How does 'Poltergeist' draw on actual poltergeist accounts?

How does 'Poltergeist' draw on actual poltergeist accounts?

Poltergeist marked Hollywood's big-budget engagement with the ghost film in 1982. Produced by Stephen Spielberg and directed by Tobe Hooper, it took the haunted house film and mashed it together with the family adventure film. Throw in some special effects courtesy of Industrial Light and Magic, and you end up with the film that relocated haunted houses to the suburbs.

The film obliquely references the settlement of land in California and a failure to acknowledge earlier inhabitants of that land. It also explicitly engages with the growing consumer boom of the 1980s, using technology - here in the form of the TV set - as a means to communicate with the other side. It's a film worthy of study for various reasons.

But one of the talking heads in the special feature on the 25th anniversary edition of the film exclaims that everything in the film 'really happened'. Does the depicted activity bear any relation to historically recorded cases of poltergeist activity? Where does the film draw on this record? What are these earlier cases? Let's find out!

Find the images and references on the blog post: https://www.icysedgwick.com/poltergeist-1982-film/

Tell me your supernatural stories: https://forms.gle/WzXyGZLoe8iLZh656

Order Ghostlore: https://geni.us/ghostlore

Get your free guide to home protection the folklore way here: https://www.icysedgwick.com/fab-folklore/

Become a member of the Fabulous Folklore Family for bonus episodes and articles at https://patreon.com/bePatron?u=2380595

Buy Icy a coffee or sign up for bonus episodes at: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick

Fabulous Folklore Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/fabulous_folklore

Pre-recorded illustrated talks: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick/shop

Request an episode: https://forms.gle/gqG7xQNLfbMg1mDv7

Get extra snippets of folklore on Instagram at https://instagram.com/icysedgwick

Find Icy on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/icysedgwick.bsky.social

'Like' Fabulous Folklore on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fabulousfolklore/

Jaksot(428)

Legends of New York's Islands: Buried Treasure and Typhoid Mary

Legends of New York's Islands: Buried Treasure and Typhoid Mary

New York City conjures up images of a neon-drenched Times Square, skyscrapers gleaming in the sun, and the labyrinthine subway system.  Yet the city also boasts three main rivers; the Hudson to the w...

29 Marras 202524min

Menorca Legends: Lost Cities, Giants, and the Cyclops

Menorca Legends: Lost Cities, Giants, and the Cyclops

Menorca is one of the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea. Well-known for a huge collection of megaliths, Menorca has seen human activity since the prehistoric era. This period was the Talayotic...

22 Marras 202518min

Anglesey Folklore: Witches, Ghosts, and Ancient Druids

Anglesey Folklore: Witches, Ghosts, and Ancient Druids

Perhaps most famous as the home of the druids, Ynys Môn, also known as Anglesey, occupies 275 square miles just off the north Wales coast. It is an ancient place. Archaeologists found Neolithic settl...

15 Marras 202524min

Legends of Drake's Island: Tunnels, Ghosts, and a White Lady

Legends of Drake's Island: Tunnels, Ghosts, and a White Lady

Drake's Island sits in Plymouth Sound, around 500 m from the mainland. The island is just 6.5 acres, and around 250 yards wide at its broadest point. You can reach the island by boat in 10 minutes. I...

8 Marras 202522min

Listener Supernatural Experiences Part 4

Listener Supernatural Experiences Part 4

Today marks All Saints' Day, also known as All Hallows' Day or the Feast of All Hallows. That's why Hallowe'en is called that - it's All Hallow's Eve. The day celebrates saints, but the far more inter...

1 Marras 202525min

How do we understand the reputation of the Amityville Horror House?

How do we understand the reputation of the Amityville Horror House?

If I ask you to think of a famous haunted house, will your mind wander to a white Dutch Colonial house, with quarter-round windows lit from within to look like red eyes? Yes? Then the reputation of 11...

25 Loka 202518min

Just how bad were the prisons at the Doge's Palace?

Just how bad were the prisons at the Doge's Palace?

The Palazzo Ducale dominates the view as your vaporetto approaches the San Marco stop. The huge building is an example of Venetian Gothic architecture, all pointed arches and quatrefoils. It's hard to...

18 Loka 202520min

British Folklore from Past to Present with Owen Davies and Ceri Houlbrook

British Folklore from Past to Present with Owen Davies and Ceri Houlbrook

In this episode of Fabulous Folklore Presents, I'm talking to two folklore heavyweights - Owen Davies and Ceri Houlbrook! Owen Davies is Professor of Social History at the University of Hertfordshi...

14 Loka 202550min

Suosittua kategoriassa Yhteiskunta

olipa-kerran-otsikko
i-dont-like-mondays
siita-on-vaikea-puhua
kaksi-aitia
gogin-ja-janin-maailmanhistoria
poks
antin-palautepalvelu
kolme-kaannekohtaa
sita
mamma-mia
yopuolen-tarinoita-2
aikalisa
rss-murhan-anatomia
meidan-pitais-puhua
loukussa
rss-palmujen-varjoissa
lahko
rss-napy
rss-nikotellen
terapeuttiville-qa