PicoBlog

I saw Poltergeist when it first aired on network TV. For those who weren’t around in the early 80s, there weren’t a lot of ways to see a movie if you missed its run in the theater. Poltergeist didn’t predate VCRs, but it DID predate Blockbuster and even the small rental stores. But the biggest movies often had a showing on television. Edited for content and with regular commercials, but still.

Anyway, the premiere of Poltergeist on TV was a big deal. I begged my mom to let me go see it at my friend Mark’s house down the block. His whole family was going to watch it. Against her deep misgivings - she thought I’d be terrified of it - she let me.

When I got back - it was early, the movie aired in the afternoon - my mother was prepping dinner. I remember her tight lips when she asked me what I thought of the movie. I said it was fine. She said good and told me to go upstairs and shower before dinner.

I completely fell apart. I couldn’t go upstairs alone. I was terrified, all of a sudden and all at once. The movie was horrifying and it’s scariest scene took place in the room I had, until then, felt safest in - the room where I sat on the floor and played with my Legos while my mom chatted on the phone or made me a snack.

I was a nightmare to my parents. I wouldn’t go upstairs alone, I wouldn’t go downstairs alone, I wouldn’t play in my playroom without someone next to me because I was worried a tree was going to attack me through the window. I cried. I couldn’t sleep. Weeks went by. I honestly didn’t get any better until the summer ended and I went back to college. BAM!

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