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In honor of the late Zelda Rubinstein, and because I've been wanting to for a while, I watched Poltergeist again for the first time in quite a while. It had been long enough that I had forgotten how many wonderful little touches there are in this movie. The big scares don't have the impact they used to, but the performances are wonderful, and I had a great time re-encountering some of my favorite things about this film:
- The early scene in which Carol Ann loads up Tweety's cigar box chokes me up every time. And the burial scene soon thereafter is very funny.
- My favorite little moment - Buzz the dog is in the master bedroom barking madly at the spot on the wall, then runs purposefully out of the room, returning moments later with his favorite squeaky toy.
- WTF is with that terrible edit between the kitchen scene and the awkward visit to the neighbors?!?
- Beatrice Straight is just wonderful as the sympathetic and nervous parapsychologist.
- The "midnight snack" scene is gratuitous but sensational. And really, was that guy actually going to fry himself up a steak in someone else's house in the middle of the night? How rude.
- Zelda Rubinstein is brilliant, funny and perfect.
- Emotionally, this movie is over about fifteen minutes before it really ends, but that last reel is still really fun frosting on the cake.
- It's impossible not to think about the early ill fates of Dominique Dunne and Heather O'Rourke. Beyond sad.
- Some rough edges, but this is a wonderful movie.
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