Steven Spielberg co-produced and co-wrote Poltergeist, the 1982 horror classic directed by Tobe Hooper. Hooper, who directed The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Salem’s Lot, and Spielberg had an interesting creative relationship during the making of Poltergeist. A clause in Spielberg’s contract with Universal Studios prevented Spielberg from directing any other film during the preparation for E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. The summer of 1982 was dubbed “The Summer of Spielberg” and media outlets began to question Spielberg’s actual role on Poltergeist after comments surfaced from the writer-producer that seemed to denote his involvement was significantly more hands-on than expected. As recently as 2007 during an interview with “Ain’t It Cool News”, Zelda Rubinstein explained that Hooper “wasn’t all there” during shooting and that Spielberg shot most of the film.
Regardless of this, it is Tobe Hooper who received the acknowledgements and the credit as director of Poltergeist, even after a Director’s Guild investigation. According to Douglas Brode’s book The Films of Steven Spielberg, Spielberg was the “creative force” of the film and designed every storyboard. Hooper was the director, according to co-producer Frank Marshall, and was on set each day. According to Douglas’s book, Hooper claimed he did half of the storyboards. Whatever the truth was, it’s safe to say that the energies swirling around behind-the-scenes during the filming of Poltergeist and the subsequent “Poltergeist Curse” were certainly contributory to the ominous ambience.
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