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Abstract

, I have absolutely no desire to revisit that suppressed memory. For years I avoided the horror sections of rental stores on the off chance that I might catch a glance of the <i>Poltergeist</i> cover. I’m 45 years old now. If you tried to make me watch <i>Poltergeist</i> I punch you in the face.</p><p id="d88c">I’m serious.</p><h1 id="efdd">Bordering on child abuse</h1><p id="6430">There is extreme cruelty at play in exposing kids to a terrifying film. Film is a complete sensory assault. You’re sitting in darkness, you can’t control the volume, and the mechanism is designed to inject the sounds and images of terror directly into your brain.</p><p id="db2b">I remember sitting in my seat in a fetal position, hands clutched over my ears in a futile attempt to block out the noise, eyes tightly shut. I probably had a bowl cut, a rainbow shirt, and Star Wars sneakers. Somebody was laughing.</p><p id="5ae7">“Hahahaha, relax it’s just a movie.”</p><p id="4366">“Can we please go home!”</p><p id="4502">“No, just chill out dude!”</p><h1 id="3d7a">The tree scene was paralyzing</h1><p id="d418">The scene I remember most vividly comes late in the movie. The little girl, who is not played by Drew Barrymore (you’re thinking of <i>E.T.</i>), is scared by a thunderstorm and starts counting after every lightning flash to see how far away it is. Come to think of it, it might have been the boy who was counting. I tried to do some research and check, but in doing so I came across images from <i>Poltergeist</i> that dredged up overwhelming feelings of childhood terror, so I quit looking.</p><p id="fafb">Anyway, somebody is counting, and s/he is looking out the window at this big tree.</p><p id="974a">I remember thinking that the tree looked a lot like the tree outside <i>my</i> window back and home. I grew up in the country, we were <i>surrounded</i> by trees.</p><p id="b4c7">Well, the thunder keeps crashing and the lighting keeps flashing and the kid keeps counting, and all of a sudden the tree breaks the window, reaches in, grabs the kid, and starts to <i>eat</i> him!</p><p id="6258">That’s when I flipped out.</p><p id="3a56">I can hardly remember a night for the next three or four years when I didn’t look out a window and feel terror from the wooden limbs that looked like skeletal hands swinging in the night.</p><h1 id="33c4">Yeah, thanks for that</h1><p id="ba77">What the hell man? 38 years later I’m talking about this? I’m starting to get angry now, in fact, I’m so mad I could break something. Executives wanted a few extra bucks so they insisted on a PG rating and they traumatized children to the point where they couldn’t even talk about something for 4 decades?</p><p id="251e">I wouldn’t have even started writing this article if I hadn’t received an email calling for articles about spooky movies. I don’t think about <i>Poltergeist</i>. I have a lifetime worth of coping strategies I’ve developed to <i>stop</i> me from thinking about it. But when somebody asks, “What’s the scariest m

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ovie you’ve ever seen?” there’s only one answer.</p><p id="f0c5"><i>Poltergeist</i>.</p><p id="f8ea">That’s it.</p><p id="dc95">That’s the only one.</p><h1 id="d916">I hate horror films</h1><p id="8621">I avoid horror movies like the plague. It’s really not pleasant when you’re forced to roll into a ball and weep and endure the torment of an omnipotent force of evil. That’s not fun. I do not consent to that. I want my $4 back.</p><p id="62a0">The Motion Picture Association gives a film an R rating for a flash of side boob, but they’ll allow kids to be tormented by images of killer clowns without batting an eye?</p><p id="1288">Hypocrites. I hate them. There’s no coming back from this.</p><p id="b08a">By the way, I’d blocked out my memory of the clowns from the film, but thanks to doing research for this article I caught a glimpse of him again.</p><h1 id="1d90">Nobody really cares about kids</h1><p id="624a"><i>Poltergeist</i> is just another example that underscores the underlying hypocrisy that drives our whole society. People will sit around and claim they care about the well-being of children, and then they’ll do nothing and allow abusive behavior to go unchecked and unpunished. In the aftermath, the people responsible get haughty and even go so far as to blame <i>you</i> for some inconsequential transgression.</p><p id="c073">You think it’s funny to see a kid rolled up into a ball, screaming in terror, enduring a psychological torment for two hours that will haunt him forever?</p><p id="d155">I hope the people responsible for giving <i>Poltergeist</i> a PG rating got a lot of joy out of whatever they bought from whatever they were paid to completely abdicate their responsibilities. If there’s another world after this one, I sincerely hope they get what’s coming to them.</p><div id="ddf4" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/how-fight-club-changed-my-perception-of-society-and-art-69af270a85dc"> <div> <div> <h2>How ‘Fight Club’ Changed My Perception of Society and Art</h2> <div><h3>Revisiting the cult classic that was released to harsh criticism.</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*6vOuhnOOzRcv1KO46LDEhg.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><div id="689e" class="link-block"> <a href="https://medium.com/cinemania"> <div> <div> <h2>Cinemania</h2> <div><h3>A home for conversations about all things cinema.</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*N3GI4jUlY2HugYm1EtWdPg.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div></article></body>

I’m Still Traumatized by ‘Poltergeist’

40 years of torment from an MPA‘s money-grabbing move to rate a horror film PG.

To this day I still can’t figure out why my parents made me watch it. Perhaps it was because Steven Spielberg’s name was in the credits, though he wasn’t the director, perhaps it was because it had a PG rating even though it should have been rated R.

Poltergeist came out in 1982 and I was 7 years old. Watching it was the single most terrifying experience of my life.

Different times

1982 was the year of E.T., and it was one year after Raiders of the Lost Ark. Is that the answer? Did my parents think that Spielberg was the new Disney?

“This guy makes exactly the kind of movies you love, here are four bucks, we’ll see you in two hours!”

Was that the thought process that convinced my parents to subject me to 114 minutes of psychological torment that would haunt me for the rest of my life?

It shouldn’t have been PG

Poltergeist was released to theaters with a PG rating. The legend is that the film originally was given an R, but a group of industry elites, that may or may not have included Spielberg, used their influence to get it reduced. PG films make more money. Money’s the only thing that matters, not traumatizing little kids for their whole lives.

“Well, PG stands for ‘parental guidance’ after all. I mean, the parents are supposed to be there. What harm can it cause?”

I didn’t know that little tidbit about the rating mistake until I started doing research for this article. Learning that has changed my fantasy about meeting Spielberg. I no longer want to shake his hand and thank him for bringing Indiana Jones to life. Now I want to punch him in the face for Poltergeist.

Traumatic memories

In hindsight, I don’t know if I saw Poltergeist in a movie theater. I don’t know if I was alone or accompanied. All I know is that I was 7 and the movie scared me…

A lot.

I also have a vague recollection that somebody thought my terror was funny.

By the way, I haven’t talked to my dad in 25 years. The joke’s on him I guess.

Hopefully, it no longer has any power

If I were to revisit the film now, I’m sure I would find it to be campy and ridiculous. Special effects from 1982 have not aged well. I think Poltergeist has a lot of red gelatin. I dimly remember something like that.

The fact of the matter is, I have absolutely no desire to revisit that suppressed memory. For years I avoided the horror sections of rental stores on the off chance that I might catch a glance of the Poltergeist cover. I’m 45 years old now. If you tried to make me watch Poltergeist I punch you in the face.

I’m serious.

Bordering on child abuse

There is extreme cruelty at play in exposing kids to a terrifying film. Film is a complete sensory assault. You’re sitting in darkness, you can’t control the volume, and the mechanism is designed to inject the sounds and images of terror directly into your brain.

I remember sitting in my seat in a fetal position, hands clutched over my ears in a futile attempt to block out the noise, eyes tightly shut. I probably had a bowl cut, a rainbow shirt, and Star Wars sneakers. Somebody was laughing.

“Hahahaha, relax it’s just a movie.”

“Can we please go home!”

“No, just chill out dude!”

The tree scene was paralyzing

The scene I remember most vividly comes late in the movie. The little girl, who is not played by Drew Barrymore (you’re thinking of E.T.), is scared by a thunderstorm and starts counting after every lightning flash to see how far away it is. Come to think of it, it might have been the boy who was counting. I tried to do some research and check, but in doing so I came across images from Poltergeist that dredged up overwhelming feelings of childhood terror, so I quit looking.

Anyway, somebody is counting, and s/he is looking out the window at this big tree.

I remember thinking that the tree looked a lot like the tree outside my window back and home. I grew up in the country, we were surrounded by trees.

Well, the thunder keeps crashing and the lighting keeps flashing and the kid keeps counting, and all of a sudden the tree breaks the window, reaches in, grabs the kid, and starts to eat him!

That’s when I flipped out.

I can hardly remember a night for the next three or four years when I didn’t look out a window and feel terror from the wooden limbs that looked like skeletal hands swinging in the night.

Yeah, thanks for that

What the hell man? 38 years later I’m talking about this? I’m starting to get angry now, in fact, I’m so mad I could break something. Executives wanted a few extra bucks so they insisted on a PG rating and they traumatized children to the point where they couldn’t even talk about something for 4 decades?

I wouldn’t have even started writing this article if I hadn’t received an email calling for articles about spooky movies. I don’t think about Poltergeist. I have a lifetime worth of coping strategies I’ve developed to stop me from thinking about it. But when somebody asks, “What’s the scariest movie you’ve ever seen?” there’s only one answer.

Poltergeist.

That’s it.

That’s the only one.

I hate horror films

I avoid horror movies like the plague. It’s really not pleasant when you’re forced to roll into a ball and weep and endure the torment of an omnipotent force of evil. That’s not fun. I do not consent to that. I want my $4 back.

The Motion Picture Association gives a film an R rating for a flash of side boob, but they’ll allow kids to be tormented by images of killer clowns without batting an eye?

Hypocrites. I hate them. There’s no coming back from this.

By the way, I’d blocked out my memory of the clowns from the film, but thanks to doing research for this article I caught a glimpse of him again.

Nobody really cares about kids

Poltergeist is just another example that underscores the underlying hypocrisy that drives our whole society. People will sit around and claim they care about the well-being of children, and then they’ll do nothing and allow abusive behavior to go unchecked and unpunished. In the aftermath, the people responsible get haughty and even go so far as to blame you for some inconsequential transgression.

You think it’s funny to see a kid rolled up into a ball, screaming in terror, enduring a psychological torment for two hours that will haunt him forever?

I hope the people responsible for giving Poltergeist a PG rating got a lot of joy out of whatever they bought from whatever they were paid to completely abdicate their responsibilities. If there’s another world after this one, I sincerely hope they get what’s coming to them.