a long, long time, but it is outstanding.

Richard Dreyfuss is is incredible. And it is—

that's top-tier Dreyfuss right there.

Yeah.

And we'd be remiss not to mention he also adapted a Michael Crichton novel. We've mentioned Michael Crichton in the last 2 episodes, so of course he adapted another one.

So yeah, Steven Spielberg. Yeah, he did. I don't know if he wrote— it wasn't on his written list.

Oh, he didn't write it?

Yeah, he directed the old, uh, Jurassic Park, but I assumed— I just went down his 28 writing credits And like 7 of them were Medal of Honor video games.

I didn't know he was so heavily involved in Medal of Honor. That's kind of weird.

Yeah, I remember when that became a thing and they announced it at like E3 and he came out and it was like EA and Spielberg working together and it was this thing.

It would pay off, I guess. No, I'm like, I don't know how good of a story any of those games have.

They're not like eternal because nobody gives a crap in there.

Nobody's placed Medal of Honor—

like Call of Duty's won the war of Yes, Call of Duty, and then followed by, uh, the other one, Battlefront.

Battlefield.

Battlefield. Battlefront is third place.

Yeah, yeah, we'll give that third place. And then, then Medal of Honor, the one who like got lost with time. Yeah, we'll never forget you. Although I did until you said it. Um, I won't forget from now on.

This movie has a bunch of people in it. It stars Heather O'Rourke as the they're here girl. She has 15 acting credits in TV and film going back to 1981. She did an episode of Fantasy Island, an episode of CHiPs, 12 episodes of Happy Days, 3 episodes of Webster, and movies like Poltergeist 1, 2, and 3.

Okay, she's in all of them.

Yes. This movie also stars JoBeth Williams as Diane Freeling. She has 132 acting credits in TV and film. film going back to 1974.

Holy crap.

She did 15 episodes of Guiding Light, 2 episodes of Baby M, 6 episodes of Fish Police.

Okay. Look at that.

It was animated.

Have we mentioned that one before?

Fish Police?

It sounds familiar.

I mean, it was a thing in the '90s after The Simpsons became a thing, and then there was like Family Dog, Fish Police. Critters or whatever, Capital Critters. There's all sorts of animated stuff.

Fish cop, like police people?

Yes.

That are fish? Or is it like—

They don't arrest people, they arrest other fish, I think.

Okay, okay.

It's not like people that are like— not like police officers work in the docks.

Yes, that's what I was imagining. Is it like—

It's animated fish and they're cops.

And they're hunting down other fish that have committed crimes.

Probably. Yeah, I'd never seen a single episode, and even though she did the voices for 6 of them— and if I were to guess, that's all 6 episodes.

I'm guessing there's not many episodes of Fish Police.

No. She did 21 episodes of The Client. And movies like— she was Ginny Sirian in Behemoth. Oh, she was Patricia in Barracuda. Maureen Meeks in Fever Pitch. She reprised her role of Diane Freeling in Poltergeist 2, but in 1983, she played Karen in The Big Chill.

Oh.

A group of 7 former college friends gather for a weekend reunion at a South Carolina vacation home after the funeral of another of their college friends. Stars Tom Berenger, Glenn Close, and Jeff Goldblum.

Nic Cage as the dead body.

Wow, he really came into the role.

The role he was born to play. This movie also stars Craig T. Nelson as Steve Freeling. He has 102 acting credits in TV and film going back to 1970. 7 episodes of The Tim Conway Comedy Hour, 13 episodes of Chicago Story, 89 episodes of The District, 103 episodes of Parenthood. He does the voice of Mr. Incredible in The Incredibles movies and video games and whatever else. Oh, cool. He was Coach in Blades of Glory. He was Alexander Cullen in The Devil's Advocate. He was also in Poltergeist 2. He was Geologist Number 2 in The Formula. But he's probably best known for his 199 episodes as Coach Hayden Fox in the TV show Coach. Hayden Fox is the head coach of university football team and eats, sleeps, and lives football. Stars Craig T. Nelson as the titular coach, Jerry Van Dyke, and Bill Fagerbakke.

Nice. Did I remember that?

Gary, you know what Coach is?

Nope. This is the first time hearing of it.

It's a fantasy sitcom that I watched every damn week. Every week I watched a lot of it.

Yeah, sound like it's iconic.

I don't know if I saw 199 episodes, but I probably saw at least 150.

Pretty good.

Yeah, I thought so. This movie also stars Zelda Rubinstein, or Steen, as Tangina. She has 58 acting credits in TV and film going back to 1979. She did 2 episodes of The Flintstones Comedy Hour, 2 episodes of The Gary Coleman Show. An episode of Whiz Kids, an episode of Mr. Belvedere, 44 episodes of Picket Fences. She was a partygoer in The Addams Family movie. She reprised her role as Tangina in Poltergeist 2 and 3, but in 2002, she played medical examiner in Wishcraft.

Witchcraft? Say wish or wish.

Witchcraft.

Interesting. Okay.

Brett, a smart but unsociable high school kid, receives a strange box in the mail. A note tells him it will give him 3 wishes, but just as his new life is beginning, someone is murdering the popular kids in strange, inventive ways.

What? This is not where I expected this to go.

No. Stars Michael Weston, Alexandra Holden, and Huntley Ritter.

So one kid gets a mysterious box that grants his wishes, and then there's also a murderer running around.

There's also a parallel story where murders are happening.

I wish there wasn't murders going on. There you go.

But if he used that as one of his wishes, that makes sense. Please stop the killings.

There's no, there's no coincidence.

I wish there were murders going on. Oops.

He wishes for mysterious murders to kill his classmates and friends.

Mm-hmm. I think that might be the— what's it called— the like kickoff of the story. He accidentally wishes for the murder of all his friends.

Or it's like the monkey paw. He's like, I wish I was the most popular kid in school. All the rest of the kids get murdered.

They take some real liberties. The genie's like, all right, well, we're gonna have to do some work here.

Yeah, I'm gonna do this the most roundabout way possible. I'm gonna get another guy to kill everybody else.

I'm gonna summon the most dangerous killer of all time to murder every single person.

I wish I had a cool mystery to figure out.

What?

I wish I could be the hero of school. All right, well.

All that and then some. All right, finally, I wouldn't be doing my duty as a fumbler if I didn't at least mention that this movie also features character actor James Caan as Mr. Teague. He has 216 acting credits in TV and film going back to 1948. 73 of those are movies. He was in stuff like Superman Returns, Mulholland Drive, Any Given Sunday, The Return of the Living Dead, The Return of the Living Dead 2.

I love that movie.

But in 1995, he played college president in the remarkably terrible book adaptation that somehow got released into theaters, Congo.

Wow. Michael Crichton is on fire this month.

When an expedition to the African Congo ends in disaster, A new team is assembled to find out what went wrong.

Amazing.

Stars various actors and features an ape doing sign language that is translated in real time by a Nintendo Power Glove.

What? That's what this is about?

I fucking hate that movie.

Come on, it can't be that bad. You said all good things.

So there's an ape. Its name is Amy. The book, quite interesting and a good read. The movie, not so much. Amy does do the sign language, but it has literal like Nintendo Power Gloves that are like have extra Christmas lights on them to make them look like super high-tech. And it does sign language that is translated in real time by the gloves.

That sounds great.

It's terrible, Terry. It doesn't sound great whatsoever.

This is a this is a movie that and I think we brought it in in like the last month or so as well. It popped up in Derek. You mentioned it. This is the movie that literally every episode this month has mentioned Congo, and it it sticks out to me because this is one that I I very much remember seeing with you and another friend of ours and coming literally over last week. And, and you just being so, so upset. And this is, this has stuck with me for like 35 years or whatever it's been since we've originally seen that movie.

1995.

Yeah. And it has just stuck with me the entire time about how much you hate that movie.

Hate it.

Anytime it pops up anywhere, I chuckle a little bit about it.

I haven't, I haven't seen it since. I don't— Never have I.

And I don't want to ever see it again either, but it just makes me laugh every time.

Terry, I will veto it until I am blue in the face. So don't even do it.

Don't even try. You know, don't even try my mind.

I control the wheel. All right, who wants some? Yes, we know that.

We all know that. Yes.

Poltergeist fun facts.

I want some.

The word poltergeist is German for noisy ghost.

That's what it means? Really?

It is.

Huh. What's a quiet ghost called? Whispergeist?

But no, it's probably like, dirten gackeln flügeln sabben Geist. It's just like 75 letters long.

The German has a specific word for it. Like the human language, the English language could never describe this feeling of a quiet ghost, but the Germans have 5 words for it.

A quiet, hardworking ghost. It's— they have all sorts of words for it.

An elegant language.

The movie's line, they're here, was voted as the number 69— nice— movie quote by the American Film Institute.

Wow, they voted for this.

Mm-hmm.

All right, so not even just horror films, just in general, just film lines in general.

And then Murr was like, there were— he begged like a dog, where's that on there?

Oh, it's got to be at least one.

It's at least one. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, never's probably a 3. I think never is—

never is 3. 2 is frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn. 4 is I don't think we're in Kansas anymore. And then 5 is, I'm not your father, or whatever.

That iconic line is, whatever it is. You're my father, I think.

That one gobbledygook from Star Wars. I don't know.

Are you my dad?

Something like that. No.

Both of the terrors that plague Robbie came from some guy named Steven Spielberg's own fears as a child. A fear of clowns And a tree outside his window.

Wow, two iconic childhood fears.

Mm-hmm.

Actually, I was kind of scared of my tree outside my window. The tree ate him.

I'd be afraid of trees too. I assume Steven Spielberg based that in real life.

Yeah, he probably got ate by at least a couple trees.

What about a clown tree?

Now that's a great idea for a film. Clown tree.

It's called that too.

Yeah, we're not covering up anything with this one.

I can already see the, uh, like the poster art where it's like a silhouette of a tree, but it's like a— the leaves are like clown hair.

It's like a little bulbous like growth coming out of its face. Yeah, yeah, it's like, I don't trust that tree for some reason. It pans over and it's just the tree clown makeup all over.

Uh, Heather O'Rourke kept the pet goldfish Carol Anne has in the film.

Hmm, that's nice.

Drew Barrymore was considered for the role of Carol Anne, but producer Steven Spielberg wanted someone more angelic, in quotes.

Wow.

Barrymore's audition got her the role in E.T. So same, same summer, 1982.

They both came out the same year. Wow. Spielberg, he's a busy guy.

He was. The house used to film this movie is located in Simi Valley, California, where it still stands today.

Hmm.

Steven Spielberg offered Tobe Hooper the script for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Hooper declined. Spielberg said, hmm, how about this not yet written script for this film Poltergeist instead? And he said, okay. And Spielberg did E.T. by himself.

He, Tobe Hooper, could have directed E.T.?

Yes.

What an odd—

Meh.

He said meh? Wow. Yeah, that's— I don't want to do it. I hope Hooper ever regretted that.

He did Poltergeist instead. The clown puppet used in the film is currently on display, or at least it was at time of writing, in Planet Hollywood in Caesars Palace, Las Vegas.

Creepy.

Zelda Rubinstein, Stein. Uh, filmed her part in 6 days.

Wow, that's quick.

This house is clean. And then they wrapped.

Yeah.

Time magazine and Newsweek tagged the summer of 1982 as the Spielberg summer because this film and E.T. were released a week apart from one another in June.

I guess it is a Spielberg summer. Can't argue that.

Craig T. Nelson and JoBeth Williams, the parents, Are 15 and 11 years older than Dominique Dunne, who played their teenage daughter.

Wow! Okay.

And then finally, Poltergeist is featured on the famous list from Stephen J. Schneider: A Thousand and One Movies to Watch Before You Die.

There it is. There it is. Wonder if Congo's on there.

Isn't there like a rumor that like Spielberg ended up? actually directing a big chunk of this one.

Yeah, I heard there's some controversy about that, but Spielberg himself, I'm pretty sure, has said no, no, no, it was Tobe Hooper, all, all him. But I don't know.

It says officially Tobe Hooper directed the 1982 film, film which we went over, right? Spielberg co-wrote and produced it. However, whether Spielberg effectively directed the movie is one of Hollywood's most famous and enduring debates.

I like to believe Tobe Hooper did it.

It is a very Spielbergian movie though.

I could see it, but I don't know. I don't know.

And even if, you know, even if he didn't, he's still, you know, gonna go to the grave saying Tobe Hooper did it. Good for him.

Says here, cast and crew— several cast and crew members such as actress JoBeth Williams and assistant cameraman John Leonetti stated that Spielberg acted with dominant creative control and directed many specific scenes.

Well, maybe he did. I mean, he's probably on set quite a bit if he's producing it, so But Spielberg had to write a letter saying, nope, here, he directed it.

The Directors Guild of America was like, something ain't right.

This is suspicious.

I mean, he was on, he was on set for Arachnophobia too. Remember he was driving around the car with—

Yeah, he was in the car with Jonathan Goodman.

Weirdly, he didn't take credit for that one either.

Goodman, yeah. Saying, nobody will know this but me and you.

Yeah. And then the internet when it gets released on IMDb.

And that's what he told Tobe Hooper too. He was hiding there.

No one will know I directed this but me and you.

Tell him to put more energy into the— yeah, to that scene. Nobody will know I told you to say that.

He ran it to him. Spielberg sat on his head under a hat.

He's like underneath his jacket, like sticking his arms through and like, yeah.

Yep. Oh boy.

Ultimate disguise.

The ultimate, the best disguise ever. And with Halloween approaching, it's a, it's a couple's costume idea.

Yes. Who are you supposed to be?

I'm Spielberg and she's Tobe Hooper. I'm maneuvering her around while we direct Poltergeist together.

That's a great idea. It would be very uncomfortable, but, uh-huh, it could be very uncomfortable. It'd be fun for about 5 minutes.

Just long enough to win the costume contest.

Yep.

And frankly, rip myself out of that thing.

There's no way you don't win the costume contest unless, unless somebody goes as sexy Tobe Hooper and sexy Spielberg.

Oh no, I'm gonna get— I'll just— yeah, I'll be so mad if I show up in more formal wear and then someone else shows up and they're like, oh, you're slutty Spielberg? Damn it, I'm not gonna win this.

I showed up to work one time for, uh, for Halloween and I wore a banana costume.

Yeah.

And I was a shoo-in to win, uh, like the little costume contest until this one girl came in as sexy cop and I was like, damn.

Were you the only two that dressed up?

There's banana man and there's sexy cop and you were a shoo-in.

As soon as she walked into the office, it was like, Me and some of the other guys, like, uh, they were all gonna vote for me also. They're like, yeah, I don't think we're voting for you. I'm like, that's fine, I'm not voting for me either. No, I wore a banana costume. I took second place.

Who else was competing?

Other people in my office.

Did you make the banana costume yourself?

No, no, I just bought it.

There's a link.

The store-bought banana costume was gonna win you the costume contest?

Who else was like— who else was everybody dressed as besides—

Nothing, nothing great. Clearly, like, let me just vote.

Like, no dig on the banana costume, but I'm like, come on, was there any creative choices made by anybody? Yeah, it's like a guy with a sheet over his head and said he's a ghost. I wish you would have won, Keith.

Yeah, I— you should have won. What a— what? Oh God, that's a villain's origin story right there.

Oh, Banana Man's origin. He's been leaving banana peels all around the office after that. People dying.

Choking on bananas. It's like, uh, they, they suffocate and they, they pull a whole banana outta their throat with tweezers, much like in Silence of the Lambs when they pull out the cocoon.

Oh yeah.

I, I, I left work, I went out, I, I so upset I got drunk and I fell into a, uh, a vat of toxic, toxic, toxic banana vat.

Banana pudding.

And, and it turned me into, uh, Banana Man.

Yeah, Dark Banana Man, because Banana Man is normally a hero, but then he became Dark Banana.

Yeah, everyone's hero is Banana Man.

Yes, this is arch villain Dark Banana Man.

Same, same banana powers as Banana Man, of course. Yeah, just nefarious and they just, just overripe. Yeah, he's more a little bit too sugary.

He's kind of an anti-hero in some ways, but he just hates normal Banana Man so much.

Yeah, the smell of banana is so much stronger off of of Evil Banana Man.

Oh yeah, you could smell him coming a mile away.

Yeah, skin looks so soft and it bruises easy.

You know, most people don't— aren't happy when they get the bananas in Mario Kart, but Evil Banana Man is so happy.

Thank God. And when you get 3 of them, oh shit.

Oh, Dark Banana Man goes nuts.

Just drops them real fast.

Yeah, I hold on to those for, uh, shield purposes.

Yeah, exactly. You don't want to get a red shell.

It's my contingency plan, is the banana peel.

Yeah. All right, well, we did it. We got here, and I think it's time for us to discuss our viewing of Poltergeist, not directed by Steven Spielberg.

We've come this far.

And it's from the summer of 1982, which has been lovingly dubbed the Summer of Spielberg because he had 2 things come out.

Yeah, he was hot stuff, even though—

even if he's a coward and won't admit to one.

Yeah, he's a coward.

Yes, one of the most cowardly men in all of Hollywood.

In cinema history. Yeah, I'd say so. Lovingly cowardly though. We all love him for it.

Yeah, he's like the lion from Wizard of Oz.

Well, was it scary as bad as you remember, Derek?

No, they made me laugh quite a bit actually.

Oh.

I mean, it's still— yeah, I mean, there are some, there's some legitimate very cool things in this movie. Yes, mostly the little lady that comes in to cleanse the house. She's the best part of the movie.

I really like her. She adds a lot of energy to the movie.

She is the best part of the movie. She's got to be the reason it made as much money as it did, and she fueled 2 sequels.

Yeah, I'm glad she was in the next 2 sequels as well. She deserves—

As the same character. It'd be weird if she came back as a different character though.

Mom wouldn't come back for 3, so she takes over for the mom.

Yep. Hey, Craig T. Nelson didn't come back for 3 either.

So she played mom and dad.

She was a tour de force in that 3rd one.

She was awesome. She's the best part of the movie.

Yeah, I think this is a, uh, of like— because I said we just watched this last year with my, my oldest son because he's just getting into like, you know, wanting to watch horror films, stuff like that. I, I think this is like a really good starter. Like if you have like, uh, if you have like, you know, like a starter like 6-pack of movies to start kids off on horror films, this has got to be right, right up there.

Yeah.

And yeah, I mean, obviously, you know, as being older, it's not, not scary anymore as it was as a kid. But yeah, I mean, this one freaked me out as a kid, and I very much understand all the reasons why. I mean, the clown thing is still creepy in general.

That clown, I'm like, dude, why do you both have this creepy clown in your room? Just get rid of it if it bugs you that bad. Yeah, just get rid of it. Why do you set it up on that chair staring at you every night? Why not just keep it in the closet at all times?

Or just get rid of it. Like, what's— what, uh, relative gave it to you that you can't get rid of it? Like, yeah.

Or just leave the Chewbacca blanket on it the whole time. Like, there's so many solutions. Why does this clown keep getting loose and sitting on the back of the chair just staring at you?

Put it in a box, light it on fire.

Yeah, get rid of that.

Clown. I— and I'm not even a person that's like, oh, clowns are creepy. That doll is creepy.

That clown is creepy though, that one in particular.

Yeah, I'm imagining his arms. It belongs to— it belongs to, uh, the daughter because she's also there at the end. She's sleeping with the decapitated baby as well.

Yeah, the daughter just puts the, the clown and makes it stare at her brother while he sleeps. Yeah, he'll protect you.

She's a tormentor. Yeah.

He's gonna watch you as you sleep and make sure you sleep well.

Oh, it's got those long-ass arms and long-ass fingers.

He's like Slenderman but part clown.

Yeah, yeah, it's a terrifying thing there in the first place, let alone just get rid of it. And that's even without it, you know, actually doing anything late in the later part of the movie, trying to choke the life out of him and drag him under the bed.

That poor kid's got the clown in front of him when he's trying to sleep, and to his left is the most horrifying tree in existence.

Yeah.

Yes. That is— now that legit like scared the crap outta me as a kid. The tree.

That tree. The tree. Pretty cool.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

There's some good imagery with that.

The best part, like in, so in rewatching it this time, and I, I'm probably just taking more mental notes to talk about with you guys as opposed to when I watched it with my, my family like a year ago, is just like, he's traumatized. This tree has just tried to eat him.

Yeah.

And all of a sudden it's like everyone just bails on him to go find, go find Carol Anne.

Yeah.

And he's just standing there like, uh, still coated in tree slobber. Yeah. Yeah. He's, uh, he's sap, you know, he's completely freaked out and everyone is running and they're jumping into the half-built pool, uh, making sure she didn't fall in there. They're just everything possible.

And he's just like, uh, I almost got eaten by a tree, everyone. Yeah. At least one person stay with me. Please make me sure I don't get eaten again.

He's gotta go to therapy, but it's not for the tree. It's the fact that nobody bothered to like really check in on him much afterwards. They all ran around looking for—

And they just put him in a cab and sent him off. Yeah.

Send him away. Probably tell him some sort of like— Oh my God.

That was the other crazy part. That's definitely an '80s thing right there. Like they put him and they sent the dog too, but there's no adult going with him. It's just throw him in a cab and go.

Where's he gonna go?

He's going to grandma's.

Yeah.

Or he's going to the, uh, the hotel down the one road that for some reason the daughter knows all about.

So this movie has a few moments that are like that, that feel like, because you got, uh, mom and dad getting stoned.

Yep.

I'm like, oh, this is a PG movie. It's kind of progressive.

There's some stuff in here PG I'm like shocked with, like the face melting off.

Yes. So that's the one that scared the crap outta me as a kid. But then I watched it today. It's like, oh, that doesn't even look like a, a real head.

Yeah. Yeah. The one where—

is that the, the one where he's peeling the stuff off his face? Yeah. That the, well, the, the maggots in the, uh, the maggots in the chicken wing is creepy as can be.

But then he goes in the bathroom and then, then I was like shocked that it wasn't Craig T. Nelson.

I assumed that's who, uh, I thought it was too, that him. I thought that was him too. Yeah.

It ends up being just some guy.

Random guy.

Yeah. Who doesn't—

who does not come back.

No. Well, I would leave too, to be honest.

Yeah. I'm outta here.

I think I'm done with my face peeling.

Also, by the way, you're, you're there and you're hanging out at these people's house and then he's just like, hey man, I'm gonna go get something to eat.

Mm-hmm.

He goes in, he's like, decides, ah, you know what? They got a nice little steak in here. I'm gonna make, make myself a whole meal.

No, the steak was just on the counter. He was eating a chicken leg.

He took the steak outta the refrigerator too. He was gonna cook it and he's like, looked around and all of a sudden then he looked back and the thing was like exploding from the inside.

I thought that was just on the counter.

No, he, he took it out. He, he opened up the refrigerator, grabbed the chicken thing, and then grabbed the, this, the steak and then threw it on the counter. I, I get you're staying at their house and all, but like, maybe ask. You're gonna take, you're gonna take this like, like middle of the night meal prep, uh, that you're gonna do here is you're gonna make a steak?

Like, Now I appreciate the fact they didn't show us like every moment along the way. Like, they could have come with their own groceries.

That's true. We never see them. We don't know. I would assume they would be polite and bring their own supplies.

If I am random microphone holder or whatever he was for this par— paranormal, uh, investigation, and they're like, bring Food. I would not bring a steak.

No, no.

I would bring a steak. I'd bring sandwich stuff, chips.

Oh God, so many chips.

Also, also, he's just finishing eating that bag of chips and then walks away. Hey man, I'm gonna go get something to eat.

He's a hungry guy. He's a grown boy.

Yeah, look, I'm gonna eat all I can. Tomorrow might not never come.

That's right. I'm in a haunted house. I promise. That's why today is a gift. The present is a gift.

And so is the steak and this chicken leg and these chips. I'm gonna eat as much as I can because who knows, maybe my face will peel off the next day. Oh wait, yeah, then as soon as I start eating, yeah, you never know. I'm not coming back after that, that's for sure. That's probably the best part of the movie for me is that, that face getting peeled off.

Yeah.

It does look, it does look fake, but it's still pretty gross.

When I was a kid, it terrified me, and that was the moment I said, I'm done. I'm done with this, uh, loud, noisy ghost. Can't do it.

I'm gonna say this. I you said that negative review from BBC. They kind of like where he says like this film is built to be annoying or something. Yeah, I don't think I would go that far, but I do feel like I kind of get where he's coming from, where it's kind of like just a variety show of weird things. It is that yes, and it's not consistent, and I'm like I do get kind of tired of it after a while, where I'm just like okay, what new weird thing's gonna happen next? I I I feel like it's a little too long. I don't know, I feel like it could just be tied up a little bit because I really like the beginning. It really sets up the family well, like the mom and dad getting stoned. It kind of builds the relationship like, oh, that's— they're like, they still love each other. It seems like they're, you know, they're friendly, they take care of the kids. The goldfish thing's really nice. But then after that, I feel like I lose a lot of the emotional, like, feelings because everything just keeps dragging on and on.

I liked The chair part.

Yes. Yes.

And when Craig T. Nielsen comes home and the wife's just like losing it, it's like, watch this, you know, they've been— they could have been doing this chair thing all day.

Yeah, she's doing her own like science experiment. They got the ground marked up and everything like that. That was cool.

It reminded me a lot of Richard Dreyfuss from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. So there's like this discovery stage, you know? Yes. Like, oh, we're haunted, man. Maybe it's kind of like a friendly haunting, you don't know. And then the attack— I like that, right? The tree attacks, girl gets sucked into the in-between or whatever.

I like all that.

Then we get like, oh, the, the orbs and then— Yeah. The thing walking down the stairs and Uh, there's lots of, lots of things that happen.

It's just like, it really does like drag. Like, after that point, you're right, that's where I feel like it's just like a lot of weird stuff happens. But then once that Zelda lady shows up, yes, that's when it gets back together. It's like, just start with her, bring her in.

She doesn't show up until much later in the movie than I remember also.

Yeah, like the last 25 minutes.

Why didn't they call— like, she should be in charge of this paranormal team and she should be the first one they called.

And she, she declares the house clean and there's still 15 minutes left in the movie.

Yeah, I did not remember that the whole house basically explodes.

I love that the house implodes on itself.

Yeah, the ending was cool. I like the ending too a lot.

I didn't like the caskets erupting out of the ground like the last level of a video game where you gotta like— it's like Mario, like you gotta wait for the, the Thwomps to like land and then go back up so you can run past them. That's what it felt like. Like, oh, I can't get through, there's a casket and a corpse in it. It's like, you've seen so much stuff, just push the corpse out of the way and go.

Like, that's the least of your worries is this corpse. Just push it. I know it's gross, but this guy's face peeled off earlier. You went into an ooze-filled plane of existence no one's ever been before. That's fine. Just get out of the house.

before it implodes on you.

The corpse has already been disrespected enough. If you push it around, it's probably not gonna mind.

It's— yeah, it's not gonna continue to— it's not gonna— the haunting's not gonna follow you. This is not The Grudge.

Oh God, could you imagine if it was The Grudge ghosts? The million of those things? No, I'm not going either.

Just follows the family everywhere.

I definitely think if they're going to trim something down, they— I think they kind of could have explained the whole Cause of it being you know the fact that they just kind of tore up the headstones for the.

They did explain that.

He explains it by showing him the other plot that he wants to move him to and stuff. I think they probably could have done without that and found a different way to explain like what happened. Like like you're saying, it's a little long. That's like one of the more like eh. Like Craig T Nelson is like he's not feeling very good because he hasn't slept you know very much in days and they're. you know, worried about the kid and all. And this guy's like, come on, come with me, let's go do this whole thing.

And then let's go walk for like 2 miles. He's like, yeah, I know you don't feel good, but let's go walk over here.

I mean, it's like a 5 to 10 minute section that I think they could have figured out a different way to explain what the, the people did without— sure, doing that whole thing again.

You know what else they could have got rid of as well, and I would not— it would not have changed the movie one iota.

What?

The 5-minute feud with the neighbor and the TV and the football game and the Striders.

Yeah. Yeah. That doesn't, it doesn't add anything. Also, that would be so, I mean, outside of just being annoying that that would happen, I like it. Well, it doesn't come, it doesn't, there's no payoff to it in the end. It's not like it's except what, that they go over there and ask 'em later on if they think, if anything, if they've seen anything weird or heard anything weird.

Yeah, because they think maybe it's something, you know, and they just laugh at him, right? They go over there and just laugh at him in his face. Like, it's pointless. And what— not only is it pointless, but it's impossible. I do not— I know all remote controls weren't run on infrared. They were— they run on like audio frequency, much like a garage door opener. There's no way that people were getting shipped remote controls with that are powerful enough to change the neighbor's TV set.

Yeah, you think they would have thought that through.

It's not an apartment complex. There's like the rest of a house, yard, another person's house, right? Like, it just— it's not gonna happen that way.

I guess that the 2 TVs are at the closest possible parts that they could be in the house. Like, because he's like, you move your TV, and he goes, no, you move your TV. So like, it, you know, coaches TV is all the way on the one— is all the way on the one side of the house. The other guy's is all the way that— so they're just like the walls in between them. But yeah, it still doesn't make, uh, much sense. And then when they bring him back later, they're like, come on, you— I need your help. Come in, help me get— like, you didn't need him there. Like, yeah, him and his wife is like, don't go in that house. What are you doing? Like, it—

Yeah, I think you gotta show the neighbors just a little bit so when they come and pull wife out of the, uh, corpse-filled pool, and they don't react to the corpses in any way. They just pull the woman out. They're like, are you okay? I'm like, no, I was just in a bunch of rainwater with, you know, rotting corpses.

Did you not see them? Yeah, I gotta go to like the hospital, make sure I'm clean now. Yeah, there's—

I gotta get all sorts of shots now.

I'm not okay, and I won't be okay for many years.

Yeah. My goddamn hair's white.

It's all these corpses. Yeah, I don't know if you noticed, but yeah, this house is full of corpses. Your house probably should be full of corpses too because this whole place was a graveyard.

Yeah, and they didn't remove the bodies.

Once they, uh, once they're done being loud noisy ghosts in our house, they're moving right next door. Yeah, do you think that—

do you think they're all just going one by one down each house like, all right, next, we got one out of here, let's get the next house out of here?

It's like Paperboy but Poltergeist, right? They're just riding down and shooting a newspaper, haunting that one house, ignore the next one.

I think that's what's gonna happen. It's gonna be like a 10-year process just getting each house out of there.

But only on one side of the street.

Oh God, then I have to do it all over again.

Wanted more legit spooky things. And then so they had this like portal to wherever that had tentacles coming out of it at the end. Cool.

Like, yes, good visuals there.

The weird demon dog thing that roared like a lion. Yeah, wasn't a fan of that.

Yeah, I feel like sometimes, like, I know this is kind of a PG, like, like Keith said, kind of an entry-level horror kind of thing, which, you know, it has its place, but to me it's a little like too bombastic at times.

Mm-hmm.

I guess where it's like it doesn't— it feels like a kind of like a Oh, I don't know. I guess it is kind of like a haunted house, like, tour, like in real life kind of thing.

Where it's like, felt like an amusement park haunted house.

Look at all these effects that we can do. Wow, now these things are floating. Wow, now the clown's killing people. Wow, now the tree— you know, like, it feels like they're just like, they had all these ideas, it doesn't matter if it makes sense or not, we're just gonna do them. And it's like a big, big spectacle Spielberg style, which you know, he produced it, so it makes sense. But it's like, it needs— I, I like my horror a little more like personal and a little more like gritty and dark. And this is much more like bright lights and flashing and like CGI, well, whatever you would call it back then, like floating plates and lights and stuff. Yeah, it's just too much, I think, for me.

And at the end, I think one of the more frightening, like, personal moments, like you're talking about, Terry, is at the end when the mom gets in bed and then she's like flipped around the room.

Yeah.

That was cool as hell.

It's awesome. And that's like the most simple effect compared to everything else they've done. And that's like one of the creepiest parts. It's like Freddy Krueger style.

Yeah. And when she gets in the bath, I'm like, something's gonna happen in the bath. It's gonna happen in the bath. No, nothing happened in the bath. Not because I wanted to see naked mom, but like you think something— like she's very— like because she's super vulnerable there, right?

She's exposed. She's like locked in there and locked in a room.

The children are by themselves. Yeah, nothing happened.

Oh, the ending is good. I feel like that's a lot— like, it's a little more toned. Even with the corpses flying out everywhere, it still feels a little more toned down than the rest of the movie. And like, the clown is creepy enough. Like, that's a good moment. Sometimes I'm just like, come on. Like, it's almost— I don't want to say it's like totally eye-rolling. They're just like, yep, okay, here some bright lights and demon dog. Okay, now yeah, the lamp's flying around. Cool.

Coming at you again. All right, hell, did we do it, boys? Did we get through Poltergeist from the summer of Spielberg of 1982?

Oh God, did we ever.

I think we did. I think we did. What'd we think of Poltergeist from the summer of Spielberg 1982?

I love this movie.

Yeah.

It's a bit of a nostalgic thing probably as well, but like, I, I like— this hits a lot of like perfect notes for me on— again, I've obviously graduated to scarier movies or whatever, but like it just hits a lot of notes, like things I really enjoyed, um, throughout the entire thing. Things that you guys— Not like a few of the things, uh, but for the most part, like there's— again, the, the tree scared the crap outta me when I was a kid.

Mm-hmm.

The weird steak thing and the maggot drumstick and all it. All those things, you know, they don't hit the same as when you're a kid, but they're still like, man, that— okay, those were the things that really got me back then. And I, I just, I really enjoyed all this. And again, the, um, the lady at the end, Tangerine or whatever her name is, uh, like she steals the show. Tangerine? Whatever her name was.

Zelda? The actress's name is Zelda. I don't know.

Actress's name is Zelda.

Yeah. What's the, what's her character name? Hold on, hold on.

Her name is not Tangerine. Her name Tangina.

Okay.

Oh, you're actually pretty close.

You had a syllable correct, Keith. But Tangina.

Um, but, uh, yeah, I mean, she's off, she's off.

Come on.

Uh, but, uh, yeah, I mean, overall, I really— and again, watched it like a year ago, watching it again now, I This is one of my more favorite movies.

Wow.

From that time period. So it's obviously, it's a, it's an '80s movie. It's a Spielberg summer movie. And, you know, it fits all the bill there.

So yeah, it's— I think it's okay. I just, I feel like it's a little too— it is maybe like too Spielberg-y. Like, you know, Jaws is a great example of him doing a tense horror thing. And this, I feel like he's kind of— well, like we said, he didn't direct this, he produced it. But it has that certain flair of his more blockbuster, like, uh, bombastic, like crowd pleasing, I guess. And it feels like to me it could be a little— tone it down a little bit, focus more on the horror. But, you know, I hear stories all the time, even my friends, they're like, Poltergeist, it's one of the greatest. It's a great intro to horror. And I, maybe I missed the boat, you know, I don't have that nostalgia because I watched it more recently, but. It's not bad. It's just kind of, um, there's other things out there I would much rather watch, I guess.

Yeah, I think it's a real good movie. I do think it is too long. I agree with Terry that there's— it just feels like they just keep trying to do one-up the haunted house, not theme of a haunted house, but like the— it is, you know, you pay $12 to walk through a haunted house and stuff jumps on you.

Yeah, you know, it's like that.

It's much like Disney's Haunted House. Yeah. If you— yeah, you ride that, you watch stuff float around, and there's— frightens little children, but adults, you know, laugh at it sort of thing. And it kind of has that here. There's a few fun— not funny, a few scarier-ish sorts of moments, even though when I watch it now, like, the stuff that terrified me as a child doesn't terrify me now because it's Clearly fake, right? But I like it. It's still a good movie. Am I am I still a coward? No, I'm not a goddamn coward. Young me was just a pathetic, pathetic weakling.

There's never any doubt there. We all knew you were brave.

Thank you, Terry.

Your cousin's listening to the show.

I doubt that, and I'm not gonna tell him to either.

Good, good.

We'll not do that.

All right, don't tell anybody listen to the show.

No, promote the show. Are you crazy?

I believe in like the— what's it called— like natural marketing where it's just something out there and like somebody's my fingers. Yeah, maybe hopefully somebody will Google Poltergeist and they'll scroll down 500, you know, entries into the Apple Podcasts and they'll find us.

I go listen to it at work and I hit it. I forgot to put my headphones out all the time. I'll be like, oh, my bad, oops.

Oh, you do that?

Yeah.

What's this terrific enchanting Podcast I'm listening to.

Wow, that guy sounds familiar. That's weird.

All right.

Well, we know what we thought. What did internet have to say? Well, on August seventh of two thousand and eighteen, Steve Vip, Steve Vip, S T E V I P P had this to say. Perfect. Perfect. This is my fave all-time horror film. I saw it in the cinema as a teenager in the '80s and was traumatized. The music— oh, I didn't talk about— I hated the music in this movie.

Too much.

It was too adventure-y. It wasn't like spooky. The music sets the tone. And like, it was just too lighthearted at times. The music, acting, and special effects were overwhelming on the big screen and it still holds up well. I like the plot structure also where you think it's all over at the end but it all starts up again. A really warm and human horror film with amazing acting all around. You really get a sense of family life and the connection between the characters. The music is a masterclass and really adds to the whole effect. Sure, some of the special effects look a little clunky, but it's better than some of today's CGI nonsense. Oh no. The idea of the girl being pulled into a portal in the closet and only being able to be heard via the TV signal is really clever and a really clever way of embedding supernatural events in the middle of a domestic setting.

Hmm.

The remake of the film was an abomination. No one should watch it. A real wasted opportunity. If they want to remake this film, they should stick closely to the book of the film, which was also really good and a different take on the whole proceedings.

There's a book?

I'm assuming he's talking about the novelization of the movie.

That took a lot of changes from the movie? Like, I guess they usually like Words forward.

Yeah. Anyway, one found that helpful, two not so much. 10 out of 10.

All right, well, I forgot about the remake, so that's a good point.

Stay away from the remake.

It is, uh, I, I will say, like, again, it's— I'm not gonna say it's probably not even my top 10 favorite horror films. I'm not a huge horror film guy, but I mean, it, it's definitely not number one.

But you just called it one of your all-time more favorite Films.

Yeah, one of my all-time favorite horror films.

But you just said it's not even a top 10 horror film for you.

The amount of movies I've seen this year alone, let alone in my life, it is very hard not to say something's not like my top films and not be referencing like, like top 50, like 200 movies.

Oh, 200. Okay.

Oh, this is definitely not my top 50. No.

Of horror movies?

No, of horror films, yes. It's like probably It might be my top 10.

Okay.

You just—

but not movies in general.

Okay. Sounds good. Not to be outdone, on December 29th, 2013, Iron Maiden Rules 2000 had this to say.

Yes! I love this.

What a waste of time. I watched this movie hoping it would be scary since it's very famous and everyone was telling me I should watch it. So I started out pretty well, then it just went downhill. I mean, a tiny lady with helium voice and a little clown doll? Come on.

Those are the best parts.

The story isn't even trustworthy.

I like that.

The story isn't even trustworthy? Steven Spielberg helped write it. What do you mean not trustworthy?

And nothing scary happens at all. I can't believe how this is considered as a horror movie. One of the worst movies I have ever seen. The scariest thing about this film is that it got 2 sequels. That just gives me the creeps, considered how crappy this movie was. I give it 1/10, but if I were able to give it 0/10, believe me, I would.

Wow.

My advice, if time is precious to you, then stay away From this garbage. Wow, 47 found that helpful, 50 not. Wow, 1 out of 10, neck and neck, right on the heels.

Iron Maiden rules 2000. I was all on board, but you're pretty harsh. I do like the, the story is untrustworthy. That's an interesting way to put that.

That's a weird, that's a weird comment to say about A movie, especially one that's like not based on a true story type thing.

Like, it kind of like saves the whole review for me. I just love that phrase so much. Like, I want to start using that.

Did you find this movie trustworthy? No, I did not.

No, it is.

It's a whole new metric I never considered when I watch a film. Is this trustworthy?

No. The trustworthy meter. The trust trustworthy-o-meter. Oh boy. Yeah, we did it. We got through the first 3 dubs of this M, and you know what that means.

Oh, I'm clamoring at the bit.

It's time to go to that goddamn wheel. Ugh. So what we do— what we did is we took each— took a movie that was brought up in a deep dive or mentioned across the month, and we each put them onto our magical wheel. Along with a Spin Again, and I doubled that up a few times to make the wheel look a little more robust and full, but it's just our 3 movies that we chose, uh, plus Spin Again. So Keith, this is your month. What did you choose for the wheel?

Uh, let's close it out, uh, in spooky season fashion with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

All right, Terry, what'd you put on that wheel?

I had the same thought. Let's close it out with the Halloween special, another Tobe Hooper classic, The Mangler.

And you know what I said? Let's make this spooky season more spooktacular. And I chose Black Phone. So they're on there. Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Mangler, Black Phone, along with a Spin Again doubled up a few times to make the wheel look big and full. I am going to click on the wheel to spin it as soon as one of you says go ahead and spin that wheel.

Go ahead and spin that wheel.

There it goes.

Oh, you're vetoing it?

Yep, Keith is vetoing. He's using his veto for Black Vote.

All right, that's gonna be a mistake if it lands on Mangler.

Keith, you vetoed, so tell me when to spin.

Spin. What?

I am— it's on Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I'm going to veto it because I just watched it recently.

Damn it, I just watched it recently.

Wow, might be a little vengeful, but who knows. Uh, all right, spin it again.

I heard the spider voice.

Terry, no matter what pops up, you gotta veto.

Nope, it's gonna go land on The Mangler.

Why would I veto if it's— wow, I can't believe we skipped 2, uh, critically liked films for The Mangler, guys.

If I veto my own pick Look, it's a present somebody else has already said before.

Oh my goodness, we're watching The Mangler. The Tobe Hooper— is that his name?

Yep.

The Tobe Hooper classic, The Mangler.

It's pretty, uh, I'm shocked it landed on The Mangler, but hey, that's what I picked.

It's there. It's got, uh—

We had plenty. At first I was gonna say it's my fault. But now I think we can firmly say it's, uh, 2 other people's fault before mine.

Yeah. And did I do it out of spite? A little bit, because Texas Chainsaw Massacre is pretty awesome movie, but I literally just watched that that long ago.

So yeah, I only vetoed yours because I hadn't watched Texas Chainsaw Massacre in quite a while, and I'd never even heard of The Mangler before.

Well, I didn't choose— it didn't land on The Mangler.

No, I'm saying like, no, I, I vetoed yours because I've actually watched yours recently. Versus the other, the other 2. That's the only reason I did it. It wasn't spiteful or anything.

Okay.

Well, mine wasn't me being upset that you get a lot of the picks. That actually hasn't happened that much this year. No, because I keep getting freaking vetoed.

That's like the 5th time I've been vetoed.

But at least, I mean, that this is a much better— The Black Phone is a much better option than Green Lantern or, uh, You say that.

All right, we did it, boys. We got through the 3 scariest goddamn weeks I've ever experienced in my life.

No, we're not cowards anymore.

Yeah, you're right. I still am a little bit. And then we're on to the terrifying The Mangler. With a name like that, it's got to be scary.

It does. The short story was good. I remember reading that.

I mean, it literally tells you what he does right in the title.

What do you think he does? Oh yeah, he probably does do a little bit of that.

He better— he better do nothing but mangle for like 90 minutes or however long this movie is.

I was looking at the DVD artwork and at first I thought it was Art Lewis on the COVID but it was Robert Englund.

I thought that too.

I was like, is that Grandpa Munster?

I thought that same thing.

Grandpa Munster is the Mangler. I was like, yes he is. What was that vampire movie we watched? That thing was so bad.

Oh, my grandpa.

My grandfather's a vampire?

Yeah, something like that.

Classic.

A classic of some variety. I don't know if it's like one that you want to remember ever.

I pray to forget that every night.

All right, well, we did it, boys. We got through the month and we're on to The Mangler, and we're gonna see how that treats us. I'm sure very, very well. Very, very well. And there's multiple. I don't want to step into deep dive, Terry, but there's a Mangler Two and a Mangler Reborn.

What?

Yes.

Next month gonna be Mangler Month?

It might be the month of mangles.

Yeah, mostly. Yeah, most of your months are mangled, Terry.

Hey. Hey indeed. Tick tick tick. All right, well, I guess we're here, and that leaves us in a situation where we have nothing to do but to end this the way we end everything.

Yep, everything must end.

In the race for the world's most advanced communications technology, a shocking discovery has been made. What was that?

Lock your remote, give me a thermal reading result to 66.

It will take 2 young scientists into the heart of the African jungle, where a secret hidden for 2,000 years holds the key to the future.

This is Karen Ross, 81452 Houston, do you read?

You used to work for the CIA, and now you're a travel guru.

Some will come to it for science. This is a big deal, Charles.

This is a big find.

Some for fortune.

A diamond mine of incredible bounty.

And some to return home.

She doesn't really belong anywhere, does she?

No, she belongs here.

Together they will search.

My boss, he thought I wasn't gonna make it. He sent another expedition.

Drawn deep into a mystery.

Camp destroyed, people dead, a great gorilla.

There's no such thing as a gray gorilla.

I saw one.

And the more they discover— The same hieroglyphics over and over. The greater the danger. What do they say?

We are watching you.

Help me! Help me!

Is that Bruce Campbell?

I look like him.

I never saw any animal move like that.

Shoot it! Shoot it!

How intelligent are they?

See, they're smart. They're too damn smart. Watch out! Go!

We're getting out of here. What about them?

Put them on the endangered species list.

From the best-selling novel by the author of Jurassic Park.

The myth of the killer ape is true.

Congo, where you are the endangered species.

Thanks for listening to Fumbling Through Film. New episodes drop every Thursday. Got feedback or questions? Email us at [email protected]. You can see our films to fumble before you tumble into the grave and other musings on Letterboxd at Fumble Through Film. The through is You can also follow Keith on Instagram @kg3030lives and on Letterboxd @kg3030. Terry is on Letterboxd @terry2099. Derek is on Letterboxd @derek9. All original music is done by the Dr. Dre of Kansas, Terry, so hit him up for them bangers. Our new podcast logo is done by the delightful and talented Sanjay Vicky Nayak. You can find her on Instagram Eikstein. That's Einstein with a K in there. We'll see you next week as we keep on fumbling!