ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - June 10th

"POLTERGEIST III" released in 1988

The deceased, insane preacher Rev. Henry Kane (played this time by Nathan Davis) returns from limbo with his "people" to again haunt the young Carol Anne Freeling (Heather O'Rourke), in this final installment of the Poltergeist series, Poltergeist III!

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The Freeling family has sent Carol Anne (Heather O'Rourke) to live with Diane's sister Pat (Nancy Allen) and her husband Bruce Gardner (Tom Skerritt) in Chicago. Carol Anne has been told she is living with her aunt and uncle temporarily to attend a unique school for gifted children with emotional problems, though Pat thinks it is because Steven and Diane just wanted Carol Anne out of their house. Pat and Bruce are unaware of the events that the Freeling family had endured in the previous two films, only noting that Steven was involved in a bad land deal. Along with Donna (Lara Flynn Boyle), Bruce's daughter from a previous marriage, they live in the luxury skyscraper (Chicago's 100-story John Hancock Center) of which Bruce is the manager. Carol Anne has been made to discuss her experiences by her teacher/psychiatrist, Dr. Seaton (Richard Fire). Seaton believes her to be delusional; however, the constant discussion has enabled the evil spirit of Rev. Henry Kane (Nathan Davis) to locate Carol Anne and bring him back from the limbo he was sent during his previous encounter with her. Not believing in ghosts, Dr. Seaton has come to the conclusion that Carol Anne is a manipulative child with the ability to perform mass hypnosis, making people believe they were attacked by ghosts. Also during this period, Tangina Barrons (Zelda Rubinstein) realizes that Kane has found Carol Anne and travels cross-country to protect her. But with the evil Kane now possessing the mirrors of the building -  causing the reflections of people to act independently of their physical counterparts - will Carol Anne and Tangina be able to thwart Kane's plans once again?

TRIVIA:   The returning cast of Heather O'Rourke and Zelda Rubinstein were joined by series newcomers Tom Skerritt, Nancy Allen, and, in her film debut, Lara Flynn Boyle. The film also co-stars Richard Fire, Kipley Wentz (as Donna's doomed boyfriend) and replacing Julian Beck in the role of the evil Rev. Kane, is Nathan Davis.

Top:   Carol Anne (Heather O'Rourke) now lives with her aunt Pat (Nancy Allen) and her family, husband Bruce (Tom Skerritt) and daughter Donna (Lara Flynn Boyle);

Above:   Medium Tangina Barrons (Zelda Rubinstein) returns to save Carol Anne from the evil Kane!

Director Gary Sherman thought the idea of the city setting would be just as scary as isolated suburbia, years later stating he felt that "there are people on the other side of the wall, and no one cares that you are in trouble". The gimmick of Kane possessing the mirrored surfaces in the building corridors and the apartment posed quite a problem for cinematographer Alex Nepomniaschy, as well as the huge amounts of practical effects performed on set. One such scene, where the cars chase Patricia and Bruce, the car's explosion set the entire set on fire, almost taking a crew member and the few cameras he was rescuing. Arriving the next day, O'Rourke was relieved no one was hurt before asking "Did you get the shot?"

Although the third film in a successful series to that date, Poltergeist III had the lowest budget, at $10.5 million. Some have reported that the reduced budget meant the filmmaker's were unable to afford the services of Jerry Goldsmith, who had scored the first two films; Goldsmith tells a different story - Goldsmith was unhappy with the results of Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986) and did not have an interest in doing the third film. Also, it's clear that MGM did not want to spend the extra money they knew it would cost to hire Goldsmith, considering that Poltergeist III was being made on a lower budget than the last film. Ultimately, Poltergeist III was scored by Joe Renzetti.

Then, four months before the release, tragedy struck as Heather O'Rourke suddenly passed away, barely a month after her 12th birthday. Having been ill for several months with what was misdiagnosed as Crohn's disease, O'Rourke subsequently underwent medical treatment during parts of the filming. having completed filming, she returned home to California where her illness appeared to be in remission. However, in late January 1988, O'Rourke suddenly became ill again, her condition rapidly deteriorated, and she died on February 1, 1988. Out of respect, director Sherman initially refused to attempt any reshoots that might have involved the young actress, but, due to studio pressure, reshot some sequences using a body double stand-in in March, 1988.

TRIVIA:   MGM,  out of fear of appearing to be exploiting the death of O'Rourke, Skerritt and Allen were discouraged from giving interviews about the film to avoid questions about the young stars passing.

 Top and Above:   With Kane and his spirits taking possession of the mirrors, it opens a doorway between the land of the living and the realm of the dead!

Upon its release in 1988, Poltergeist III received extremely negative reviews from critics, with famed Chicago film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert hated the film; they were both annoyed by the film's excessive use of a certain screenwriting strategy of characters crying out each other's names almost all the time; particularly the character of Carol Anne whose name is spoken a total of 121 times - Ebert even noted that when he went to see the film, the audience in the theater also became annoyed at the tactic, so the audience started screaming back the names of the characters towards the screen!

All was not ended with the series after Poltergeist III. Over the following years there has been a TV series, Poltergeist: The Legacy (1996) that ran on ShowtimeSci-Fi channel for four seasons. Zelda Rubinstein herself had a guest appearance, albeit as a different character. Then in 2015, the remake Poltergeist was released to reboot the series, starring Sam Rockwell, Rosemarie DeWitt, and Kennedi Clements, playing the young Bowen daughter. The remake also received average reviews, putting the possibility of future Poltergeist movies in doubt.

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE:  18%

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ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - June 8th

"GREMLINS" released in 1984

A young boy inadvertently breaks three important rules concerning his new pet and unleashes a horde of malevolently mischievous monsters on a small town, Joe Dante's cult comedy horror, Gremlins!

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Randall Peltzer (Hoyt Axton), a struggling inventor, visits a Chinatown antique store in the hope to find a Christmas present for his son Billy (Zach Galligan). In the store, Randall encounters a small, furry creature called a mogwai (Cantonese for "monster"). The owner Mr. Wing (Keye Luke) refuses to sell the creature to Randall, though his grandson secretly sells the mogwai to Randall but tells him to remember three important rules that must never be broken – do not expose the mogwai to bright lights or sunlight which will kill it, do not let it get wet, and never feed it after midnight. Randall returns home to Kingston Falls where he gives the mogwai to Billy as a pet. Billy works in the local bank and fears his dog Barney will be put down by Mrs. Deagle. Randall names the mogwai “Gizmo” (voiced by Howie Mandel) and Billy makes sure to treat him well. But when Billy’s friend Pete (Corey Feldman) spills a glass of water over Gizmo, five more mogwai spawn from his back, a more troublemaking sort led by the aggressive Stripe (voiced by Frank Welker). Billy shows one of the mogwai to his former science teacher Mr. Hanson, spawning another mogwai, who Hanson experiments on. Stripe’s gang tricks Billy into feeding them after midnight by chewing out the power cord to his bedside clock and transform into cocoons, as does Hanson’s mogwai. Shortly after, their cocoons hatch and they emerge as mischievous, reptilian Gremlins that torture Gizmo and try to murder Billy’s mother, while Hanson is killed by his Gremlin. Billy eventually manages to kill of the Gremlins; except for Stripe, who escapes to a local YMCA and jumps into a swimming pool, spawning an army of Gremlins who wreak massive chaos around Kingston Falls! 

TRIVIA: Chris Walas suggested they use puppets instead of the proposed stop motion idea. As a compromise the studio suggested a spider monkey in a suit which was tested at Joe Dante's office, the animal went crazy, tearing the office apart and defecating everywhere. Dante screamed at the trainer to get the animal and then asked Walas, 'So puppets?' 

Top and Above:   Billy (Zach Galligan), Gizmo (voiced by Howie Mandel), and Kate (Phoebe Cates) must find a way to stop the army of Gremlins from destroying Kingston Falls.

To commemorate the release of Gremlins today, IHdb has included a special Behind the Scenes Featurette on the making of the movie. Includes interviews with director Joe Dante and executive producer Steven Speilberg, the featurette also features an in-depth look at the filming in Chinatown. Enjoy!

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE:   85%

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ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - June 8th

"GHOSTBUSTERS" released in 1984

When three eccentric parapsychologists get kicked out of their positions at a university in New York City where they studied the occult, they decide to set up shop in an old firehouse and become Ghostbusters - trapping pesky ghosts, spirits, haunts, and poltergeists, in Ivan Reitman's classic horror comedy Ghostbusters!

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Parapsychologists Peter Venkman, Raymond Stantz, and Egon Spengler (Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis) are called to the New York Public Library to investigate recent paranormal activity. They encounter the ghost of a dead librarian but are frightened away when she transforms into a horrifying monster. After losing their jobs at Columbia University, the trio establish a paranormal investigation and elimination service known as "Ghostbusters". They develop high-tech equipment capable of capturing ghosts and open their business in a disused, run-down firehouse. Egon warns them never to cross the energy streams of their proton pack weapons, as this could cause a catastrophic explosion. They capture their first ghost, Slimer, at a hotel and deposit it in a specially built containment unit in the firehouse basement. As paranormal activity increases in New York City, they hire a fourth member, Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson), to cope with demand.  Events turn sinister when the Ghostbusters are retained by cellist Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver), whose apartment is haunted by a demonic spirit, Zuul, a demigod worshipped as a servant to Gozer the Gozerian, a Sumerian shape-shifting god of destruction. Venkman takes a particular interest in the case, and competes with Dana's neighbor, accountant Louis Tully (Rick Moranis), for her affections. As the Ghostbusters investigate, Dana is demonically possessed by Zuul, which declares itself the "Gatekeeper", and Louis by a similar demon, Vinz Clortho, the "Keymaster". Both demons speak of the coming of the destructive Gozer and the release of the imprisoned ghosts, and the Ghostbusters take steps to keep the two apart. But their plans are thrown into disaray when  a lawyer representing the Environmental Protection Agency (and who also holds a personal grudge against Venkman) orders their ghost containment system deactivated, causing an explosion that releases hundreds of ghosts that begin to terrorize New York City!

TRIVIA:  There was an even more ferocious version of the Librarian Puppet that was going to be used, but it was rejected. However, it was recycled and used in another successful Columbia Pictures film released one year after this one, Fright Night (1985).

Top:   The Ghostbusters face off against the giant Stay-Puft Marshmellow Man!;

Above:   Stars Ernie Hudson, Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murry with director Ivan reitman (center)

To commemorate the release of Ghostbusters today, IHdb has included a special 10-minute Behind the Scenes Featurette on the making of the movie. Including interviews with Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd, Harold Ramis, Sigourney Weaver and director Ivan Reitman, as well as a special look at the creation of the fantastic ghostly visual effects. Enjoy!

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE:   97%

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ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - June 5th

"INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 3" released in 2015

A prequel set before the haunting of the Lambert family that reveals how gifted psychic Elise Rainier reluctantly agrees to use her ability to contact the dead in order to help a teenage girl who has been targeted by a dangerous supernatural entity, in Saw-screenwriter Leigh Whannell's directorial debut, Insidious Chapter 3!

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Retired parapsychologist, Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye), reluctantly uses her spiritual ability to contact the spirit of Quinn Brenner's (Stefanie Scott) mother, Lillith (Ele Keats), who died a year before. However, she urges Quinn not to make contact with her mother again after a demonic figure continues to haunt her, becoming increasingly malevolent as time progresses and leaving Quinn with her neck injured after the demon flings her around her bedroom. Qinn's father Sean (Dermot Mulroney) tries to convince Elise, who like him is still grieving after the loss of her husband Jack, to help his daughter, but Elise declines, stating that her previous visits to the "dark" spiritual world made her realize that an evil spirit is hunting to kill her. However, she is convinced by her fellow parapsychologist, Carl (Steve Coulter), to continue using her spiritual ability, reminding her about her successful case involving Josh Lambert and stating that she is stronger than any spirits or demons because she is living and they are not. Due to Elise's refusal, Quinn's brother Alex suggests to call the demonologists Specs and Tucker (Leigh Whannell and Angus Sampson), but Quinn's possession grows increasingly worse as she, now possessed by the demon, breaks through her braces. Realizing that they are scammers, Sean prepares to kick the duo out until Elise arrives timely. Deducing that the demon's goal is to lure potential victims to "the Further" so it can eat their life force, Elise decides to enter the spiritual world with Specs and Tucker recording any activities and words she spells out. With the help of a spirit who likewise is a victim of the demon, Elise enters the Further once again to face the malevolent spirit the Bride in Black (Tom Fitzpatrick) to free Quinn from her control once and for all.

[Choking Elise]
Bride In Black: This is how you die.
Elise Rainier: Not today!
[pushes Bride in Black]
Elise Rainier: Come on bitch!

Top and Above:   Parapsychologist Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye) reluctantly enters the Further again to rescue the spirit of a young girl, Quinn Brenner (Stefanie Scott)

Just two days after the release of Insidious Chapter 2, producer Jason Blum announced the development of the third entry in the Insidious franchise, with Leigh Whannell signed on to return as writer, with Blum and Oren Peli set to produce once again. However, original Insidious director James Wan was not able to return to helm Chapter 3 due to a scheduling conflict with Furious 7, leaving Wan's longtime writing partner Whannell to make his directorial debut. Returning cast - along with Whannell as Specs - included Angus Sampson as Spec's partner Tucker, and actress Lin Shaye as parapsychologist, Elise Rainier. Stefanie Scott, Dermot Mulroney and Tate Berney were soon cast as the Brenner family, with Tom Fitzpatrick and Joseph Bishara being later confirmed to return as the demons from the Further, Bride in Black / Parker Crane and the Lipstick Demon respectively. Actress Ele Keats was then added to the cast as Lillith Brenner. Interestingly, during the filming of the climax, Whannell did not want the other actors (including Shaye and Sampson) to meet the actress playing Lillith, so they could have a more powerful reaction to her appearance, with Ele Keats not stepping onto the set until the very last second.

 Above:   Writer/director Leigh Whannell on set with stars Lin Shaye and Stefanie Scott

Released on June 5, 2015, Insidious Chapter 3 grossed an impressive $113 million gross at the box office, and received mostly positive reviews from critics. Justin Lowe of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a positive review, saying "Insidious: Chapter 3 offers a relatable young protagonist and several key supporting players from the prior films in a nimble setup to the series", while Kerry Lengel of The Arizona Republic gave the film three out of five stars, saying "Insidious: Chapter 3 is almost more a spoof of a classic like The Exorcist than it is an homage. It's not scary horror, it's silly horror, and the audience is in on the joke." Peter Howell of the Toronto Star gave the film two and a half stars out of four, saying "This prequel to the shriek hell, directed and scripted by series writer/actor Leigh Whannell, manages to avoid the Curse of the Triple Cash Grab."

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE:   58%

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ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - June 4th

"POLTERGEIST" released in 1982

Life is very pleasant for the close-knit Freeling family until a host of otherworldly forces invades their peaceful suburban home, in Tobe Hooper's cult haunted house film, Poltergeist!

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Steven and Diane Freeling (Craig T Nelson and JoBeth Williams) live a quiet life in an Orange County, California planned community called Cuesta Verde, where Steven is a successful real estate developer and Diane looks after their children Dana (Dominique Dunne), Robbie (Oliver Robins), and Carol Anne 9Heather O'Rourke). Carol Anne awakens one night and begins conversing with the family's television set, which is transmitting static following a sign-off. The following night, while the Freelings sleep, Carol Anne fixates on the television set as it transmits static again. Suddenly, a ghostly white hand emerges from the television, followed by a violent earthquake. As the shaking subsides, Carol Anne announces "They're here". Bizarre events occur the following day: a drinking glass of milk spontaneously breaks, silverware bends and furniture moves of its own accord. The phenomena seem benign at first, but quickly begin to intensify. That night, a gnarled backyard tree comes alive and grabs Robbie through the bedroom window. While Steven rescues Robbie, Carol Anne is sucked through a portal in her closet. The Freelings realize she has been taken when they hear her voice emanating from the television set that is tuned to an empty channel. A group of parapsychologists from UC Irvine — Dr. Lesh (Beatrice Straight), Ryan (Richard Lawson), and Marty (Martin Casella) — come to the Freeling house to investigate and determine that the Freelings are experiencing a poltergeist intrusion. They discover that the disturbances involve more than just one ghost, and sometime later Steven also finds out in an exchange with his boss, Lewis Teague (James Karen), that Cuesta Verde is built where a cemetery was once located. After Dana and Robbie are sent away for their safety, Lesh and Ryan call in Tangina Barrons (Zelda Rubinstein), a spiritual medium. Tangina states that the ghosts inhabiting the house are lingering in a different "sphere of consciousness" who are attracted to Carol Anne's life force which distracts them from the real "light" that has come for them. Tangina then darkly adds that there is also a demon known as the "Beast", who has Carol Anne under restraint in an effort to restrain the other spirits. Discovering the entrance to the ghostly dimension, Tangina directs Diane in a desperate effort to rescue Carol Anne from the Beast and to lay the spirits haunting the Freelings home to rest once and for all.

TRIVIA:   The shot of the chairs that position themselves in the amazing balancing act on the table was all done in one take. As the camera panned along with JoBeth Williams, who was getting some cleaning materials, several crew members quickly set an already organized pyramid of chairs on the table, then took the single chairs away before the camera scrolled back.

Top and Above:   The Freeling family; Carol Anne (Heather O'Rourke) and Dana, Diane, Robbie and Steven (Dominique Dunne, JoBeth Williams, Oliver Robins, and Craig T Nelson).

Poltergeist came about from producer Steven Spielberg's failed attempt to do a sequel to Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Originally, Spielberg approached horror author Stephen King to write the screenplay - which would have been the first written by King directly for the screen - but the parties could not agree on the terms. When writers Michael Grais and Mark Victor first met with Spielberg, they were being hired to write the film that eventually became Always (1989). But when Spielberg happened to mention he also had an idea for a ghost story, Grais and Victor said they'd rather write the ghost story than Always and began working on the first drafts of the screenplay. Spielberg initially offered Tobe Hooper the script for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial to direct, but when Hooper declined Spielberg gave him the script for Poltergeist instead (Spielberg himself would go on direct E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, at the same time as producing Poltergeist). Originally, as Hooper, Spielberg and the screenwriters were plotting out the screenplay, Carol Ann was going to get killed in the 1st act and then haunt the house in the second. They eventually decided this was too dark, and opted to have her kidnapped by the ghosts. In fact, eventually, so many of the dark elements were removed because Spielberg wanted a PG rating so that the film could run as a double feature in theaters with the concurrently released E.T.; so much so that there were no deaths at all in the final movie, and only a couple light injuries.

Spielberg and Hooper wanted virtually unknown actors to play the Freelings because they wanted to add a realism to the family that would off-balance the ghost story, feeling that if the audience watched well-known stars, then it would take away from the realistic feel of the characters. Drew Barrymore was first considered for the role of Carol Anne Freeling, but Spielberg wanted someone more "angelic" (although Barrymore did not get that part, her audition for this role landed her a part in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial). Spielberg explained that he was looking for a "'beatific' four-year-old child...every mother's dream" for the lead, and found her in the most unlikely of places - in the MGM studios commissary. Heather O'Rourke was eating lunch with her mother (who were both visiting O'Rourke's sister who was working on another film on the lot), when Spielberg came up to them and wanted O'Rourke for the part of Carol Anne. O'Rourke initially failed the first screen-test because she kept laughing her way through the audition, even when she was supposed to be afraid. Spielberg thought she was too young to take the part seriously, but he still recognized something special in her, so he asked her to come back for another audition, and this time, bring a scary storybook with her. He also asked her to scream, so she screamed and screamed until she started crying. This audition got her cast as Carol Anne. Spielberg later cast the remain Freeling family, with Craig T Nelson, as patriarch Steven, JoBeth Williams as his wife Diane, and Dominique Dunne and Oliver Robins as the remaining Freeling children, Dana and Robbie respectively. Actress Zelda Rubinstein was later added to the cast as eccentric medium Tangina Barrons - both Rubinstein and O'Rourke would be the only actors to return for the Poltergeist sequels, with Rubinstein also reprising her role in a cameo for the short lived TV series spin off, Poltergeist: The Legacy. 

[Tangina explains the spirits that are holding Carol Anne]
Tangina: There's one more thing. A terrible presence is in there with her. So much rage, so much betrayal, I've never sensed anything like it. I don't know what hovers over this house, but it was strong enough to punch a hole into this world and take your daughter away from you. It keeps Carol Anne very close to it and away from the spectral light. It lies to her, it tells her things only a child could understand. It has been using her to restrain the others. To her, it simply is another child. To us, it is the Beast.
[Long pause]
Tangina: Now... let's go get your daughter.

Top:   Eccentric spiritual medium Tangina Barrons (Zelda Rubinstein);

Above:   Diane encounters the ghostly Beast!

Though on-screen credit goes to Tobe Hooper, a wealth of evidence suggests that most of the directorial decisions were made by Spielberg himself - in fact, Spielberg had wanted to direct the film himself, but a clause in his contract stated that while still working on E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Spielberg could not direct another film. However, with delays shooting E.T. (which location was only 20-minutes away from the Simi Valley location where Poltergeist was filming), the cast and crew found Spielberg on set almost every day of production. And when questioned about who had the greater control over Poltergeist, Spielberg or Hooper, Spielberg replied, "Tobe isn't... a take-charge sort of guy. If a question was asked and an answer wasn't immediately forthcoming, I'd jump in and say what we could do. Tobe would nod agreement, and that became the process of our collaboration." After this statement came out, a few members of the cast and crew, including Executive Producer Frank Marshall  stated, "the creative force of the movie was Steven. Tobe was the director and was on set every day. But Steven did the design for every storyboard and was only absent for three days during the shoot, because he was in Hawaii with (George) Lucas." The Directors Guild of America "opened an investigation into the question of whether or not Hooper's official credit was being denigrated by statements Spielberg has made, apparently claiming authorship", until Spielberg sent an open letter to Hooper, which was later printed in The Hollywood Reporter;

Regrettably, some of the press has misunderstood the rather unique, creative relationship which you and I shared throughout the making of Poltergeist.

I enjoyed your openness in allowing me... a wide berth for creative involvement, just as I know you were happy with the freedom you had to direct Poltergeist so wonderfully.

Through the screenplay you accepted a vision of this very intense movie from the start, and as the director, you delivered the goods. You performed responsibly and professionally throughout, and I wish you great success on your next project.

Despite the open letter, and the DGA concluding there was "no evidence" that Spielberg should receive a co-directing credit, several members of the Poltergeist cast and crew have over the years consistently stated that Spielberg was the 'de facto director' of the picture, while other actors have claimed Hooper directed the film. In a 2007 interview with Ain't It Cool News, Rubinstein discussed her recollections of the shooting process. She said that "Steven directed all six days" that she was on set: "Tobe set up the shots and Steven made the adjustments." She also alleged that Hooper "allowed some unacceptable chemical agents into his work," and felt that "Tobe was only partially there." Subsequently, the issue of who had creative control over Poltergeist is still a muddy issue even today.

Above:   Producer Steven Spielberg and director Tobe Hooper on set of Poltergeist.

Released by MGM on June 4, 1982, Poltergeist was a commercial success, grossing over $75 million at the US box office; making it the highest grossing horror film of the year, and the 8th highest grossing film of 1982 (Spielberg's own E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial coming first that year with nearly $360 million at the box office). Poltergeist was also a hit with critics, with Peter Rainer writing in the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, "Buried within the plot of Poltergeist is a basic, splendid fairy tale scheme: the story of a little girl who puts her parents through the most outrageous tribulation to prove their love for her. Underlying most fairy tales is a common theme: the comforts of family. Virtually all fairy tales begin with a disrupting of the family order, and their conclusion is usually a return to order." Andrew Sarris, in The Village Voice, wrote that when Carol Anne is lost, the parents and the two older children "come together in blood-kin empathy to form a larger-than-life family that will reach down to the gates of hell to save its loved ones." Poltergeist also earned three Academy Award nominations that year for Best Sound Editing, Best Original Score, and Best Visual Effects - although all of them lost to Spielberg's other film E.T. The Extra Terrestrial!

The house that gets sucked into a black hole at the end was actually a model about four feet across. The model took several weeks to complete. The shot was arranged with the camera placed directly above model, which was mounted over an industrial strength vacuum generator (the front door was facing directly up, straight at the camera). The model also had about 100 wires attached to various points of the structure. These wires went down through the back of the house, and down through the vacuum collection sack. The camera was turned on, and took 15 seconds to wind up to the required 300 frames per second. The vacuum was turned on, the wires were yanked, and several SFX guys blasted the house with pump-action shotguns. 

The entire scene was over in about two seconds, and they had to wait until the film was developed before they knew if they would have to do it again. Luckily, they got it right on the first take. The finished scene was sent to Steven Spielberg, who was on location shooting E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). He gave it to a projectionist, who assumed it was dailies from ET and was startled by the images. Spielberg had the remains of the model encased in perspex, and it is now sitting on his piano. The model itself was worth well over $25,000.

Aside for being nominated for three Academy Awards, a scene from the film was ranked as #80 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments, and the Chicago Film Critics Association named it the 20th scariest film ever made. The film also appeared at #84 on American Film Institute's 100 Years...100 Thrills, a list of America's most heart-pounding movies. Poltergeist also spawned a franchise around young star Heather O'Rourke, who went on to play carol Anne in Poltergeist II: The Other Side and Poltergeist III; although neither would have the success of the original. Actors Craig T Nelson, JoBeth Williams, and Oliver Robins reprises their roles as the Freeling family for the first sequel (along with Rubinstein as Tangina Barrons), but, tragically, teen actress Dominique Dunne was murdered by her estranged ex-boyfriend shortly after Poltergeist was released. Years later O'Rourke would also sadly pass away in early 1988 from a misdiagnosed illness causing a heart attack, which has prompted some to associate these tragedies with the "Poltergeist curse" (the rumor is often fueled by the allegation that real skeletons were used as props in various scenes of Poltergeist and Poltergeist II: The Other Side). Nevertheless, in 2015, MGM produced and released  a "revisionist" reboot of the series, starring Sam Rockwell, Rosemarie DeWitt, Saxon Sharbino, Kyle Catlett, and Kennedi Clements as the Bowen family, with Jarod Harris as occult specialist and television personality Carrigan Burke. The remake was met with moderate box office receipts and mostly negative reviews from critics, with critical consensus reading, "Paying competent homage without adding anything of real value to the original Poltergeist, this remake proves just as ephemeral (but half as haunting) as its titular spirit."

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE:   88%

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ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - May 25th

"ALIEN" released in 1979

After a space merchant vessel perceives an unknown transmission as a distress call, its landing on the source moon finds one of the crew attacked by a mysterious life-form, and they soon realize that its life cycle has merely begun, in Ridley Scott's cult sci-fi chiller, Alien!

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The commercial spacecraft Nostromo is on a return trip to Earth with a seven-member crew in stasis: Captain Dallas (Tom Skerritt), Executive Officer Kane (John Hurt), Warrant Officer Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), Navigator Lambert (Veronica Cartwright), Science Officer Ash (Ian Holm), two Engineers, Parker (Yaphet Kotto) and Brett (Harry Dean Stanton) and also a cat named Jones. Detecting a mysterious transmission from the nearby planetoid LV-426, the ship's computer, Mother, awakens the crew. Company policy requires crews to investigate such transmissions so they land on the planetoid, sustaining damage from its atmosphere and rocky landscape. Parker and Brett repair the ship while Dallas, Kane and Lambert head out to investigate. They discover the signal comes from a derelict alien spacecraft and head inside it, losing communication with Ash. Exploring the spacecraft, they find the remains of a large alien creature whose rib cage appears to have exploded from the inside. On Nostromo, Ripley determines that the transmission may be a warning, not a distress call. In the alien ship, Kane discovers a chamber containing hundreds of large egg-like objects. As he inspects one, a creature springs out and attaches to his face. Dallas and Lambert carry the unconscious Kane back to the Nostromo. As acting senior officer, Ripley refuses to let them aboard, citing quarantine regulations, but Ash ignores Ripley and lets them in. The crew unsuccessfully attempt to remove the creature from Kane's face, discovering that its blood is an extremely corrosive acid. It later detaches on its own and dies. With the ship partly repaired, the crew lifts off. Kane awakens, dazed but otherwise unharmed. During a final crew meal before stasis, he chokes and convulses in pain. He dies as a small alien creature bursts from his chest and escapes out into the ship. The remaining crew attempt to capture the alien, but are dispatched one-by-one by the ever evolving - and increasing aggressive - creature, until only Ripley is left to face the terrifying Alien!

TRIVIA:  During early development, Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett ran into a writing impasse while trying to work out how the alien would get aboard the ship. Shussett came up with the idea "the alien fucks one of them," which was eventually developed into the facehugger concept. This method of reproduction via implantation was deliberately intended to invoke images of male rape and impregnation, so both writers were adamant that the facehugger victim be a man: firstly because they wanted to avoid the horror cliché of women being depicted as the easy first target; secondly because they felt that making a female the casualty of a symbolic rape felt inappropriate; and thirdly, to make the male viewers feel more uncomfortable with this reversal of genre conventions.

Top:   The Xenomorph literally bursts from Kane's (John Hurt) chest... and later grows into a highly aggressive creature which dispatches the crew of the Nostromo one-by-one!

To commemorate the release of Alien, IHdb presents the brilliant feature-length documentary on the making of the film, The Beast Within: The Making of 'Alien'. Produced in 2003, the documentary features interviews with director Ridley Scott and master designer H.R. Giger, as well as with star Sigourney Weaver and other members of the cast and crew, who share their experiences from working on the project and discuss the special efforts that went into bringing it all together.

Enjoy!

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE:   97%

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ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - May 15th

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME" released in 1981

At a private school in Massachusetts, Crawford Academy, popular girl Virginia's group of her friends begin to fall prey to a grueling series of murders, and soon there will be no one left to attend her 18th birthday party, J. Lee Thompson's cult slasher film, Happy Birthday to Me!

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At Crawford Academy, the richest, most popular - and most snobbish teens - at the Academy, the elite clique the "Top Ten", meet every night at a local tavern, the Silent Woman Tavern. The Top Ten includes; Bernadette (Lesleh Donaldson), Amelia (Lisa Langlois), Etienne (Michel-René Labelle), Greg (Richard Rebiere), Maggie (Lenore Zann), Steve (Matt Craven), Rudi (David Eisner), Alfred (Jack Blum), Ann (Tracey E. Bregman), and Virginia "Ginny" Wainwright (Melissa Sue Anderson). On the way home, the Top Ten see a drawbridge going up and decides to play a game of chicken. All cars in the game attempt to make it across before the bridge is completely raised (to allow the passing of ferries). A protesting Ginny is shoved into a car by Ann, and very car jumps the drawbridge save one. Distraught, Ginny runs off into the darkness and visits her mothers grave before returning hom to be berated by her father Harold (Lawrence Dane) for returning home late. The next morning, school principal Mrs. Patterson (Frances Hyland) threatens the Top Ten with the banning of ever going to The Silent Woman after hours. Later that day, Ginny has a session with her on-call psychiatrist, Dr. David Faraday (Glenn Ford) shares a handful of lost repressed memories where she underwent an experimental medical procedure, involving surgery to restore brain tissue, after surviving a harrowing accident at the same drawbridge years before. As Ginny attempts to resume her normal life, her fellow Top Ten members are being murdered in vicious and violent ways: Etienne gets strangled when his scarf is caught in the spokes of his motorcycle as blood splatters, and Greg gets his neck crushed while lifting weights. And yet, the killer who always sports a pair of black gloves is never seen. With Ginny's 18th birthday steadily approaching, she begins to believe she that she may have killed her friends in a fugue state, resulting from the trauma of her mothers death years before; after leaving Ann's party in a drunken rage, Ginny's mother drove her car off the drawbridge into the river below, killing herself, and seriously injuring Ginny. Not knowing what to believe, Ginny returns home... where the killer has a gruesome birthday party waiting for her!

[last lines]
Lieutenant Tracy: [seeing all the dead bodies] Dear God, what have you done?
Virginia Wainwright: [singing to herself, now insane] Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday dear Ginny. Happy birthday to me.

Top and Above:   Crawford Academy's elite clique The Top Ten, including Virginia "Ginny" Wainwright (Melissa Sue Anderson)(top right).

Interestingly Happy Birthday to Me was filmed before - but released after - producers John Dunning and André Link follow-up My Bloody Valentine; My Bloody Valentine went into production a week after Happy Birthday to Me wrapped, but post production was rushed to meet the 11 February 1981 release date in time for Valentine's Day. During Happy Birthday to Me's development, Dunning and Link decided to capitalize on the success of the previous years release of horror/slasher films, including the wedding-themed He Knows You’re Alone, Prom Night, Mother’s Day, Friday the 13th,  two New Year's Eve-themed horror movies, Terror Train and New Year's Evil, as well as Christmas-themed films To All a Goodnight and Christmas Evil. The producers hired John Saxton, a University of Toronto English professor, to develop the story, with Dunning providing the basis for the subplot involving Virginia’s brain injury after reading an article where scientists were regenerating frogs with electricity; and figured this could form the basis for a murder mystery where a girl suffers flashbacks and blackouts yet is unsure of her role in the mayhem around her. The script was completely reworked by screenwriting team Timothy Bond and Peter Jobin before production started in early July 1980. At the helm was British director J. Lee Thompson, famous for the classic Cape Fear (1962). Thompson, who had actively been looking to direct a thriller after having directed two other films in the horror genre, Eye of the Devil (1967) and The Reincarnation of Peter Proud (1975), later stated in a press interview  "What attracted me to this script was that the young people stood out as vivid, individual characters. The difference between a good chiller and exploitative junk, at least in my opinion, is whether or not you care about the victims."

Starring Melissa Sue Anderson (who took time off from the TV series Little House On the Prairie to do this movie), Glenn Ford, Lawrence Dane, Sharon Acker and Frances Hyland, Happy Birthday to Me also featured young upcoming actors, Matt Craven, Lenore Zann, Jack Blum, David Eisner, Michel-René Labelle, Richard Rebiere, and Lesleh Donaldson. Actress Lisa Langlois originally auditioned for the part of Ann, but with role instead went to Tracey E. Bregman (in her feature film debut), with Langlois instead cast as Amelia. Reportedly, actor Glenn Ford - who was less-than-thrilled to be in a slasher film - was heavily drinking during the production of this picture, and constantly through tantrums. Thompson and the producers tolerated most of his behaviour, as an actor of his caliber brought a bit of Hollywood glamor to the film, a rare thing for most slashers, which kept costs to a minimum with largely unknown actors. However, producers were forced to step-in when Ford and assistant director Charles Braive were involved in an on-set altercation. According to Dunning, "He [Ford] hit our AD who had called a lunch break in the middle of one of Glenn's scenes. I had to stop the police from arresting him. It was a mess. Glenn wouldn't come out of his dressing room until the first AD apologized, who said he would never apologize to Glenn. But I told him that this might be the end of his career as an AD if he didn't. So, he went and said he was sorry... and Glenn said he was sorry. They kissed and made up. As far as I know, Glenn never hit anybody else.".

TRIVIA:   Many fans were upset with the 2004 DVD release from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment because, not only did it have a completely different cover to that of the infamous original poster and VHS cover, it featured a disco score in place of the atmospheric piano piece that originally played over the opening credits in theaters and VHS releases. In response, in 2009 Anchor Bay/Starz Home Entertainment re-released the DVD using the original poster as the cover and restoring the original music over the opening sequence.

Top and Above:   As Ginny struggles to remember her suppressed memories, helped by psychiatrist, Dr. David Faraday (Glenn Ford), her friends are being brutally murdered one-by-one!

While much of the film was shot in and around Loyola College in Montreal, the drawbridge scenes were actually filmed in Phoenix, New York, just outside Syracuse. The producers found it difficult to find the right bridge closer to the main production, as the expansion of the Highway system had made them increasingly rare. The whole town of Phoenix came to watch the dangerous stunts, where a total of fifteen cars were junked, and one stunt driver was hospitalized with two broken ankles. The bridge itself has since been removed and replaced by a bridge further to the north. The removal takes with it a piece of history in drawbridges. The film's make-up effects were done by special effects guru Tom Burman (who replaced Stéphan Dupuis just three weeks before the cameras were due to start rolling), who, accroding to Dunning in an interview with the Terror Trap in 2011, began "splashing [fake] blood all over the place" on the set, encouraged by Thompson himself. Dunning said: "The cameraman came to me and said, "John, you've gotta slow J. Lee down. He's throwing too much blood around, and the camera lenses are always covered in it!". He'd take a bucket of blood and whip it around. I had to go to him and tell him to tone it down so we could clean up the crew". In an interview with actress Lisa Langlois also at The Terror Trap, said: "That's something he [J. Lee Thompson] was very famous for on that set, slinging lots of fake blood all around!".

With script being continuously re-written during production, it was reported in the press that in order to keep the "twist" ending a secret several endings were shot - when it fact, it was to hide the fact that while shooting, the film had no ending! According to a copy of the third draft of the script (obtained by genre website Retro Slashers), Happy Birthday to Me was supposed to end where Ginny is revealed as the killer, but possessed by the spirit of her deceased mother. Although this ending logistically makes more sense than the ending that was filmed, the filmmakers thought that what was originally scripted was not climactic enough (still, the majority of the film does point to this original ending, which indicates the switch came well into production). This version of the script also features a good number of scenes that were either never shot or rewritten, including some that show more clearly Alfred's love for Ginny and Ginny's difficult relationship with her father. However, the script was rewritten with a far more twisted revelation where the identity of the murderer is revealed to be Ann, posing throughout the movie as Ginny's-doppelganger while murdering her school friends.

TRIVIA:   This film was the last movie that director J. Lee Thompson made before the start of his long association with Cannon Films and Golan-Globus Productions, starting with 10 to Midnight (1983), which would see out the remaining of his career; only one other picture, The Evil That Men Do (1984), being made outside of this production house.

Top:   Ann (Tracey E. Bregman) arrives the "party" to wish Ginny a Happy Birthday... revealing herself as the killer;

Above:   Director J. Lee Thompson (pictured on set of 1986's Murphy's Law).

Columbia Pictures bought the rights from Cinépix for a reported $3.5 million, and put as much money into promoting the film as it cost to make. Columbia actually published a promotional manual for Happy Birthday to Me, which was jam-packed with ideas for cinemas to promote the film. Although it is not clear how many picture houses really embraced the film's promotion, some of the more colorful ideas were to stage a mini-recreation of the film's final scene (without the bodies), but with a butchered birthday cake with crimson candles surrounded by glittering birthday party hats, all to be set upon a fake coffin. People celebrating their own birthdays were encouraged to bring family and friends with incentives, such as T-shirts and party hats. They also suggested having a member of staff, dressed in funereal black, preventing anyone from entering the auditorium during the final ten minutes. Those in line would then be offered "a bite-sized slice of Virginia's birthday cake” from the concession stand. Dunning and Link didn't like the advertising campaign Columbia devised, believing it should have been more subtle and worried that it might put off as many people as it attracted. They were also concerned that only a handful of the murders in the film were as truly bizarre as the expectation built up and that the audience might feel cheated.

Nevertheless, Happy Birthday to Me grossed over $10 million at the US box office, and, for a short time, was the highest ever grossing Canadian film until Bob Clark's Porky's came along the next year in 1982. Critically, the movie received mostly negative reviews, with Vincent Canby from the New York Times calling it a confused ripoff of Friday the 13th and Prom Night. James Harwood in Variety wrote that the film gets "dumber and dumber until the fitful finale". In 2012, AllMovie gave the film a mixed review, writing, "Happy Birthday to Me stands out from the slasher movie pack of the early '80s because it pushes all the genre's elements to absurd heights. The murders, plot twists and, especially, the last-minute revelations that are dished up in the final reel don't just deny credibility, they outright defy it."

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE:   27%

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