‘Poltergeist’ Making-Of Featurette: On the Horrors of Suburbia

“They’re here” — they, in this case, meaning the cast and crew of “Poltergeist,” that 1982 horror classic that forever changed the way moviegoers look at Native American burial grounds. Writer/producer Steven Spielberg, director Tobe Hooper and star Craig T. Nelson can all be seen discussing the horror classic in the below making-of featurette.

Also featured is producer Frank Marshall, who brings up the film’s seemingly mundane backdrop of a typical suburb. “We wanted our setting to be very normal,” he says, as a means of making the supernatural goings on more unsettling; Spielberg adds to this, positing that the humdrum suburban lifestyle “breeds a certain kind of individual.” This, of course, is meant to make the film hit closer to home.

One thing the seven-minute featurette doesn’t touch on is the supposedly cursed nature of the production — several cast and crew members have met with tragic or otherwise unfortunate fates. (Viewers, meanwhile, have been subjected to a spate of lackluster sequels and remakes.)