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Tag Archives: Tobe Hooper

Poltergeist

27 Saturday Nov 2021

Posted by vinnieh in Movie Reviews

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

1980's, Beatrice Straight, Craig T. Nelson, Dominique Dunne, Heather O’Rourke, Horror, JoBeth Williams, Oliver Robins, Poltergeist, Supernatural Horror, Tobe Hooper, Zelda Rubinstein

A horror movie with a heart, Poltergeist provides the chills and thrills as a family is beset by a mysterious presence. With a strong story and a mixture of creepiness and wonder, Poltergeist lingers in the mind.

The California town of Cuesta Verde is an ideal looking suburban town of nice lawns and high standard of living. It’s a planned community where everything looks strikingly similar. We are introduced to the Freeling family; real estate developer father Steven( Craig T. Nelson) , loving and devoted mother Diane(JoBeth Williams), eldest daughter Dana(Dominique Dunne), only son Robbie(Oliver Robins) and adorable five year old daughter Carol Anne(Heather O’Rourke) . One night when the television broadcast finishes and the static appears, little Carol Anne awakes from her sleep, approaches the set and starts communicating with something. Then various phenomena start in the house like chairs rearranging themselves and cutlery bending. At first the family sees it as something funny yet unexplainable, but events soon take a very dark and sinister turn. On a stormy evening, all manner of supernatural and startling terror unfurls and Carol Anne is snatched through her bedroom closet. The family search for her, but can’t physically find her. Then they start to hear the voice of the kidnapped little girl. It transpires she can communicate at times through the static on the television as she is in another dimension. Terrified and uncertain of what to do, Diane and Steven contact parapsychologists headed by Dr. Martha Lesh( Beatrice Straight) about this . Lesh and her co- workers are intrigued and want to help but find even their open minds challenged by this haunting and kidnapping they come upon. That’s when they call in the small but powerful physic Tangina( Zelda Rubinstein) who goes about attempting to figure out what snatched into another dimension. Darkness descends as the family, Tangina and the paranormal investigators do battle with the restless spirits that have an axe to grind in order to bring Carol Anne back to them.

Tobe Hooper is in the directing chair and though it’s often debated whether he was the sole director or if Steven Spielberg was more a part of it, he deserves credit for what he fashions here. His direction is pacy and allows for the opening to appear a little spooky but innocuously wholesome and then allowing the onslaught of scary encounters that are wonderfully executed. It’s a rollercoaster that’s akin to a fun ride with added jolts of scary material. The film may be almost two hours but the content and story carry everything along to a satisfying degree that pulls you in. Long shots are used that capture the little details of the house and how the haunting envelops it with an insidious glee. It’s all in aid of the intense set pieces that show the special effects which are mainly ones that hold up now( some have dated a fair bit naturally) and are used to maximum effect. From the static hands reaching out from the television, the attack of the monstrous tree on Robbie, one of the poor investigators having one squirm inducing hallucination, a clown doll that’ll give you a many jolts terror and the filling of the swimming pool during a storm with corpses after Diane falls in, it’s dazzling and horrifying in equal measure . With a screenplay by Steven Spielberg( who you can see the influence of in the film with the blending of spectacle, awe and tension), the film while frightening and thrilling has some real depth and drama to it. Plus there’s also a deliciously ironic take on television culture and also how suburbia isn’t all it’s cracked up to be considering some of the foundations it’s literally and metaphorically built on. Also of note is how the characters act in situations; with most of them being grown ups there’s a level of maturity that’s sometimes missing in films that focus on teenagers. The family reacts in a very believable manner to the shock and mind blowing events befalling them and it adds to how much we care for their plight. Jerry Goldsmith contributes a sensational score that has a spry innocence at first before layering on the spooky vibes as the haunting continues.

As mentioned earlier, the cast is very convincing. JoBeth Williams heads proceedings with a commanding performance of maternal determination and strength in the face of adversity. She’s human and relatable, acting wonderfully alongside the stalwart Craig T. Nelson as her husband.  Nelson contributes a strong performance as a hardworking man thrown into a hellish ordeal and attempting with his wife to stay above it instead of sinking. The two stars create a believable bond as husband and wife and crucially as parents. Beatrice Straight exhibits the right amount of compassion and shock as the parapsychologist called in, while the dynamic Zelda Rubinstein  steals her scenes as the medium with a lot of power and eccentric manner about her. Both ladies contribute a lot to the film as memorable supporting characters, particularly the highly entertaining Rubinstein. By far one of the most memorable things in Poltergeist is the presence of the cherubic Heather O’Rourke. With her wide eyes and genuine sense of wonder combined with terror, she provides most of the memorable moments in the film. And considering she’s not in the film as much as you’d think, O’Rourke definitely makes a huge impact in her scenes and is iconic, especially for her delivery of the line “They’re Here” . Dominique Dunne as the eldest daughter also makes her presence felt. On a sad note, Dunne was murdered after the film was released, leading to the belief in their being a curse on the film and the inevitable sequels. Oliver Robins is also extremely impressive as the traumatised son going through one hell of an ordeal.

Spooky, thrilling and certainly memorable, Poltergeist is a great staple film as we reach Halloween. With its invective imagination and soulful story of family against the odds, Poltergeist is a must.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

25 Tuesday Nov 2014

Posted by vinnieh in Movie Reviews

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

1970's, Edwin Neal, Gunnar Hansen, Horror, Marilyn Burns, Paul A. Partain, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Tobe Hooper

Film Title

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Director

Tobe Hooper

Starring

  • Marilyn Burns as Sally Hardesty
  • Paul A. Partain as Franklin Hardesty
  • Edwin Neal as the Hitchhiker
  • Gunnar Hansen as Leatherface

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remains to this day a seminal and controversial work in horror. Loosely inspired by crimes of Ed Gein, with an iconic villain in the form of Leatherface and the age-old formula of what we don’t see will scare us even more, Tobe Hooper’s movie has lost none of its original and frightening impact.

Sally Hardesty is travelling with her wheelchair bound brother Franklin and friends Jerry, Kirk and Pam to investigate the grave of her grandfather, which has supposedly been vandalised along with other graves. Texas Chainsaw Massacre PosterAlong the way they pick up a jittery hitchhiker who begins to menace them by cutting his wrist and then slicing at poor Franklin’s arm. After kicking him out and recovering from the bizarre incident, this they decide to take a look at her old family’s house which is nearby. Whilst looking round the surrounding areas, they discover another house. But this house isn’t filled with the most welcoming hosts. A deranged cannibalistic family of slaughterhouse workers reside in the house, headed by the scary Leatherface, who wears a mask of human skin and is adept at using his chainsaw to slaughter unsuspecting victims. As terror increases and the group is picked off mercilessly, it is left to Sally to attempt to survive this savage attack and make it out in one piece.

The first thing to praise in this horror classic is the visual style. The film was made on a low-budget and the picture has a grainy look to it. Strangely, this look is supremely effective in capturing the horrifying events  that befall Sally and her friends as it adds a documentary style immediacy to the film and puts us in the grimy surroundings that the characters stumble upon .The camerawork is dizzying and makes terrifying use of extreme close-ups to express the fear and madness that seem to run hand in hand. The strange score is sparse but eerie, as the sounds of machinery and bristling cymbals combine to give the film a doom-laden pulse.

As I previously mentioned, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is low on the blood count, but this doesn’t make it any less chilling than it is. By not showing us the brutal slayings in graphic detail, the film lets our imaginations run wild with possibilities of the deaths that occur. Whereas the remakes and sequels of this have revelled in bloodshed and gore, none of them can beat the clammy and grimy impact of the original. This atmosphere of dread is upheld by Tobe Hooper with great certainty throughout and the final half hour is a heart-pounding fight for your life event, which is the cinematic equivalent of a waking nightmare. Sally Chainsaw MassacreScenes that linger in the memory include the menacing hitchhiker who becomes more sinister and strange as he recalls working at the slaughterhouse, Pam falling into the living room of the scary house and finding human remains fashioned into furniture and Sally nighttime chase with Leatherface. The sight of the monstrous Leatherface is still frightening and chilling after all these years and his appearance has influenced many a horror villain over the years.

Marilyn Burns does a great job of portraying fear in these unusual and savage circumstances, particularly in the scene in which she encounters the family at dinner. Paul A. Partain is suitably worried and nervous as the wheelchair bound Franklin. Edwin Neal is jittery and unstable as the creepy hitchhiker who troubles the group. And not forgetting Gunnar Hansen as Leatherface, his tall frame and barely audible dialogue adding to the horrifying impact of the character.

Mercilessly tense, horrifying and atmospheric, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is still a chilling entry into the horror genre.

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