Poltergeist Getting The Horror TV Treatment From Star Trek & Supernatural Writers

In today’s unnecessary franchises news, Amazon is developing a TV series based on “Poltergeist,” the 1982 horror classic directed by the late, great Tobe Hooper (yes, Hooper, now shut up) and based on a story by Steven Spielberg (who co-wrote the script), which also inspired the song “Shining” by the band Misfits. According to Variety, Amazon MGM has tapped Kalinda Vazquez and Robbie Thompson to serve as writers, showrunners, and executive producers on the series. As of now, however, details are sparse when it comes to the show’s approach to the larger franchise.

Vazquez previously worked on “Star Trek: Discovery” and “Prison Break,” while Thompson worked on “Supernatural” and served as the showrunner for the prequel series “The Winchesters.” The series also brings the horror property full circle, seeing as the original “Poltergeist” was actually inspired by a television show — specifically an episode of “The Twilight Zone” — and is now inspiring a TV series of its own.

Hooper and Spielberg’s original 1982 horror film centers on the Freelings, a family that moves into a new home in the suburbs only to discover their house is infected by ghosts (which try to kidnap their young daughter). The film is infamous for its rather spectacular special effects and gnarly horror (which even the cast found legitimately spooky), and is arguably one of several PG-rated Spielberg productions from the early ’80s that helped lead directly to the creation of the PG-13.

The original “Poltergeist” proved to not only be a huge box office hit, but also a franchise starter, with a sequel following promptly in 1986 and a third film in 1988 before a remake was released in 2015. Unfortunately, the sequels suffered from a variety of issues, not the least of which was the fact that only Zelda Rubinstein (who played the medium Tangina Barrons) and Heather O’Rourke (who played Carol Anne Freeling) returned to appear in the two sequels. And though the third film is perfectly decent, no “Poltergeist” movie has gotten anywhere close to matching the original so far.

A TV show based on a classic horror movie sounds like a fool’s errand, but let’s not forget about the brilliance of the “Exorcist” TV show, one of the best horror series in the past decade. Still, the original 1982 film is genuinely hard to match — not only because of its visual effects, but also because of the timeliness of its American suburban setting. Rather than taking place at a remote, decaying old house, the film brought the horror right to our streets and neighborhoods, much in the way John Carpenter did with the original “Halloween.” Can that terrifying, surprising feeling be matched in 2024? Time will tell.