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Author
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Topic: Poltergeist (4X600ft) SCOPE STEREO Derann
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted February 07, 2008 01:39 PM
I was suprised to see that this film has not been reviewed up to this point. There are four films that I always needed for my Super 8 collection; Star Wars, Close Encounters, Alien, and Poltergeist!!
This film is, in my opinion, the most brilliant mixture of Horror and thriller. It's not in the category of blood soaked monsters or "hack Jobs" (such as Jason, Freddy Krueger, ect), but in genuine suspense.
Directed by one of the modern masters of the Genre (Tobe Hooper and some suspect, partially directed by producer Steven Speilberg), this was Tobe at his high point, (some would debate that statement.) and it is a perfect blending of special effects and story.
STORY
Once upon a time, there was a happy family in a happy suburb. Thier life is as any family life of the early 80's.
Then, the daughter starts talking to the TV.
At one point, when she hears the "TV People" (as she calls them) talking to her, a giant "electric/'ectoplasmic" hand lunges from the TV at her, then an earthquake and bolts of lighting pierce through the wall above thier heads, from the TV.
"They're Here", proclaims the darling little girl.
We then see more and more bizzare incidents happening in the home. In my favorite, the mother, moments before, sees the kitchen table as it always is, she turns back no more than five seconds later, (a great low tech special effect!), as well as "sliding across the floor". At first, the wife is amused by all this.
Then, on one fateful night, the devil comes to call. The father tries to comfort his son by saying, "Just count down each time the thunder booms, the more time between each count, the farther away the storm is. "
The storm seem to be going away. Then, all hell breaks loose. The tree outside the childrens room comes to life,
(as well as a clown doll that tries to kill the son) trying to eat the son, and while they are trying to rescue the son, the daughter is taken by the "TV People". Now, all they can hear is thier daughters voice through the TV.
They decide to get some super natural specialists to inspect thier odd home. They inspect and record on video, the passages of many ghosts and such on film. (In a very memorable sequence, one of the inspectors hallucinates a crawling, oozing steak, come to life, spewing out maggots, and then he proceeds to claw his very face off!). At one point, (also quite memorable) the mother contacts her daughter on the other side, only to hear, above thier heads the hard stomping/running after the daughter, who is screaming, EXCELLENT!)
They know that they are in over thier heads, and get the
help of a specialist in ghosts with a history in "cleaning" a house. She quickly discovers that there are a great many ghosts trapped on this plain, being held back by none other than "beelzebub" himself!! He is holding thier daughter captive because, being that she is alive on thier plane of existence, she has a natural living "light" (spirit), and the dead souls are drawn to her light instead of the light that leads them to paradise.
(Meanwhile, the father finds out that thier very house is built on the site of a old graveyard ... but they didn't remove the bodies!)
Having explained all of this, they then proceed to ready themselves to get that girl back out!! The wife goes into the other plane after her daughter and after much trial, she does get her back.
"This house ... is clean."
They get ready to move from the house, packing up thier belongings. they decide to stay one more night.
Big mistake!
The house goes totally haywire, with some of the STILL to this day, excellent special effects, (one, which I guess I would describe as a long haired "devil dog"), caskets popping out of the ground and the bodies falling all over, (as well as a nice and creepy slide into a mud filled pool outside, and bodies floating up to greet her!).
They get out of the house just in time, as the house actually manages to "implode", (one of the truly baffling to me as well as incredible special effects ever caught on film!!!!)
They are safe.
They drive away, going to a hotel to stay and, having arrived, quickly move the TV out into the lobby of the hotel!
THE END
As stated earlier, this is an amazing film and is a true testiment to what makes a great horror film. There are sub genres to horror, and this one tops it's specific list.
This print, though I have listed it as "Derann, is actually a "kempski" print, but I believe that Derann, when they bought out Kempski, recieved all thier prints of this.
COLOR
Being that this was printed on Eastman L.P.P., this print has amazing color, and unfaded color at that.
SHARPNESS
As with all of Kempski's prints, the print is pin sharp, with a focus rivaling anything produced by Derann, ect. The contrast on this print is magnificent as well, no scenes are "black" and none are washed out. This is quite a feat, as this print has many a bright as well as dark scenes, and would be a hard print to get just right. Excellent.
SOUND
Ny print is in STEREO, and it is full spectrum, perfectly balanced, and what I have heard from others who own this film, the story is the same.
I do not know if Derann still has any new prints of this left, but this is most definitely a keeper for your collection.
NOTE: Red Fox films released a flat (not scope) version of this feature as well, and judging from the screen captures I have seen, is just as good all nearly all marks but, alas, is not in scope, and this is one film that you'd much rather have in all it's horrifying scope!
LONG LIVE SUPER 8!!
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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James N. Savage 3
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1375
From: Washington, DC
Registered: Jul 2003
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posted February 08, 2008 06:25 AM
Thanks for the review Osi!
I am a long-time owner of the Red Fox (flat) print. When I purchased it in 1984, I was amazed at the beautiful quality. There are a few kitchen scenes that seem to have just a touch of grain, but very slight.
The sound on the Red Fox print is, for the most part, excellent (mono). There are a few talking scenes where the dialog is a little unclear, but the music comes out wonderfully.
I happened to work in the cinemas when this movie ran first-run, so was able to watch it in scope many times. There are several "jump" scenes in POLTERGIEST that work very in the scope format, but fall short in the flat format.
Two examples:
The scene where Jobeth Williams is walking around in the kitchen, and suddenly, the chairs are stacked on the table.
This scene created a perfect, subtle "shock" in widescreen. As Ms. Williams reacts to the event, we (the audience) react. But, in flat, the chairs do not come into view at the precise moment of the reaction. Also, the pan/scan movement takes away from the moment. Timing is EVERYTHING in this scene, and the slightest variation hurts the effect.
Another scene that suffers is, when the little girl (Heather O'Rourke) is in front of the T.V., and the ghostly apperation comes out and jumps at her. This scene was very frightening in the scope format, but again, falls short in flat.
In spite of these shortcomings, this had been one of my most requested repeat-showing super 8 films for many years.
A very good choice for scope, Osi. My hat off to you.
I keep hoping Derann will release a nice scope extract from POLTERGIEST. Maybe someday ![[Cool]](cool.gif) .
James.
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Tom Photiou
Film God
Posts: 4837
From: Plymouth U.K
Registered: Dec 2003
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posted October 31, 2017 04:26 PM
This is a film I would have loved to have found in scope, however, a call out on the other channel resulted in a PM from a collector who was in Australia. A price was given and I was happy to get a print of this well known release for a good normal price.
The collector even said if I was able to wait a couple of months he was visiting the UK so he could bring it over and post within the UK thus saving me a fair amount in shipment. What more could I ask?
Upon receiving it there were two things I have to mention,
1/ most important, the quality is up there with the best, superb colours and excellent sound.
2/ BUT, what I didn’t realise at the time of first showing was “that Elmo lamp problem” was haunting me for a second time, the problem is that I didn’t realise it as this was my first showing of this film so upon the first viewing I thought, “I’m not sure what everyone’s harping on about, the image seems dull”.
This was all earlier in the year. Since then, I pulled out the lamp housing and had a modification made and now everything is A1, and with the new design, like other collectors with 1200s, I can simply replace the bulb sockets very simply if it goes again. And this modification is a Bill Parsons mod so its made to line up and fit correctly using the original bracket but modifying the way the bulb fits in there and does away with that spring and contact idea.
As for this print, being Halloween I decided to show it to myself as Brothers away etc.
Print, very good, no problems at all,
Colours, A1 , clean natural vibrant colours & no fade what so ever,
Condition, A-, just the lightest and thinnest of black line appears once or twice for a few feet, if i had to be really picky, the only thing i could mention is at the start of reels 3, 4 5 & 6 there is around 5 seconds of negative sparkle, but not really worth mentioning.
This is a red fox print but it must be either Agfa or LPP, there is no blue tint on this and its every bit as good as any Derann print I have seen, supplied originally on 6 x 400ft spools and now on two Elmo 1200ft metal spools.
This had to be one of the best ghosty movies on 8, if you can find it I would highly recommend it, scope or flat.
On a sad note, here are a couple of tragic facts about two of the cast members of this movie.
Dominique Dunne, the 22-year-old actress who portrayed big sister Dana Freeling in the first Poltergeist film (released in June 1982), died on 4 November 1982 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, four days after her boyfriend choked her into a coma from which she never awoke. Weeks earlier, Dunne had ended her abusive live-in relationship with Los Angeles chef John Sweeney, but on the night of 30 October 1982, he dropped by their former shared residence to plead with her to take him back. The conversation did not go as he’d hoped, and the encounter ended with him strangling her for what was later determined to be 4 to 6 minutes, then leaving her for dead in her driveway.
Sweeney was convicted of voluntary manslaughter, sentenced in November 1983, and released in 1986 after serving only 3 years, 8 months of a 6˝ year sentence. His short sentence and early release remain subjects of controversy.
Heather O’Rourke, the child actress who played Carol Anne Freeling throughout the Poltergeist series (starting when she was six years old), unexpectedly passed away at the age of 12 when she died of septic shock on 1 February 1988 at the Children’s Hospital in San Diego. What had been thought to be a bout of ordinary flu launched her into cardiac arrest during the drive to the local hospital as bacterial toxins set loose by a bowel obstruction made their way into her bloodstream. Her heart was successfully restarted and she was flown by helicopter to the much-larger Children’s Hospital, where she underwent an operation to remove the obstruction. The toxins rampaging through her system proved too much, however, and she died on the operating table.
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted November 01, 2017 11:20 AM
Good extra review (of the flat version), and you're print certainly does have good color. I'll stick with my print, though! ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
I'm not absolutely sure, I'll have to pull it out, but I think my print is one of the original Kempski's of this title. What struck me when i first recieved this, is that i watched the DVD I had of this film, paused the film occasionally, and found that the color on the super 8 print was certainly better than the DVD.
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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