Poltergeist and Blue Velvet

Poltergeist was directed by Tobe Hooper although was written, produced and many other things by Steven Spielburg. It was made in 1982.
I enjoyed most of the film although it began to get repetitive at the end.
I thought the ghost effects looked very much like the effects in Ghostbusters. The smokey, streaking effects were similar too. I would have said that Poltergeist borrowed that look from Ghostbusters but Ghostbusters came second.



Although Sky Movies reveiwed it as the scariest movie yet, I find that hard to believe. The ghost effects looked almost exactly the same as Ghostbusters, which I did find scary when I was little, it doesn't scare now. The scarier moment in Poltergeist were when the spooky tree and the clown were just there, not moving... waiting for something to happen. This film relied on scares being created by scary looking things which is in complete contrast to films like Halloween and the haunting where suspense and the unknown are used. In a way this film has dated a lot and could only really scare kids and is more of a fun enjoyable film for those that aren't scared of ghosts and monsters. Alot of the other films we have watched have been subtler in how they show this evil in American suburbia.

The evil in Poltergeist was super natural but in Blue Velvet, it was realistic.

Blue Velvet was made in 1986 and directed by David Lynch.


The film starts all bright and ordinary. but when an ear is discovered, it is thought that something sinister is going on.



That ear belongs to a hostage held by this evil character called Frank. the hostage has a wife and a son and the son is also held hostage. Frank wanted control over the wife who is a singer in case you didn't know. Frank is a violent person who is weird. Then there the guy who discovered the ear who wants to be the detective and solve the crime. He gets involved more than he anticipated. There is also a corrupt police officer who wears a yellow suit. Another bright colour to go with the red of the roses. We would think that he is one of the good guys not just because he is a policeman but because he wears a summer colour, the same colour scheme as the intro to the film, where everything is perfect. All the violent parts of the film take place at night. This keeps the bad stuff hidden from the rest of the people, who only see the bright side of suburbia.

I didn't enjoy Blue Velvet. I found most of it boring as it felt more like a series of events. I also thought that the film couldn't decide what type of film it was as it drifted between themes. For that reason I didn't like it either. They went into great detail with the characters. The ending of the film was the same as the beginning but in reverse, the film was semi resolved. It was basically a detective story.