1982 vs. 2015 Comparing Poltergeists

As a crazy fan of the 1982 Poltergeist and a screenwriter who geeks out over structure and stuff, I’ve always felt Poltergeist is a movie that ignores some story-telling conventions(aka ‘rules’) but still works on all levels
The movie is undeniably scary, fun, and has a Spielbergian sense of awe. It also serves as some high-octane nightmare fuel.
But in regards to theme, character arc, pacing and an organic third act, in retrospect it feels outright ‘first-draft-ish’. It reminds me a bit of the early story meets for Raiders of the Lost Ark or Empire Strikes back where Spielberg and Lucas would throw out all the cool stuff and leave it to a Lawrence Kasdan to ‘glue the parts’ together. Only Poltergeist didn’t have Kasdan, so some of the glue is a little less subtle.
Enter 2015's Poltergeist. My assumption was that they’d try to fix these ‘problems’.
Much like the new Fright Night or Evil Dead, I found it to be a fun movie but forgettable movie. Turns out the movie is similar enough to the original but makes surgical ‘fixes’ to the 1982 version that it allows us to ask — are the rules always right?

OPENING IMAGE

1982 Version: The fuzzy blue screen. The national anthem. “They’re here…”. The image is iconic, attention grabbing, and serves as a catalyst from opening shot. It sets an expectation — this is no slow-burn haunted house movie, this movie is going to DELIVER some ghosts. Additionally, it puts the family in the mix, Craig T. Nelson as the dad witnesses the creepy scene. He realizes right away ‘something is off’.

2015 Version: A copter shot of the neighborhood. We meet the family driving to visit a new house. 2015 is already establishing a slower burn movie. It’s has a common ‘set the characters up first’ storyline. Practically speaking, things are scarier if you set up the characters first.
I suspect part of this choice was the ‘why now?’ question the original movie never really answered. In the original movie, the family lived in the house awhile, it’s unclear why the ghosts start their harassment at the start of the movie. I never found it a problem.
Ultimately, the 1982 version throws down the gauntlet with the ‘rule breaking’ first scene. It’s the equivalent of Indiana Jones stealing the idol. It sets things in motion from the start.

THE PROTAGONIST

1982 Version: The 1982 version the protagonist was a little looser. Essentially, there’s a shared protag situation going on. For my money, JoBeth Williams takes the lead protag — mostly because she’s the one who gets to go into the closet and she’s the one that’s in the house during act 3, serving as the primary mama-bear protector. It doesn’t have a neat and tidy theme/character arc. My interpretation is the theme is ‘respect the dead’. The parents house and income is based on disrespecting a burial ground. They’re complicit. JoBeth, by extension, plays with the ghosts in act 1, a different form of ‘disrespect’ — dabbling in the occult, a common trope of haunted house movies.
2015 Version: The son, Griffin is given the main protag role. My evidence of this — he’s the only one who knows what’s going early on, he’s the one who goes in the closet, and he’s the only one who really has a tangible arc(he goes from meek nervous kid who is too scared to help his sister to the hero who dives into the fray). This has several ripple effects on the story. One, the parents are essentially in the dark for the first act of the movie(more on this in a moment). Two, a young actor has to essentially carry the movie in a way Craig T Nelson and JoBeth Williams did in the first movie. Three, it forces the film to keep one of the hard to buy contrivances of the first movie — i.e. — the kids are hanging out in a extremely dangerous situation.
Worst of all, either through acting or directing or screenwriting, the character of Griffin doesn’t feel real. I never felt an emotional connection to him, he always felt like a ‘movie kid’.

SETUP/ACT 1

1982 Version: On the strength of JoBeth Williams and Craig T Nelson, these characters are setup as likeable in a very Spielbergian way. Additionally, by allowing the parents to discover the poltergeists too, poltergeist allows us to wallow in some ‘whimsical’ what if moments. The chair stacking, Carol Anne sliding across the floor, JoBeth’s amazement at what’s going on — it allows us to have fun with the characters while also being amazed by the magic of the house.
2015 Version: Besides a few minor things like static electricity and some signal interference, the parents and older daughter are not privy to the spooky stuff. This forces the storytellers to send us down a movie setup 101 path — Dad out of work, mom wants a job, kids mad about moving, etc. It’s never explained why a man who lost his job and has credit issues would be buying a house. It’s also never brought up as a problem — ‘we can’t move again! we have to make this work!’ Even worse, this setup doesn’t pay off with why the ghosts are there or how the character arcs play out. It’s almost an obligatory nod to character development but doesn’t feel organic to the whole. The parents are likeable actors but never really feel invested in the whole thing or give off the chemistry needed. The kids don’t feel real. The teen girl’s character is the best example — IPhone loving, hates babysitting, Skypes with friends and that’s about it. Actually, I thought the youngest girl had some undeniable kid-charisma but was in the unenviable task of replacing the unforgettable Heather O’Rourke.
(And trying to stick to story and not execution — but Sam Rockwell, one of my favorite actors, seems like he either doesn’t care or is in a different movie or got the not play ‘secret drunk’ from the director)

THE MOVE

In the new Poltergeist the family moves to the house. 1982 had the Poltergeists suddenly show up in the house.

I think this is key to why 1982 worked so well — ghosts aren’t in a cursed house — they’re in OUR HOUSE! The one we currently live in. They can just show up and haunt our trees and creepy clowns.

UNDERWEAR

1982 Version: JoBeth comfortably rocks the jersey/underwear combo. It’s more than just titillation, she’s sexy because she’s real. Nelson and her characters feel real and organic which only sets up the scares more.
2015 Version: Mom wears a Tank Top and panties and it feels…awkward. The moment illustrate the ‘bad cover band’ feel of the story in a weird way.

THE BIG ATTACK — ACT BREAK

1982 Version: The Tree! JoBeth sucked up onto the ceiling! Carol Anne sucked into the closet. The ghosts go from fun to frightening and setup the dramatic need that will drive act 2 — we need to get our daughter out of the closet.
2015 Version: A similar scene with a fundamental difference — the parents aren’t home! Probably trying to further setup the boy as the protag, the parents are at a dinner party with a group of people we’ll never see again in the movie. Young Griffin is too scared to help his sister. The older daughter gets grabbed by some tarred up skeletons. And of course, the little girl ends up in the closet.
But this new setup provides a big problem. The family arrives home to see the boy up in the tree. But they never really question why. They go in the house and everyone is freaking out — but they’re not in on the joke. Yet, they almost instantly accept it when they hear their daughter’s voice emanating from the TV. Sam Rockwell even says they ‘can’t call the police because they don’t know what’s going on’ — what?!!
If your youngest kid is missing and your kids are saying a tree and clowns and tar skeletons are attacking, would your first instinct be to cover it up? Maybe if the setup was that Sam Rockwell was on trial or just released from prison or a suspected child killer or something this would work. The cover up seems strange.
Not seeing the adults ‘become believers’ on screen feels off and adversely flavors the tone that comes after. We’re never able to see the parents incrementally(or even suddenly) become believers in the incredible things happening in their house.

ACT 2 AND THE GHOSTBUSTERS

1982 Version: This is where some of the story ‘flaws’ come into play in the original. The parents/protags generally sit around and do nothing. Very few twists and turns occur mostly just exposition dumps about what happened. The parents allow their young son to hang around a house with attacking trees and closets to hell. What does work — it feels real. The parents reaction is utter sadness and helplessness. It feels like a family that just endured a horrible tragedy and doesn’t know what to do and will hold onto any hope. The storytelling is relatively linear — the investigators arrive, investigate, find the portal, decide to bring in the psychic. There’s no big left-turn or stake-raiser(announcement of The Beast might be one). The whole closet rescue seems ‘easy’.
One note — it should be said that in 1982 while quackery, it was easier to believe ghost hunting might be onto something. Parapsychology for better or worse was more the stuff of colleges and academia and less the stuff of Sci-Fi Channel and YouTube. It’s hard to imagine anyone really being helpful in this situation in the days of Ghost Adventures.
2015 Version: The second act follows a very similar structure to the original. I think it actually makes some improvements streamlining the beats a bit and make them feel cause/effect. Surprisingly, it doesn’t really offer a good reason for why the two other children are still in the house. In fact, I suspect part of the genesis for the new ‘just moved in’ setup was to say ‘where would the kids go’? Ultimately, it seems like negligent parenting to leave your kids in a house that already tried to kill your son with clowns and trees and kidnapped your daughter. The 2015 version doubles-down on it by having both kids in the house the whole time.
To make matters worse, the characters never have that ‘funeral parlor’ dread that the original family had. There’s less tears and more quips and it really missteps when the one-note teenage girl wants to take selfies with the TV Psychic that’s brought in.
I do think the 2015 version does some good ‘fixes’ with the closet. The drone is a fun idea, having the son go into the closet while illogical(he shouldn’t be in the house let alone sneaking past everyone into the closet) it’s a good stake raiser and does satisfy his arc. The original’s closet rescue always felt easy. There weren’t many twists or obstacles. That said, it felt real. The downside of showing inside the closet(even if Insidious already beat this movie to the punch), it looks CGI-ey in a way that every movie does. It’s hard to show us something new in this day and age.
But the original choosing not to show it feels more real since we’re forced to imagine what’s there(aka Blair Witch, Jaws, etc). Even in a movie which delivers all kinds of visuals and thrills and FX we’re left to imagine ‘the other side of the closet’ and inductively create a world beyond what’s on screen.

THE PSYCHIC

1982 Version: Zelda Rubenstein. I can’t really say anymore. She was awesome, authentic, unique and born to play this role.
The character’s “This House is Clean” undercut her a bit. How dumb a psychic she must have been!!
2015 Version: They couldn’t top Zelda in casting, instead we can a ‘usual suspect’ Hollywood actor. The TV Ghost hunter idea seems done. I did enjoy the b-story they gave him with quirky Jane Adams. But probably cause I just dig Jane Adams. More Jane Adams! They also gave the psychic a mini-arc which I thought was a good added improvement in that it gave the 3rd act a bit more to chew on. It would have been nice to setup his arc a bit better. I’m not sure the movie earned the whole ‘I can show them how to get to the light’ moment but I appreciate what was being tried there.

THE THIRD ACT

1982 Version: The third act always felt tacked on and first-draft-ey. After they get through this, the kids decide to hang out all night at the killer house — sure “It’s clean” but come on, go to a hotel! Dad heads out to do some paperwork?!! It felt like they never really figured out how to organically land the third act. I’m not complaining, without the tack-on we wouldn’t get killer clowns and skeletons in pools and a house imploding!
2015 Version: Story wise, act 3 made more sense here. They’re in the driveway leaving the house. No stupid, let’s spend one more night. The third act here isn’t as big as the originals. Partially because of the story changes — the escape from the closet has been pumped up and really this feels just like a continuation as opposed to a separate sequence or style of attack. They’ve already used most of the original’s cool stuff like the clown and showing skeleton zombies and stuff. So even though several issues seem streamlined, it doesn’t have the huge kitchen sink feel the original had.

FINAL IMAGE

1982 Version: They check into the hotel and put the TV outside. A perfect mirror image to the opening. Funny. Tonally right. Smart. Perfect.
2015 Version: They try to hit a similar beat with a lesser joke about closets. It’s not even landed right as the audience telegraphs it way before the punch line. Then we close with a kind of dopey mirror image shot of the family smiling and riding up the road. The type of scene more at home with a Tim Allen family film, it seems tonally inappropriate here.