via Poltergeist (1982)
Just saw “Poltergeist”, another trip down memory lane. The timewarp effect is heightened because this was the first time i heard of “the light” and spirits “crossing over”, the standard model of life and afterlife described by mediums. At the time I was an atheist so it seemed silly. Now the humor is that i know that the medium character in the movie speaks only the plain truth.
I am so nostalgic child I was . . . why do I still cling to a fondness for that linear, mundane reality, when movies and rock music were important events, even though now my life is far more dramatic and truly supernatural than any movie could be — because it’s real! Maybe it’s because it was all so ugly and messy. In my next life I’ll be a rock star.
I guess it’s also funny that I remember how terrifying and “realistic” the special effects seemed at the time, from an era before “The Matrix” and “Jurassic Park”. The little glowing streamers of ectoplasm were my favorites — they’re so dated now, so obviously “cartoony” I have to laugh. But now I can see the actual etheric plane I know that some of those little lights look exactly the way they’re suppposed to.
And of course the two daughters in the film died within a few years. As I recall John Belushi had been up for the lead. Shades of Heath Ledger, Brandon Lee, Aaliyah, et al. No accidents here, but the meaning of it is closed to me. However now, after more than twenty years I know there IS a meaning, and it wasn’t “just a movie”. There was a reason I got attached to it and saw it so many times.
Does a movie like this open a portal to a higher plane? It must.
Ha! They’re showing “the Exorcist” this weekend, too! Of course we all scoffed back then when they told us it was based on a true story, but now, watch out!