Poltergeist Timeline

The Complete Unauthorized Timeline of Tobe Hooper's 'Poltergeist'. A forthcoming book charting the history and making of the influential 1982 horror classic

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Celebrating the 43rd anniversary of the release of 'POLTERGEIST' which opened on June 4, 1982. Directed by Tobe Hooper and produced by Steven Spielberg, Poltergeist was MGM's biggest hit of 1982

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On this day - May 11 1981, principal photography on 'Poltergeist' began. The first scene shot was an exterior by the newly moved cemetery, overlooking the housing complex and Teague (James Karen) offers Steve (Craig T. Nelson) a full partnership

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The second time Tobe Hooper and Steven Spielberg joined forces was for Spielberg's short lived TV series 'Amazing Stories'. Hooper is seen here directing the season 2 episode 'Miss Stardust' which aired on this day in 1987

#stevenspielberg #tobehooper #amazingstories #80sTV

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Remembering Beatrice Straight who passed away this day in 2001. Fondly remembered for playing Dr. Martha Lesh in Poltergeist (1982). She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Network (1976). Her performance is the shortest ever to win an Academy Award for acting at five minutes and two seconds of screen time

#tobehooper #StevenSpielberg #poltergeist #BeatriceStraight #80sHorror

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Remembering filmmaker Tobe Hooper who was born on this day in 1943. He would have been 82 years old. A uniquely visionary filmmaker who is sadly missed #TobeHooper #Poltergeist #TexasChainsawMassacre #SalemsLot #Lifeforce #InvadersFromMars #Horror #HorrorFilms

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Variety names The Texas Chainsaw Massacre as the Best Horror Movie of All Time in its top 100 list.

“Texas Chain Saw” turned out to be what a masterpiece of terror it was. Tobe Hooper directed it with a lyrical suspense worthy of an existential grindhouse Hitchcock. He took the story of five post- hippie teenagers driving a van through the Texas wilds and turned it into a plunge into the American abyss."

#Tobehooper #leatherface #70shorror #texaschainsawmassacre Pam, The O'riginal Chainsaw Gal Ed Neal #horrorjunkie #horror #horrormovie

https://variety.com/lists/best-horror-movies-of-all-time/the-exorcist-1973-2/?fbclid=IwY2xjawFzu6dleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHUqY8wTv4qX2F2ARo2oWsYQXwvmPMbJFq5m943cZ94_Ev2C4qr4xMzfRwg_aem_CIgqu5180UInr7cDogYBvg

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Happy Birthday to Dan O’Bannon (1946 – 2009) screenwriter, director and visual effects supervisor. O'Bannon wrote the screenplay for Alien, adapted from a story he wrote with Ronald Shusett. He also wrote and directed the cult horror comedy The Return of the Living Dead. He contributed computer animation to Star Wars and worked on cult classics such as Dark Star (1974), Dead & Buried (1981), Total Recall (1990). He is fondly remembered for writing Lifeforce (1985) and Invaders From Mars (1986) for Tobe Hooper during his Cannon Films years

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Happy Birthday to the great Stephen King. In a “what could have been,” King was originally lined up to write the screenplay to ‘Poltergeist,’ before Michael Grais and Mark Victor became involved.

King said “There was a screw-up in communications at that time. I was in England, and this was after Steven, and I had dinner and talked about it. We wrote letters back and forth. We talked on the phone about it. I got ready to do it, went to England, and found out that Doubleday (publishing), who had been acting on my behalf, had asked this incredible amount of money (for me) to do the screenplay. I got a letter from Spielberg saying that he was really unhappy that it turned out that way.”

#Poltergeist #PoltergeistTimeline #poltergeist1982 #tobehooper #StevenSpielberg #horrormovies #ilm #simivalley #jobethwilliams #craigtnelson #heatherorourke #oliverrobins #MartinCasella #clown #HorrorClassics #Horror #jerrygoldsmith #PracticalEffects #80sHorror #CultClassics #ghosts #richardlawson #zeldaRubinstein #horrorjunkie #horrorfanatic #StephenKing

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Celebrating the UK release of Poltergeist, which was released nationwide in the UK on Sunday September 19th, 1982. Classified as an ‘X’ certificate in the UK, which only allowed persons over the age of eighteen to enter. ‘The British Board of Film Censors’ described the film as having – “frequent scenes of threat in which the family - including children - encounter supernatural occurrences, and occasional moments of strong horror including a man's face disintegrating and a woman falling into a muddy pool containing decomposing bodies and skeletal remains.” The BBFC also noted that there was occasional use of “mild bad language, including 'shit' and 'ass'.”

The X certificate was abolished a few weeks later on November 1st, 1982. the BBFC finally answering BBFC Secretary John Trevelyan's criticism that the’X’ tag was too suggestive. It was replaced with the much more neutrally-named 18 certificate.

#poltergeist #PoltergeistTimeline #PoltergeistBook #tobehooper #horrorbooks #horrorjunkie #horrorfanatic #horrormovie #80smovies #80sHorror #practicaleffects #Oliverrobins #martincasella #BBFC

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Remembering American actor David Soul on his birthday. Born 28 August 1943. He was a versatile actor who brought deep compassion to his roles. He was perfectly cast as Ben Mears in Tobe Hooper’s Salems Lot. A stand out scene has Ben fashioning a cross out of medical tape and tongue depressors, then blessing it as Mrs Glick begins to awaken underneath the sheet that covers her body, as the dread builds to unbearable levels. A brilliantly played sequence from Soul, expertly orchestrated by Hooper

#TobeHooper #SalemsLot #Vampires #stephenking #davidsoul #Horror #horrorfanatic #horrorjunkie

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Remembering the great Tobe Hooper who passed away 7 years ago today (26 August 2017). I had only just met him in person at what turned out to be his last public appearance - He was attending the London Film and Comic Con in late July 2017. We spoke about Salems Lot and Tobe was warm and welcoming. Four weeks later he was gone. One of the all-time horror greats!

#tobehooper #horrorlegend #horrorfanatic #poltergeist #PoltergeistTimeline

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Remembering Marilyn Burns who passed away 10 years ago today (May 7, 1949 – August 5, 2014). She was a brave and courageous actress, best known for playing Sally Hardesty in Tobe Hooper's horror film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), which established her as a scream queen and a catalyst of the final girl trope. Scream Queen Icon. RIP

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"LOOK AT ME TEACHER!"

Remembering actor Geoffrey Lewis on his birthday. Born July 31, 1935. Lewis appeared in more than 200 films and television shows, and was principally known for his film roles alongside Clint Eastwood and Robert Redford. He often portrayed villains or quirky characters, and he memorably played Mike Ryerson in Tobe Hooper’s TV mini series Salems Lot.

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Remembering British actor James Mason, who passed away on this day in 1984, aged 75. Mason had an illustrious career starring in such films as George Cukor's A Star Is Born (1954), Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959), Stanley Kubrick's Lolita (1962), Warren Beatty's Heaven Can Wait (1978) and Sidney Lumet's The Verdict (1982). He is fondly remembered as Kurt Barlow's sinister vampire familiar - Richard Straker in Tobe Hooper’s brilliant 1979 TV Movie 'Salem's Lot'

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Belated Happy Birthday to American writer, director and former child actor Oliver Robins (born July 22, 1971). He is best known for his portrayal of Robbie Freeling in Tobe Hooper’s 1982 feature film ‘Poltergeist’ and its 1986 sequel Poltergeist II: The Other Side.

Robins said he had no real acting experience before auditioning for “Poltergeist” which was an open call with hundreds of people wanting to be considered. Robins recalled waiting for hours before getting to talk with the casting directors and impressing them with a story about how he had lived in a haunted house while in New York.

Spielberg and director Tobe Hooper were concerned because Robins couldn’t really scream, and they ended up getting a coach to help him learn how to. When he proved to the filmmakers that he could indeed scream, Robins got the part.

Oliver Robins later said - “There was only one director on set, and that was Tobe Hooper. Spielberg did write the story, but Hooper was the only one who directed me. It does feel like a Spielberg movie and he did work closely with Hooper on this project. In many ways it was a team effort, but Hooper was the true director of ‘Poltergeist.’”

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Absolutely stunning Japanese B2 style cinema poster for Tobe Hooper's 'Lifeforce' (1985)

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