In the summer of 1982, Steven Spielberg released two movies in consecutive weeks, Poltergeist and ET the Extra Terrestrial, that now seem like mirror images of each other. Both are about suburban enclaves visited by supernatural phenomena – one a haunting, the other a close encounter of the third kind – and both are ultimately storybook affirmations of the American family, which is made stronger through crisis. The California suburbs were a playground for Spielberg, who grew up in them, and these films were like new subdivisions in his personal colonization of Hollywood.
The nature of Spielberg’s involvement in Poltergeist has been in hot dispute from the beginning. He’s credited as the co-producer and co-writer on the film, which is based on his original story, but the director is the late Tobe Hooper, who was either a primary creative force or a bystander on his own set, depending on who’s being asked. At a minimum, the two had a unique collaboration that resulted in a distinctly Spielbergian horror film, albeit one with a dash of the malevolence of Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the spring-loaded shocks of his previous film, the underrated 1981 slasher The Funhouse. It’s as if Spielberg wanted to scare audiences while maintaining his cuddly veneer, and Hooper served in part as his alibi.
