Who Directed Poltergeist?

Seems like a relatively easy question to answer. You check IMDB, the DVD cover, credits at beginning or ending of the movie. They all say Tobe Hooper, who is known for the original “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” fame. But even after almost 30 years, there's still doubt in the air.

You see, Steven Spielberg thought up the story and along with Michael Grais and Mark Victor, wrote the script. Spielberg also produced the film and was reported to be on set every day of the shoot, except for the 3 days he was in Hawaii with George Lucas after the release of “Raiders of the Lost Ark”. He was by contract, not allowed to direct another movie while he was working on “E.T: The Extra Terrestrial”. The LA Times showed up on the set one day to see Spielberg filming some 2nd Unit (he was allowed by his contract) shots at the beginning of the film with the kids and the remote control cars. That is how the rumor got started.

But it didn't stop there. Over the years, many of the actors and crew members have spoken up about the matter:

JoBeth Williams (Diane Freeling)
“It was a collaboration with Steven having final say.”

Bill Varney (Sound Mixer)
“Tobe dropped by one or two times, but he had no input whatsoever as far as our (sound) work was concerned. Basically, Tobe didn't participate at all.”

Dennis E. Jones (Production Manager)
"Some directors kick the producer off the set. In this particular case, that didn't occur. It was an amicable situation. Tobe seemed to resolve Steven's participation in his mind. But I'm sure inside he was hurting."

Mike Fenton (Casting Director)
"Did he (Tobe) direct the film? Not that I saw."

Perhaps one of the most damaging quotes came from Zelda Rubinstein who played psychic Tangina:

“I can tell you that Steven directed all six days I was there. I only worked six days on the film and Steven was there. Tobe set up the shots and Steven made the adjustments. You're not going to hear that from Tobe Hooper, you’ll hear it from Zelda, because that was my honest to God experience. I’m not a fan of Tobe Hooper. I feel he allowed… I don’t know how to say this… he allowed some unacceptable chemical agents into his work. I felt that immediately."

I could go on and give more crew testimonies but let's go in to some of the stories from the set. Like the scene in which Carol Anne (Heather O'Rourke) is holding on to the bed railing for dear life. The scene really upset the child actor and she fell apart. Spielberg stopped the production, took her in to his arms and told her she didn't need to film the scene again.

During the scene where Robbie (Oliver Robins) is being strangled, the clown's arms became extremely tight and Robbins started to choke. He screamed out "I can't breathe!" and Steven Spielberg and Tobe Hooper thought that the boy was ad-libbing and continued to tell him to look at the camera. When Spielberg saw his face turning blue, he ran over and removed the clown's arms from the child's neck.Why the hell isn't Hooper taking charge?

Ok, now forget everything you've read up to now. The film looks and feels like a Spielberg film. This case can be argued because Spielberg was said to have storyboarded every shot so that may be why it looks like one of his films. However if you look at Hooper's line of films, none of them look, feel or did as well as Poltergeist. It's also interesting that Spielberg has produced over 50 productions that he didn't direct and they all don't have this mystery of Directed by Unknown except this one.

In my opinion, I believe Spielberg set out to let Tobe Hooper direct Poltergeist because he contractually could not. During the process he couldn't fully give his baby up, either because he's too protective or because of an incompetent director. Perhaps Hooper gave up and became a fall guy. It was said that once Production wrapped, Hooper wasn't involved with post production. A director that's not involved with 1/3 of the production process should not be called a director.

I hope someday that MGM, the crew, Hooper and Spielberg will get together and acknoledge that there was two director's on the film Poltergeist. All prints of the film from that point would be altered to state:

Directed by

Tobe Hooper

Steven Spielberg