So now you've watched one of the great horror freakshows of the 1980s - Poltergeist - and you've read Stephen King's essay "Why We Crave Horror Movies." Here's my question for you:
What 'gators' (figuratively speaking, of course) does the movie Poltergeist 'keep fed'?
Be specific in your answer, and be sure to make specific references to the movie.
Bonus Trivia - King at one time was in talks with Speilberg to write the scirpt for Poltergeist. It never happened. King was then later in talks with Speilberg to write the screenplay for The Haunting, a movie Speilberg produced based on the novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson - King's favorite haunted house novel. That never happened, either.
Bonus Lesson - We spoke briefly about 'letterbox format'. I have a better review of it here. Take a look. I actualy use Poltergeist as one of examples as to how letterboxing can mutilate films.
Essentially, Stephen King explains that horror films serve to maintain some normalcy within people. In a way, horror films is able to supress someone's insanity by portraying the brutal sequences of a violent/frightening film. In the movie Poltergeist, there were many examples where cruel or frightening instances were shown. For example, the clown came to life in a scene where it began to choke the boy. The fear brought along with the clown fed the 'fear gators,' allowing the viewers to share a sense of fear.
ReplyDeleteTheir are many aligators being fed in Poltergeist. One fear is not being able to get to your children. Probably all parents are terrified of not being able to reach their children. During the last scene of Poltergeist, the mom is unable to open the door when she knows that her children are in the room being harmed. Another example is when CarolAnne is taken into the ghost world and the only way to contact her is through the tv. CarolAnne's mother cannot get to her because she does not know how to get into the ghost world (at that point in the movie). Another fear is the supernatural. People become afraid of ghosts easily because they know nothing about them and they're very mysterious. Poltergesit keeps many aligators fed so they can appeal to a wide variety of audience.
ReplyDeleteThese so called "gators" that he is speaking of is our own subconcious. Everyone has scary thoughts. Thoughts about killing, hatred, ghosts, monsters, and just plain horrific sights. We all have thoughts like these floating around in the back of our heads. What if this were to happen? What if I were to do this to someone? What would happen if someone did that? To keep us all from carrying out these thoughts or these thoughts from overcoming us etc., we find a balance when we watch horror films. They let us experience fear and all those subconcious thoughts, with out doing the actions ourselves or having a tangible experience of it. Poltergeist has a few examples of this. For example, many are afraid of clowns and in this movie one comes to life and strangles the child. Many things in the movie also take place in the closet or under the bed and many people, kids especially, have a fear of both those places. Another example is when the mother falls into the pit and can't get out while dead bodies are popping up all around her. Being stuck in a place is a truly frightening thing for people, and when dead bodies are all around you, that just adds to the fright factor.
ReplyDeleteThroughout all of Poltergeist, we can see many "gators being fed." The gators being the things that we as people feel are our fears and things we would never dare to do in real life and therefore rely on seeing these things in movies instead. During one of the scenes of Poltergeist, there is a ghost monster trying to get out of the closet. This so called gator feeds upon the fact that many children constantly fear there being something scary hiding in their closet. Another very obvious gator being fed is the one that has to do with separation from the family. Carol Anne gets sucked into the hole in her bedroom closet only to be taken into a world inhabited by several ghosts. This fear is one that many children and even adults share because being separated from family means a loss of security and safety.
ReplyDeleteAll of what Stephen King explains about "keeping the gators fed" is absolutely true. To stay sane in these oh so sick minds that we all do have, we must see the horrors that run through our thoughts, the horrors that we crave to see although not too many people would admit to this.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the entire film, Poltergeist most definitely "keeps the gators fed". As much as we want the family to be safe and sound in the end, a part of us does want them to go through hell just to get to the safe side. For example, the clown in Robby's room. Just the sight of the clown's devilish grin sent this young boy into a panic, but in reality it was just a life-sized clown doll. But of course, having the sick thoughts that people do, we wanted something more to happen with this clown. And so it did, when the clown begins to strangle Robby after a shocking pop out moment in the film. Relieved that Robby ends up safe and perfectly fine, but still satisfied with what had happened with the clown. In this part of the film, there appears to be a loss of hope and loss of security. Also, Poltergeist "feeds the gators", although a short scene, when one of the paranormal camera men starts to peel off his face but merely turns out to be an illusion. The scene itself is so sickening and quite the disturbing sight, but do many cringe with disgust? No, because although it's a terrible thing for someone to go through and a horrible fear, people still love seeing things like this. At this point, Poltergeist is feeding the worst of all gators, fear of death. Technically, he was not prepared for what he saw and experienced, but it most definitely was a death and fear experience. Strangely enough, in this horror film nobody dies. Even though nobody dies, the audience is still more than satisfied with the deranged and bizarre horrors this film shows.
Writers of horror movies aknowledge ones fears and toy with them to make the particular movie truly scary. Stephen King refers to this as "keeping the gators fed" , gators meaning ones fear(s). A truly good horror movie must keep our fears obtained, even after we enjoy that entertainment. In poltergiest, the common fears the writers toy with are: the fear of losing ones parents, the fear of closets, the fear of clowns, and the fear of monsters and/or ghosts. For example, at the end of the movie the mom is trying to get to her kids but the door is guarded. This feeds the gator of losing ones parents or children. This also feeds the gator of monsters/ ghosts since a ghost-type-thing is guarding the door blocking parent from children. Good writers try to feed more than one gator as a time to make it even scarier and more appealing to viewers.
ReplyDeleteStephen King refers to a persons fears in a horror movie as, "keeping the gators fed". In order for one to be scared, the gators must be present and fed. In Poltergiest, the gators that were fred were; the fear of clowns, the fear of the boogie man under a bed, and the fear of closets. Before the family leaves the house for good the kids take a nap. Robbie realizes that the clown is missing so he gets scared. With his gator of clowns and the boogie man, he goes into panic and searches under the bed for the boogie man. a
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