The legacy of Poltergeist begins with Raiders of the Lost Ark. During the production of Raiders, Steven Spielberg headlined discussions for what soon became Poltergeist. In a 1982 interview with Fangoria Magazine, Producer Frank Marshall said:
“Steven had always wanted to do a ghost story. So we talked about doing a ghost story that would be allied in approach with Close Encounters of the Third Kind, exploring parapsychology and ghost phenomena in the same way CE3K explored UFO phenomena.”
Steven soon began transferring his ideas to paper. Marshall continued:
“Steven wrote the treatment while we were working on Raiders. I have no idea where he found the time, he must have written it in the car between the hotel and the studio!”
Soon after, MGM Studios bought the story, and Spielberg remained and kept a great deal of control as his treatment grew into script and then into a movie.
The original treatment was called It’s Nighttime. It differed from the final film in many ways, including characters names and events. An archaeological dig played a pivotal part of the story and the ending was quite different. Instead of the house disappearing into thin air, an evacuation of the towns people was considered. (You can read the story treatment here)
Screenwriters Michael Grais and Mark Victor were then hired to do the script, after being confronted about writing a remake of A Guy Named Joe, which later became Always. Spielberg then re-wrote the script.
In the script, Marty is reffered to as Tak, and actor Martin Casella did not know the character’s name was changed until he heard the line “Marty won’t be coming back.”
Spielberg later compared Poltergeist to Close Encounters saying:
” I never thought of UFOs as a threat to humans but rather, I think of them as something capble of giving mankind hope. I hold the same kind of views towards ghostly hauntings. And that is clearly expressed in this movie just as with Close Encounters. The important work that kids do in this picture is another shared trait between both pictures. But while Close Encounters dealt with wonder and awe as it’s themes,this film is characterized by the themes of crisis and horror.“
The filmmaker’s took believability into consideration and set the movie in a realistic universe of a typical, suburban neighborhood. Not only that but average, human phobias (a fear of clowns) and worries (losing a loved one) were put in, making many of the scary and suspensful moments relatable to an everyday audience. The idea being that the Beast “knows what scares you” and will use that fear against you. And it worked, The clown scene is debatably the biggest scare. I know it made me jump!
It was also very important to the filmmakers that the film get a PG rating. During the promotion for the film, the filmmakers would emphasize that the film has very little gore and how it is still scary even though no one dies in the film. In an promotional materials, Spielberg is quoted to saying:
“There are no knifings, no murders, and no decapitated heads. We do have one scene which appears to be instantly violent and gory, but it turns out to be a quick hallucination.”
The film originally got an R rating which was later appealled, and the MPAA gave the film a PG rating.
