Poltergeist cameraman confirms long-standing rumor about the film’s real director
The Poltergeist franchise is famously cursed, supposedly due to the real human skeletons that were used as props in the original film. Stars Heather O’Rourke and Dominique Dunne both died young under tragic circumstances, and spooky happenings occurred on the set not only of Tobe Hooper’s 1982 movie, but on the set of Poltergeist II and the 2015 remake as well. Compared to all that, then, rumors that have persisted for decades that producer Steven Spielberg, not credited director Tobe Hooper, actually directed the film are no big deal.
Obviously, the existence of curses and ghosts and assorted beasties that hide in kids’ closets can’t be proven. Those rumors about the film’s true authorship can, though, and Wish Upon and Annabelle director John Leonetti did pretty much exactly that on the newest episode of Blumhouse’s Shock Waves podcast. Leonetti’s brother Michael was the DP on Poltergeist, and got John a job as an assistant cameraman on the film. And according to the younger Leonetti, it was quite obvious who was in charge on the set.
Candidly… Steven Spielberg directed that movie. There’s no question. However, Tobe Hooper – I adore. I love that man so much.
But had I known you were going to ask me that question, I would’ve brought this one picture I have, which is the whole movie in one shot. It’s the scene where the tree comes in to grabs the boy, and we have two cameras set up. In the foreground on an apple box is (an excited) Tobe, standing right behind him is Spielberg pointing. Next to him was my brother on camera and me.