#poltergeistbook

TOBE HOOPER -

"Salem's Lot does not rely on the same kind of dynamics as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. "This film is very spooky – it suggests things and always has the overtone of the grave. It affects you differently than my other horror films. It's more soft-shelled," director Tobe Hooper explains. "A television movie does not have blood or violence. It has atmosphere which creates something you cannot escape – the reminder that our time is limited and all the accoutrements that go with it, such as the visuals."

Poster Art by Christopher Franchi

Belated Happy Birthday to American writer, director and former child actor Oliver Robins (born July 22, 1971). He is best known for his portrayal of Robbie Freeling in Tobe Hooper’s 1982 feature film ‘Poltergeist’ and its 1986 sequel Poltergeist II: The Other Side.

Robins said he had no real acting experience before auditioning for “Poltergeist” which was an open call with hundreds of people wanting to be considered. Robins recalled waiting for hours before getting to talk with the casting directors and impressing them with a story about how he had lived in a haunted house while in New York.

Spielberg and director Tobe Hooper were concerned because Robins couldn’t really scream, and they ended up getting a coach to help him learn how to. When he proved to the filmmakers that he could indeed scream, Robins got the part.

Following the success of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and numerous endorsements from director William Friedkin, Universal Pictures signed Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel to a multi-picture film deal in 1976. During his time at Universal, Hooper directed “Funhouse” (1981) and wrote four screenplays that went unrealized. One was ‘The Thing’, a remake of the old RKO classic.

After Universal Pictures purchased the remake rights to 23 RKO Pictures films in 1976, including The Thing from Another World. Universal President Ned Tanen asked ‘The Thing’ producer Stuart Cohen to consider newly contracted Tobe Hoper and Kim Henkel to take a look at the project. Henkel wrote the screenplay quickly, in six weeks, delivering a 109 page script in February 1977 just weeks before an impending WGA strike that was scheduled for March 1977. Stuart Cohen – “What I remember was a man vs. monster epic with an Ahab - like character battling a seafaring Moby Dick like creature.”

The partnership only lasted a couple of months and Hooper and Henkel moved on to other projects. The Thing was eventually directed by Cohen’s first choice – John Carpenter with a screenplay coming from Bill Lancaster, with the film being released in 1982.

Hooper speaking in 1982 said “The new screenplay is different enough from mine. I don’t feel I was ripped off. It’s hard to say that because I got paid for the work, I did under contract to them.”

But the screenplay offers a tantalizingly different concept from John Carpenter’s masterpiece, and poses another “What could have been?” in Hooper's oeuvre.