Poltergeist's Recent Activity - Spout

Film:Poltergeist

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:13:40 GMT

Title: Poltergeist
Year: 1982
Director: Tobe Hooper
Plot: With Poltergeist, directed by Tobe Hopper, Steven Spielberg had his first great success as a producer. Released around the same time as Spielberg's E.T., the film presents the dark side of Spielberg's California suburban track homes. The film centers on the Freeling family, a typical middle class family living in the peaceful Cuesta Verde Estates. The father, Steve (Craig T. Nelson), has fallen asleep in front of the television, and the dog saunters around the house revealing the other family members -- Steve's wife Diane (JoBeth Williams), sixteen-year-old daughter Dana (Dominique Dunne), eight-year-old son Robbie (Oliver Robins), and five-year-old Carol Ann (Heather O'Rourke). Soon strange things begin to happen around the house; the pet canary dies, mysterious storms occur, and Carol Ann is summoned to the TV set, where a strange shaft of green light hits her and causes the room to shake ("They're he-e-ere!"). As curious events continue, Carol Ann is repeatedly drawn to the television, where she begins to talk to "the TV people." Soon Carol Ann is sucked into a closet, disappearing from this reality plane. Unable to find his daughter, Steve consults Dr. Lesh (Beatrice Straight), a para-psychologist from a nearby college. Lesh finds that paranormal phenomena is so strong in the Freelong household she is unable to deal with it and sends for clairvoyant and professional exorcist Tangina (Zelda Rubinstein) to examine the house in hopes of finding Carol Ann. Tangina makes a horrifying discovery: Carol Ann is alive and in the house, but is being held on another spectral plane. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
Times Tagged: 40
Number of Lists: 62
Number of blog posts: 8
Number of discussion threads: 9
SpoutRating: 3

Spout Post: Re:Weekly Theme for July 20: Television

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:13:40 GMT

Post By: mciocco
Post To: Weekly Theme
Post Date: 7/20/2009 1:13:40 PM
Body: A few come to mind: Network - At the time, Paddy Chayefsky tried to imagine the most ridiculous and absurd things that could happen on TV news... Frighteningly, it doesn't seem as ridiculous or absurd these days. Groundhog Day - TV weatherman caught in a space/time loop. Great movie. The Truman Show - Jim Carrey in a semi-serious role? Decent movie, though I'm not sure it's aged that well... The Insider - Or, how everyone lost faith in 60 Minutes. Anchorman - I have many leather-bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany. And some horror TV films: Poltergeist, Ringu, and Videodrome

Spout Post: Re:Weekly Theme for January 19: Neighborhood Watch

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 01:37:54 GMT

Post By: Dr_Gor
Post To: Weekly Theme
Post Date: 1/25/2009 8:37:54 PM
Body: The two most obvious choices for this subject have already been mentioned... Rear Window and Neighbors (1981) ... But what of Brian DePalma's excellent Body Double ? Vouyerism, sex, murder and some very naughty neighbors! And Fright Night ? Many of the same qualities as Body Double , above. Poltergeist might fall into this category as well... < GOR >

Spout Post: Re:iAyudame! (that means "help!" in Spanish!)

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 07:33:22 GMT

Post By: divinemsjunebug
Post To: HORROR MOVIES 101
Post Date: 11/10/2008 2:33:22 AM
Body: Hey Abby, I think you hit the nail on the head with your comparison. Poltergeist is a great film to compare BUT it seems like the circumstances in that film happened to the ghosts AFTER they were dead or became ghosts, in most of the Spanish films, the circumstances happened to the people BEFORE they became ghosts. The Changeling might be a really good comparison (not the new Angelina movie) but the 1980 version. Or like Gor said, Ghost Story would be a good one too. It sounds like a really interesting project, I hope you can share some of your findings with us. June [quote user="indieabby88"] Hey, everyone! I'm wondering if any of you folks would be willing to help me out with a presentation I'm doing for my Spanish class. I'm trying to compare Spanish horror films and American horror films with respect to ghosts, or general creepy thrills. For my Spanish film, I'm watching "The Devil's Backbone." I'm not sure about the American film, but I'm thinking "Poltergeist," because I'd like to stick with movies that have similar subject matter (in this case, ghosts). So far my thinking is that Spanish horror films, particularly "haunting" movies, like Del Toro's film, or "The Orphanage" have more to do with the scarier aspects human nature than American horror films, which seem to deal chiefly with special effects and scaring the bejeezus out of you. Am I on the right track? Are there other aspects I should be examining? A different American ghost/haunting-related film I should be checking out? Sorry this post is so long...but I don't think there was any way I could make it short. Like I said, any help would be greatly appreciated! iGracias! [/quote]

Spout Post: iAyudame! (that means "help!" in Spanish!)

Sat, 08 Nov 2008 01:20:22 GMT

Post By: indieabby88
Post To: HORROR MOVIES 101
Post Date: 11/7/2008 8:20:22 PM
Body: Hey, everyone! I'm wondering if any of you folks would be willing to help me out with a presentation I'm doing for my Spanish class. I'm trying to compare Spanish horror films and American horror films with respect to ghosts, or general creepy thrills. For my Spanish film, I'm watching "The Devil's Backbone." I'm not sure about the American film, but I'm thinking "Poltergeist," because I'd like to stick with movies that have similar subject matter (in this case, ghosts). So far my thinking is that Spanish horror films, particularly "haunting" movies, like Del Toro's film, or "The Orphanage" have more to do with the scarier aspects human nature than American horror films, which seem to deal chiefly with special effects and scaring the bejeezus out of you. Am I on the right track? Are there other aspects I should be examining? A different American ghost/haunting-related film I should be checking out? Sorry this post is so long...but I don't think there was any way I could make it short. Like I said, any help would be greatly appreciated! iGracias!

Spout Post: 10 Movies Featuring Allegorical Ghosts

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 20:01:25 GMT

Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 9/17/2008 4:01:25 PM
Body: If you took one look at the existence of the new movie Ghost Town and dismissed it on account of its familiarity, you’re ignoring the potential of one of the most valuable plot devices available to fiction. Sure, the employment of ghosts in a narrative may also be evidence of laziness, as the device is just as much a convenience as it is a useful tool for storytellers. Not everyone can be Shakespeare, and of course there is a lot of redundancy and (excuse the pun) lifelessness in the majority of movies involving ghosts. However, ghosts can also be highly representative and/or serve a film on a deeper level than the surface story. To use another pun, ghost movies are not always so transparent. Like zombies, their plot-device sibling, ghosts have a way of signifying greater ideas, subjects and themes, and aren’t always merely about scares and talking-to-thin-air gags. In a conversation with Cinematical’s Erik Davis, Ghost Town director/co-writer David Koepp had this to say about the significance of ghost stories: Part of the reason they’re so enduring is because, well, first off all they give hope — because if they are ghosts, then it means we don’t die when we die. But also because they work really well in a number of genres. Ya know, in a drama like Ghost, or a horror movie, suspense or comedy in our case — I just think they offer so many dramatic possibilities; to have someone that’s dead, but still around to talk about it really suggests a lot of great situations. Okay, so that bit of promotional fluff is actually more about the literal dramatic qualities of the ghost device than the figurative and subtextual, but the quote at least jumpstarted my thinking. Initially I had thought about simply outlining how ghosts have been applied to different film genres, but then I fortunately switched my goal to seek out ten specific ghost films (from the seemingly thousands out there) that utilize the device for more meaningful purpose. Poltergeist (1982) and Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986) Ghosts = Threat to Middle-Class In his book Media Culture: Cutural Studies, Identity and Politics Between the Modern and the Postmodern, critical theorist Douglas Kellner points to a multitude of ideas represented by the ghosts haunting the Freeling family in Poltergeist. In fact, these ideas are discussed over 11 pages (viewable on Google Book Search), also concern the first sequel, Poltergeist II: The Other Side, and include everything from threats of TV’s hold on children to the disintegration of the 1960s counterculture. Generally, though, Kellner sees the first two Poltergeist movies as being about threats to the middle-class and nuclear family in an era of economic insecurity. The ghosts in Poltergeist, Kellner argues, stand in for working-class and racial “others,” and they signify in their actions the break-up of the family unit and fears of losing one’s home and job. With these representations in mind, it’s not so unnecessary, perhaps, that a remake of Poltergeist is currently in the works. The Amityville Horror (1979) Ghosts = Financial Insecurity This is merely a companion to the Poltergeist films in terms of its ghosts’ representation, but seeing as it was released prior to the first Poltergeist film and it received its allegorical reading from none other than Stephen King (in an article titled “Why We Crave Horror Movies” published in Playboy, quoted in Kellner’s book), I had to include it. Here is what King had to say about the film: “The movie might as well have been subtitled ‘The Horror of the Shrinking Bank Account’…. The Amityville Horror, beneath its ghost-story exterior, is really a financial demolition derby.” Ghostbusters (1984) Ghosts = Obesity or Scum of Old New York Although it was meant as a joke, the Volkswagon ad in which a projectionist argues his idea that Ghostbusters is a serious warning about the obesity epidemic facing America isn’t completely ridiculous. The points about blobby figures, Dana’s fridge and the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man are fair evidence for such an argument. But I’m slightly more interested in the “libertarian” reading of the ghosts as representations of old New York, particularly the filthy, near-bankrupt old New York of the decade preceding the film’s release, which was recently proposed by Karina on this very blog. The Ghostbusters as gentrifying force and pre-Giuliani city-sweepers is interesting, though it might have been more clearly conveyed if some ghosts were in Warriors-like gangs and/or peddling porn in Times Square and/or getting kids hooked on “slime” that can be smoked through a pipe. But I do love the idea that the ghosts are a threat to primarily wealthy New Yorkers just as in real-life it was the homeless and other scum clashing with the new money Manhattanites. Karina also sees the ghosts in the film as a sort of reminder of the New York history that goes back further than the financial and criminal problems of the ‘60s and ‘70s: “Ghostbusters plays on an entire city’s anxieties that, as renters, our spaces don’t belong to us, that there’s a history to our homes that we’ll never know, and probably shouldn’t know.” The Sixth Sense (1999) Ghosts = Insignificance I love facetious readings of movies, both because I think film scholarship is sometimes too serious and because I think such readings can often be taken more seriously than intended. I’ve already pointed to one example with the VW Ghostbusters ad (there’s a whole series of these ads, of which I find the Toy Story one to be the most hilarious and cogent). Now, I present a humorous address of the major plot hole in The Sixth Sense, part of a Cracked.com list, which asks, regarding the unlikelihood of Bruce Willis’ complete obliviousness to his ghostly existence, “What kind of lifestyle was he living before his death that would make him fail to notice that no one could see or hear him?” Implausible, sure, but it’s also representative of insecurities many of us have about our significance in the world. The Sixth Sense is therefore kind of like the antithesis to It’s a Wonderful Life by showcasing the possibility that your life is so meaningless that were you invisible or dead you would experience no difference. Ghost (1990) Ghosts = Love’s Bond The fact that, in The Sixth Sense, Bruce Willis doesn’t notice his nonexistence even when in the presence of his wife says something about his character’s perception of and role in that marriage. On the other side of the coin, perhaps, is Demi Moore’s character in Ghost. A precursor and inferior film to Jonathan Glazer’s Birth, it deals more slightly with the same themes of faith and knowability as they pertain to love. This earlier film is far less cynical, though, evident in the employment of a literal ghost rather than simply an outlet for the dead (Ghost would be more similar to Birth if we, like Demi Moore’s character, only saw, heard and had to trust Whoopi Goldberg’s psychic character). There’s still a bit of initial skepticism that love’s bond is nothing more than shared secrets and memories (as if the first convincing evidence that Sam is there, the response “ditto,” couldn’t have been overheard by someone outside the relationship), but continued proof of the ghost’s existence turns the device into an allegory for the spiritual bond between lovers. And it’s apparently a strong enough bond to give Molly (Moore) the faith that she’s kissing her dead husband, even if it may look like she’s kissing a con woman (Goldberg). Over Her Dead Body (2008) Ghosts = Memories of Ex-Lovers Now, imagine if in Ghost, Goldberg’s character actually wanted to pursue a relationship with Molly and was unfortunately haunted by Molly’s previous lover. That’s kind of the premise behind this movie, which proves that even lame ghost movies can at least be allegorical. Here, a psychic character (Lake Bell) falls for a veterinarian (Paul Rudd) and must win his love while being literally haunted by his jealous former fiancée (Eva Longoria). Here the ghost represents that memory of an ex-lover (whether a dumper, dumped or deceased) that can torment the mind of either party in a new relationship, making it difficult to move on to or trust a new lover. Of course, Over Her Dead Body wasn’t the first movie to deal with such a theme, and you’d be better off watching something older and better, like Blithe Spirit, but I wanted to reference some bad films on this list, too. Just be glad I didn’t go ahead and include Ghost Dad as an allegory about inheritance. visit videodetective.com for more info The Univited (1944) Ghosts = Lesbians Continuing a link to the Demi Moore-Whoopi Goldberg kiss (in which Patrick Swazye’s ghost is superimposed over Goldberg to play it safe for the audience), here is a film in which a ghost actually allegorically represents the “spectral presence of lesbianism,” to borrow a phrase from film scholar Patricia White, who writes of this film and others in her look at the correlation between Hollywood ghost movies and lesbian movies in the book Uninvited: Classical Hollywood Cinema and Lesbian Representability. In addition to implying an actual lesbian relationship, which ended with the death of one of the women, the film’s ghost also seems to represent threats of maternal identification and the female Oedipus complex. Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003) Ghosts = Cross-Gendered Spectatorship The ghostly theater audience members in this Tsai Ming-liang film may represent the death of the moviegoer or of cinema itself, but I also see the transvestite ghost as being representative of cross-gendered identification experienced through film spectatorship. 13 Ghosts (1960) Ghosts = Communists Okay, this one is a total stretch, but it works for me because (1) thanks to Joe Dante’s Matinee, I’ve always looked at William Castle films as having a Cold War context and (2) I’m shocked that there aren’t actually any Cold War-era films that more clearly employ ghosts as representatives of a Communist threat. I guess monsters, pod people, witches and aliens were sufficient allegories, but I also think it a missed opportunity to relate ghosts to Karl Marx’s phrase “spectre of Communism.” Anyway, in forcing this film into my wanting of such a Communist allegory, I have only this argument: the goggles used both in the film and (as one of Castle’s many gimmicks) outside the film to detect ghosts could be taken as a sort of fantasy for Americans wishing they had special goggles that could detect any Reds living among them. It’s almost like a counterpart to the goggles that detect capitalistic aliens in They Live, right? No? Well, I tried, and hopefully someone can make a modern ghost story that at least employs ghosts as terrorist allegory. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog

Spout Post: Episode XIV: 'Hellraiser'

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 19:03:30 GMT

Post By: usesoap
Post To: Natsukashi
Post Date: 8/25/2008 3:03:30 PM
Body: Hellraiser (1987)Rated: RWritten and Directed by: Clive BarkerStarring: Andrew Robinson as Larry Cotton Clare Higgins as Julia Cotton Ashley Laurence as Kirsty Cotton Doug Bradley as Lead Cenebite (aka Pinhead) Tagline: It will tear your soul apart! By: Shelley Stillo Pre-screening memories: The thing I remember most about viewing Hellraiser as a pre-teen is precisely how much it didn't effect me. I got started as a horror fan young. I was raised by a group of pop culture mavens who compared family members to characters from Poltergeist and Children of the Damned, who let me stay up late and watch Tales From the Darkside on overnight visits to their houses. By the time I was 10, I'd had the good sense to become best friends with the video-store lady's daughter. In those pre-blockbuster days, the horror shelf in the video store was a special place—a vast undiscovered country of illicit sights. Today, as most people order their dvds from Amazon based on movies they've already seen or heard of, or worse yet, they `flix everything they watch, DVD cover art is a pretty sanitized business. Actors you recognize, a scene from the film, the promo poster you've seen a thousand times. Mid-80s VHS cover art was different, especially in the horror aisle. Intense color and extreme graphics were the only ways to give your film a chance to be seen, especially in an era when many horror films were independently produced or released direct to video. VHS covers could be downright terrifying. A trip down the horror aisle at the video store could often be an act of bravery for my 10-year-old self, and, unfortunately, most often a much richer artistic experience than viewing the films inside those Technicolor cases. But it was also an act of pure pleasure, as I anticipated my weekly visits to the horror aisle with an insane glee other children reserved for Disneyland. In the three or four years during which my best friend's mother worked at the video store, my friend and I burned through every horror film on the shelf, each of our family's taking weekly turns at playing host to our all-night bloodbath versions of the pre-teen girl sleepover. Back then, Hellraiser was just another movie to add to the list of horror films I'd seen. Even though “Pinhead” was already an iconic figure in the genre by the time I'd encountered him, he left little to no impression on me. I liked that he was a cool-looking villain, but I didn't know why he got so much attention in all of those horror documentaries I watched. And while this lack of effect was in part a consequence of my attraction to more kid-friendly horror—the comical Freddy films that spewed forth from the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise and PG-13 Stephen King adaptions chief among them—it wasn't like I had no appreciation for more mature horror. I also counted Nosferatu and The Haunting among my favorite films. But Pinhead and his “magic box” never meant anything to me, besides the occasional ability to quicken my heart—and my step—when I saw their images on a VHS box. New memories: I was recently able to view Hellraiser on the big screen, and my immediate reaction was “I've never really seen this movie before.” Even though Hellraiser has most likely made numerous appearances on my horror viewing lists (which haven't stopped growing), I never really saw the movie until I watched it this year. This is obviously due to the fact that as a pre-teen horror fan, I had no capacity whatsoever to understand the erotic dynamics of a horror film that explicitly delves into the world of sado-masochistic pleasure (“Demons to some, angels to others” indeed). But because I've heard countless talking heads ruminate about Barker's use of this subject matter over the years, I really thought I had a sense of this film—what it was about and how it worked—even though I hadn't seen it for at least ten years. But I really had no idea, which can be a bit of a surreal experience, to realize that something you honestly believed to be familiar is actually an absolute unknown. Obviously, as someone enthusiastic about rebel art (an enthusiasm that was only stoked by Barker's own live introduction to the screening I saw, which included blow-job jokes and a raspy “Art should never be made for the man. Art should be made to take down the man.”), I was impressed by the frankness with which this film approached the topic of pain as pleasure. But the film seemed to go even further than that by criticizing, or at least portraying as equally horrific, the “normal” sexual couple. Kirstie's father's and boyfriend's obliviousness to possibilities that don't conform to their narrow view of the world seems as problematic as Uncle Frank and Stepmother Julia's (if you can't tell, there's also a bit of an incest plot here, which only adds intensity to the atmosphere of the film) violent fantasies. The other thing that keeps this film resonant and current is how well the special effects have held up. As a frequent attendee of midnight movies, I can definitely say that special effects rarely hold up. But despite the outrageouness of some of the imagery Barker tries to capture—the aforementioned skinless Frank and the "meat board" are two notable examples—you never laugh or flinch at an outdated technique watching this film. Perhaps it is actually because of Barker's outrageousness that these visual moments hold up. The depths of imagination it takes to conjure such images guarantees that they'll shock and disturb, even at more than 20 years old. I can't end this review without a word about the cenobites. They're inventive villains, even to a 10-year-old who has no grasp of their meaning. In context (or, more accurately, when the context is understood), they're the kind of characters that attach themselves to your psyche, and may never be completely shaken loose. The rich dialogue they're given helps (quotes), but their visual characteristics truly are the stuff of nightmares. And as much as Pinhead is still a cool looking villain, it's the sound of those chattering teeth that keeps me up at night today. Is Shelley still interested in raising 'Hell' after all these years? Listen to the podcast: dowload it here.

Spout Post: Hobbit Hires, Bond Rejection. Trade Roughage 08/20/08

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:01:25 GMT

Post By: Karina
Post To: Karina on SpoutBlog
Post Date: 8/20/2008 10:01:25 AM
Body: Peter Jackson, Frank Walsh and Philippa Boyens will collaborate with director Guillermo Del Toro on the screenplays for the latter’s two Hobbit movies. The original plan was to hire outside hands to produce a script, but in order to make the first film’s 2011 release date, Del Toro and Jackson apparently concurred that they needed a team of “people intimate with Tolkien’s world of Middle Earth.” Eon, the company that produces movies based on James Bond novels, has declined to buy the rights to the latest 007 book, Devil May Care. The book is set in 1967, and Eon is determined to keep this new wave of Bond films as contemporary as possible. Juliet Snowden and Stiles White, the team responsible for the script for Michael Bay’s remake of The Birds, have now been hired to write a do-over of Poltergeist. Kirk Kerkorian, who has already owned MGM three times and was responsible for extending the film studio brand into Las Vegas, is rumored to have made an offer to buy the company for a fourth time for a low-ball bid of $3 billion. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog » Karina Longworth

Spout Post: Hobbit Hires, Bond Rejection. Trade Roughage 08/20/08

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:01:17 GMT

Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 8/20/2008 10:01:17 AM
Body: Peter Jackson, Frank Walsh and Philippa Boyens will collaborate with director Guillermo Del Toro on the screenplays for the latter’s two Hobbit movies. The original plan was to hire outside hands to produce a script, but in order to make the first film’s 2011 release date, Del Toro and Jackson apparently concurred that they needed a team of “people intimate with Tolkien’s world of Middle Earth.” Eon, the company that produces movies based on James Bond novels, has declined to buy the rights to the latest 007 book, Devil May Care. The book is set in 1967, and Eon is determined to keep this new wave of Bond films as contemporary as possible. Juliet Snowden and Stiles White, the team responsible for the script for Michael Bay’s remake of The Birds, have now been hired to write a do-over of Poltergeist. Kirk Kerkorian, who has already owned MGM three times and was responsible for extending the film studio brand into Las Vegas, is rumored to have made an offer to buy the company for a fourth time for a low-ball bid of $3 billion. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog

Spout Post: Re:TOP 5 MOVIES TO TEACH AN ALIEN ABOUT EARTH

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 23:40:49 GMT

Post By: sa54d
Post To: Filmgaming
Post Date: 6/22/2008 7:40:49 PM
Body: Others have already thought of my idea: that the aliens may want to conquer us and therefore the movies selected should attempt to convince them to find easier pickings elsewhere. And a interplanetary civilization such as ours has absolutely no hope against an inter-stellar civilization. It's Pizzaro vs. the Incas, only worse for us. But maybe the aliens just want to find out more about us before they strike, on the off chance that we have some capability that they can not readily observe? Assuming we're trying to dissuade the aliens from trying to attack us my five suggestions are inspired by the "Twilight Zone" episode in which Andy Devine scares off an alien invasion by telling tall tales which the aliens believe to be literally true. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I almost went with Azkaban but the aliens likey understand physics well enough to know that you can not ever go back in time, and then that would give the game away. But any sufficiently advanced technology, to one who does not understand it, is indistinguishable from magic. Levitation, transfiguration, channeling energy through a mysterious device called a "wand" could scare the willies out of credulous aliens. And we show them that even our children can take on a Basalisk. War of the Worlds. The original, maybe they'll think it's a documentary? The Ten Commandments. If the aliens are in any way religious, this should put the fear in them. Spaceballs. If watching this Mel Brooks movie doesn't unsettle them, then maybe they'll become hopelessly confused. Poltergeist. How do aliens know whether or not ghosts really exist? Although almost any ghost movie would do, I choose one where the ghosts have some ability to influence and interact with the physical world. If this movie doesn't scare 'em off, nothing will.

Spout Post: Re:Top 5 Antagonists

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 05:54:50 GMT

Post By: mercurial
Post To: Top 5
Post Date: 4/9/2008 1:54:50 AM
Body: Top 5 Antagonists: Human1.) Dazed and Confused - O'Bannon - Ben Affleck's character takes the cake as the biggest a**hole and eventually gets what he deserves.2.) Mutiny on the Bounty - Captain Bligh - Sadistic and unflinchingly evil, Captain Bligh is undoubtedly one of cinemas most hated antagonists.3.) What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? - Jane - Bette Davis oozes nastiness from her caked on makeup to her hoarse, smokers voice.4.) Se7en - John Doe - The unseen serial killer in this film intensifies the terror and dread the viewer feels throughout this film, even more so when he reveals himself and his final acts of brutality.5.) Groundhog Day - Phil "like the groundhog!" Connors - Bill Murray is incredibly noxious for most of the film as a jaded weather man forced to relive the same day over and over again.Runner's Up: Strangeland, Misery, All About Eve, Man Bites Dog, Lemony Snicket's, Dogville Top 5 Antagonists: Supernatural / Science Fiction1.) The Wizard of Oz - The Wicked Witch of the West - Damn if that green-skinned witch isn't the meanest *itch in all of Oz and cinema.2.) Star Wars Trilogy - Darth Vader - Masked and menacing, Darth Vader is felt through each film even when he's not on screen.3.) Jaws - The Great White Shark - Only supernatural in it's damned ability to know what's going on in every inch of the ocean, the shark is one evil son of a *itch.4.) Halloween - Michael Myers - Again, masked and scary as hell, Michael Myers is the definition of a nightmare come to life.5.) Alien - The Alien - In my opinion, one of the creepiest monsters ever imagined.Runner's Up: A Nightmare on Elm Street, Poltergeist, Friday the 13th, Mommie Dearest (Joan Crawford must have had supernatural powers to be that wicked). Top 5 Antagonists: Inanimate Objects1.) The Money Pit - The House - Definitely one of the most aggravating movies where the main antagonist really does nothing but sits there (and continues to fall apart).2.) Speed - The Bus - You try to keep your cool while maintaining the speed limit in L.A. traffic!3.) Cube - The Cube - Murderous booby-traps aplenty, room after room after room after room after room after room after room etc.4.) Maximum Overdrive - The Machines - When those damned semis went crazy, they really went crazy.5.) Modern Times - The Machines - Again, those damned machines getting a mind of their own.

Spout Tag:Classic

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 23:30:46 GMT

Classic
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Spout Tag:family

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 05:51:34 GMT

family
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Spout Tag:disturbing

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:55:54 GMT

disturbing
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Spout Tag:ghost

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:30:06 GMT

ghost
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Spout Tag:ghosts

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:29:59 GMT

ghosts
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Spout Tag:daughter

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:01:02 GMT

daughter
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Spout Tag:television

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:28:57 GMT

television
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Spout Tag:girl

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 00:38:02 GMT

girl
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Spout Tag:psycho

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 12:30:05 GMT

psycho
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Spout Tag:undead

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 01:07:26 GMT

undead
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Spout Tag:tv

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:28:57 GMT

tv
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Spout Tag:suburbs

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:03:11 GMT

suburbs
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Spout Tag:psychic

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 05:39:34 GMT

psychic
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Spout Tag:freaky

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 18:20:04 GMT

freaky
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Spout Tag:plane

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:57:23 GMT

plane
Number of films tagged: 16

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