Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. I've posted quite a lot of Poltergeist BTS pics in all the time I've run this column. There's a reason for that. It's a crucial movie for me. The image of the coffins popping up out of the ground between Craig T. Nelson and his family is my first memory. Not movie memory. Memory period. I figure I was about 2 or 3 at the time and my babysitter was watching it either on cable or rented VHS and I woke up in her lap at that scene.
The rest, they say, is history.
One thing many of these Poltergeist BTS pics have in common is that Tobe Hooper either isn't in them or if he is he's kinda standing around like crew while Steven Spielberg looks like the director. Some of that is all publicity, selling Spielberg's involvement more than Hooper's because that'd sell more tickets.
And some of it is because, you know, Spielberg actually did direct a good chunk of the movie. I've said it before, but I knew Zelda Rubinstein before she passed and she was very vocal about her involvement in the Poltergeist film. She spoke on the record and off about how she wasn't a fan of Tobe Hooper's and told me on many occasions that she shot for 6 days on the first film and was never once directed by anybody that wasn't named Steven Spielberg.
The real truth is probably somewhere between Hooper directed it and doesn't get the fanboy credit he deserves and Spielberg did the whole thing. But it's still kinda funny looking at these BTS pics and seeing Spielberg always behind the camera looking director-ish.
Today's image definitely has that. It also has a really cool moment with Robbie being grabbed by the tree and Tobe looking as freaked out as 2 year old me was. So, double win! Enjoy!
Tomorrow's pic will be your friend till the end! See ya' then!
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
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