"Poltergeist" resurrected

Who says movies don’t offer a window into the truth, a mirror of the zeitgeist? The titles, anyway. A tip of the hat to the people at Mudflats.com, a site dedicated to “tiptoeing through the muck of Alaskan politics,” for this update on what’s playing at the local movie house in Wasilla, Alaska, Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s hometown.

Meanwhile, I’ve been at a loss trying to come up with movie-related items stranger and more implausible than the recent developments in the Presidential election. Maybe this will do. “Poltergeist,” the  1982 Stephen Spielberg-produced,Tobe Hooper-directed horror film about evil spirits entering a suburban household through their TV screen, a smash hit that spawned two sequels, is being remade with Vadim Perelman (“The Life Before Her Eyes,” “House of Sand and Fog”) directing. That despite the alleged “’Poltergeist’ Curse,” which supposedly resulted in the death of at least four and as many as six of the cast members.

 One of these was the waif-like star Heather O’Rourke, who died on February 1, 1988 at the age of 12 after making "Poltergeist 3." As fate would have it, I was one of the last journalists to interview O’Rourke, spending a day on the set of the Chicago production for the “Chicago Sun-Times.” Perhaps the “Curse” extends to my efforts on mustering up a copy of my article on line; I’ve been completely stymied  trying to “register” to read it. All I remember about the experience is that Zelda Rubinstein, who played the dwarf exorcist and whom I also interviewed, was nasty and abusive. And also that they glued a fake moustache on my lip so I would resemble Tom Skerrit’s stand-in double..

At any rate, perhaps the only curse Perelman and company need fear is from fans of the original film. Here’s what “horrorchick81” has to say about the remake:

“u gotta be shittig me......like i said NOOO NEED TO REMAKE THIS. i hope everyone dies on this set.”

Good luck, Vadim.