In the original 1982 movie Poltergeist, the Freeling family faces many terrifying scenes, including the abduction of their youngest child Carol Anne by TV ghosts and her subsequent rescue. However, it's another scene in particular that still haunts viewers to this day. It's the famed Poltergeist clown scene (IYKYK) that comes amid the anxiety-inducing finale of the movie. This chilling clown scene from Poltergeist ranks as one of scariest horror movie scenes of all time.
In their ranking of “10 of the Most Iconic Horror Movie Scenes of All Time,” Collider ranks "Robbie's Clown Doll" scene the third scariest scene. On their scale of scary, the scene beats out some creepy competition, including "Drew Barrymore's Demise" in Scream (1996), Jack Nicholson's infamous "Here's Johnny!" scene in The Shining (1980), and the Chucky "No Batteries" scene in Child's Play (1980), among others.
If you grew up in the ’80s, chances are the iconic clown scene is still fresh in your mind, but for everyone else, let's recap the horrid moment. Poor 8-year-old Robbie Freeling (played by Oliver Robins) is afraid of clowns, or at least one particular clown doll that creepily lounges in a chair in his bedroom. In the movie's pivotal scene, Robbie's clown fears become a reality on a final dark and stormy night.
Because young Robbie has already been completely terrorized in his family's haunted house where they just saved his little sister from television ghosts (and, you know, decided to stay just one more night), Robbie isn't sleeping so well, especially with that extraordinarily creepy clown doll staring maniacally at him. He tries to throw his jacket over the clown, but it falls. Brave kid that he is, though, he tries to roll over and get some sleep.
Robbie soon jolts awake when he hears a thump. He's so afraid to look in the clown's direction, but he knows he's gotta look in order to soothe his fears. Of course, when he looks, the chair is empty and clown is not there! [Cue a lifetime of nightmares.] Robbie, ever determined to be a brave boy decides to check under his bed. One side of the bed at a time! He can't breathe through the fear and neither can viewers. But phew, nothing there ... until he comes back up and that psycho clown literally grabs Robbie and drags him kicking and screaming under the bed.
[Cue the smelling salts, all viewers are now officially cooked for much longer than a lifetime.]
Related: 1979 Movie’s Opening Scene Still Haunts a Generation—Now It’s Ranked One of the Most Terrifying Ever
The scene works for a number of reason—the first being that clown and his freaky face! But also the filmmakers build toward the pivotal scene the entire movie, pausing several times around Robbie's typical childhood fears. In fact, by tapping into so many very relatable childhood fears (the dark, clowns, monsters under the bed, things that go bump in the night), the scene really nails it. The filmmakers use their suspense skills and all of our childhood fears against us. Viewers are the victims for sure.
Poltergeist, co-written by Steven Spielberg and directed by Tobe Hooper, was released on June 4, 1982. Along with Robins, the film stars JoBeth Williams, Craig T. Nelson, the lateHeather O'Rourke, the late Dominique Dunne, and Zelda Rubinstein. Earning $74.7 million at the U.S. box office, it was the highest-grossing horror film of 1982. For historical context, it came out one week before the Academy Award-winning, box office hit E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which was directed and produced by Spielberg. That was one hot summer at the movies.
Culturally speaking, this scene sealed the deal for all clown-fearing folks. Ask any Gen X adult who lived through watching this movie in theaters, and they're probably not planning to revisit the scene anytime soon—unless it's to pass on the trauma by scaring the next generation (why are we like this?). The scene is so universally awful that it'll still scare the pants of new viewers (hopefully at a more appropriate age than all the young teens who watched in the '80s).
Watch the scary clown scene from Poltergeist (if you dare!):
Watch the Poltergeist trailer:
Of course, we can't talk about Poltergeist without mentioning the mythical "curse" that surrounds the movie, due to some particularly tragic deaths of cast members around the film's release and sequel releases.
This YouTube video covers the gist of that:
www.youtube.com/shorts/RhBySaDZx84
Poltergeist is currently available for streaming via Prime Video, YouTube, AppleTV, and Fandango at Home, where certain fees may apply.
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