MovieChat Forums > Poltergeist (1982) Discussion > Great Direction During Tangina's Speech

Great Direction During Tangina's Speech

posted 7 years ago by Kevinology (38)
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That entire scene was magnetically filmed, with the close-ups of the family's reactions and the changes in the music score - very cinematic. Considering the whole thing is basically just an exposition dump, Hooper did a pretty decent job making it engaging to listen to, which isn't easy. Gotta give some credit to Zelda Rubinstein too, while some of her delivery was wooden she mostly excelled in her intonation and expression to a point where it always kept me interested. In fact the performances in this movie overall are much better than the standard set by other horror movies of that era.

[–] AngularTurnip (3338) 7 years ago

What I love about the speech is that it illustrates one of many collisions throughout the film of the two dominant, and wildly different, creative influences at work: Spielberg and Hooper. The first part is pure Spielberg -- mushy and full of wonder -- but, once Tangina advises the others "to hold onto themselves," we're in, as far as I'm concerned, Hooper territory for the speech's duration (Spielberg is nowhere near as capable of wringing the degree of dread that Hooper does from Tangina's reading of "The Beast" alone).

The next scene, I would argue, is even better directed. It's a nearly three minute continuous shot that starts as a close up on the tennis ball Ryan is marking and concludes with a close up of the doorknob of Caroline's bedroom. Tangina also delivers during this continuous shot the movie's best line: "You can't choose between life and death when you're dealing with what's in between." Sounds like a line you might hear in the "Twilight Zone," which makes sense since if you've seen "TZ"'s "Little Girl Lost" you know this movie owes a lot to it.