This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
James, Craig T. Nelson actually delivers one of the signature lines of the movie to your character. JK: “You took away the headstones but you didn’t take the bodies!” I had prepared well for that scene where Craig grabs me and starts shouting. I used an acting term called “As If.” It was as if my best friend, my brother, had turned on me and said something dreadful that I didn’t want to hear. That technique made the scene work well. It was a little method acting, you know. [Chuckles] There were some wonderful stories about JoBeth [Williams] shooting those scenes in the swimming pool with all the skulls popping up. I must tell you, seeing those skeletons scared the bejesus out of me! You’d be standing there talking to somebody and suddenly this coffin would shoot out of the ground, the lid would fall open and there’d be this horrible corpse staring you right in the face.


I understand that real skeletons were used for the pool sequence. CR: Yes, real skeletons were obtained to fabricate the cadavers, but let me explain why. First of all, they were purchased as display skeletons through a high school and college lab supply house. They were held together with springs, bolts and wire and were manufactured to hang on stands as study tools in classrooms. There was also the option to purchase plastic replica skeletons but they were twice as expensive and I was on a fairly tight budget, whatever might be assumed to the contrary. More to the point, however, is that the plastic skeletons all looked exactly alike. They had no personality, no individuality. On the other hand, the human skeletons that the company offered were very much different one from the next. It was definitely the right way to go and those genuine skeletons lent a special degree of creepiness to the com- pleted props. By the way, very early on I discussed with Tobe the appearance of the cadavers, saying that I could make them realistic or EC Comics “realistic,” meaning, of course, exag- gerated and grotesque. This being a horror film and not a documentary, I was strongly inclined to the latter approach and he agreed with me.


No discussion of Poltergeistis possible without mentioning the lingering controversy over who actually directed it. MG: The Writers Guild was on strike during the shooting of Poltergeist, so I was outside [MGM] carrying some sign, picketing my own film being shot on the lot. There are so many ironies in Hollywood. One of Spielberg’s assistants came and got me and brought me onto the set for a peek when they were shooting the ghost-rape scene. Tobe was sitting in the di- rector’s chair and Steven was standing behind him and they were both talking to people and giving directions. It looked like Tobe was working with a strong producer who had a lot of input into the film. The end result, when I saw it, did appear to be way more Spielberg than Hooper, but that’s all I know.


MC: I don’t think anybody will mind this story being on-record be- cause it’s been 30 years. The first thing we shot was the


Cont’d on p.22


don would be without its bloodcurdling howl? Or Fiend Without a Facerobbed of its dreadful throbbing pulse? Or even see- ing Castle Frankenstein in a movie, minus an accompaniment of nerve-shredding thunderclaps?


Needless to say, the value of this cinematic craft is not lost on veteran


sound effects editor, Mark Mangini (Gremlins, The ’Burbs, The Mist). Back in 1981, he was one-third of the dynamic trio at Thundertracks, Ltd., the most innovative sound effects company in Hollywood. Along with partners Richard L. Anderson and Stephen Hunter Flick, Mangini helped create a veritable aural compendium of the strange and terrifying for Poltergeist. Buoyed by their Oscar-winning efforts on Raiders of the Lost Ark, the team divided the work equally between them. Each took four of the film’s twelve ten-minute reels and was tasked with designing, recording and editing all of the sound effects contained within their respective sections. Charged with realizing the sonic manifestations of The Beast, Mangini


began by recording “large animal sounds” at a California sanctuary. “The big skull-head that comes leering out of the closet was a multi-layered sound that included lions, tigers, elephants and the groans of humpback whales,” he reveals. “These were edited on top of each other to create this frightening multi-phonic roar that would startle the audience. There was also ‘The White Beast,’ which is the ghost-creature that terrorizes JoBeth Williams in the hallway. That was specifically created only from lion and tiger sounds. By using carefully edited snippets and simple tape manipu- lation – speeding it up, slowing it down – we got that unearthly feral sound.” Freelance sound effects specialist Alan Howarth (The Thing, They Live,


Body Work: Craig Reardon touches up a real skeleton, and (inset) Diane nearly drowns with the dead.


RM20


five of the Halloween sequels) also provided audio for a number of se- quences, including “shrieks” for the skeletons that erupt out of the ground during the climactic sequence (“I’m aware skeletons don’t have vocal cords,” he concedes.) “We continually wanted to make the sound effects organic,” Howarth


professes. “These were literally the pioneering days. We were using ‘mod- ern’ analog studio recording tape machines, reverbs and mixers. This was


ment what An American W


HE IMPORTANCE OF SOUND EFFECTS IN ANY MOVIE SEEMS OBVIOUS, but audi- ences and critics often turn a deaf ear to the achievements of the artists who devise them. Yet consider for a mo- erewolf in Lon-


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64