It begins with the Star Spangled Banner playing loud and proud as if we were about to watch a baseball game, but no it’s just some channel’s late night programming coming to a close. As it abruptly becomes white noise, the score transfers into an eerie melody with a small, almost unnoticeable hint of fantasy before it becomes a calm, bittersweat tune that transcends into an upbeat spasm that, like the rest of the score, makes for quite an enjoyable listen.
You could call Jerry Goldsmith’s Poltergeist score a “musical description of the film.” Like the film itself, it is a brilliant mixture of “fear,” “fantasy,” and “wonder,” three words that you’ll probably see a lot in this article. There are musical hints throughout the earlier scenes of the movie that this is all too good to be true and that really there is something wicked is lurking about. And it isn’t too long before it shows itself.
The score switches out the “quaint and bittersweat” melodies for a “calm, but twisted” approach. As the film starts to utilize childhood fears, such as clowns and scary looking trees, the score starts to play with around with those fears, letting us know that there is a reason to fear the things that often turn out to be nothing at all.
During the abduction scene, we are given an exciting, loud, and suspensful peice. In the second act, the fantasy element is taken up a notch until it’s reaches a high point during the rescue scene. After that, it is given a more twisted than ever character trait, as much of the “wonder” is replaced with harsh, loud, suspenseful cues, which eventually drown out, letting us know that the whole ordeal is over as we are once again treated to Carol Anne’s theme, this time with childrens’ voices humming along.
