ED: You know, guys, we've been talking for the last hour about the dream of American home ownership, but a lot of people have made money off the nightmare of home ownership. And I'm not talking about those people who are handing out sub-prime mortgages. I'm talking about Hollywood. Just thing about it. Just recently, I've seen all these ads for movies. Dream House and Don't Be Afraid of the Dark and if you can believe it, the third installment of Paranormal Activity. But this genre of the modern haunted house was created in the 1970's and 1980's. The post-Nixon years when in movies like Poltergeist and The Amityville Horror, the houses themselves really take a starring role and a scary starring role. Why would that be? Well, fortunately, we were able to ask New York Magazine film critic David Edelstein to scare us up an answer.
DAVID EDELSTEIN: American men got back from World War II where they'd seen truly horrible things. And they dreamed about a country that would be safe, where they could keep their families safe from the kind of things they had seen overseas. They dreamed of a national highway system. They dreamed of a suburb. And the 70's, on the other side of the counterculture when we were suddenly laughing at Leave It to Beaver, we were suddenly laughing at The Brady Bunch. Many of us getting high and watching those old episodes. That's when we began to question the very foundation of the American dream.
POLTERGEIST: They're here...
DAVID EDELSTEIN: Films like Poltergeist really prey on our deep suspicion that this is not a way of life that we can sustain. Perhaps the houses are very house and freshly painted and they are beautiful gardens, but somewhere or other someone has done something wrong. There is some original sin and in the case of Poltergeist, of course, we learn it's become a joke. It's become a cliché. It was built over an Indian graveyard.
POLTERGEIST: Son of a [inaudible 00:48:24]! You moved the cemetery but you left the bodies, didn't you? You son of a [inaudible 00:48:30]! You left the bodies and you only moved the headstones! You only moved the headstones!
AMITYVILLE: I just wish that all those people hadn't died here. A guy kills his whole family? Doesn't that bother you?
Sure, but houses don't have memories.
DAVID EDELSTEIN: Well, this is the Amityville Horror which is supposedly based on a true story. We've since discovered that it was in fact a scam, though it fooled a great many people. What's interesting about that movie is that you see that this idea of this house... It's not only haunted in and of itself, but it gets inside. It stirs the inner demons.
AMITYVILLE: Would you please leave that damn fire alone and listen to me?
I'm not going anywhere. You're the one that wanted a house. This is it, so just shut up!
DAVID EDELSTEIN: They chose this house. They wanted to move there because they felt that it would change their lives. The way we all feel we're going to be able to re-launch our lives. We're going to be able to start afresh. And this demon here manages to prey on the very things that this house was supposed to be strengthening.
AMITYVILLE: What do you want from us? God[inaudible 00:49:51] this is my house!
DAVID EDELSTEIN: In this culture in particular, we invest so much of our hopes and dreams. So much of our identity's invested in our houses, our real estate. We've become increasingly obsessed with real estate at a time when so many people are unable to afford it and are, in fact, dispossessed. Now, it's sort of funny when you think of dispossession versus possession by demons. Well, in some ways, the ghost in the haunted house is the most efficient foreclosure artist in history because you buy something and you think it's mine. I own this house. I own this land. And then, you are slapped upside the head. You understand somebody comes out of the deep dark past and says, "You don't own this. You don't own anything. You don't even own your own flesh. I can get inside you. I can get inside these walls. I can get into your baby's room. I can bring this house and everything it's standing on and everything it represents in your pathetic bourgeois world. I can bring it crashing to the ground and you don't have a chance against me. You don't have literally a prayer."
ED: David Edelstein is a film critic whose reviews appear in New York Magazine and are heard on NPR's Fresh Air and CBS Sunday Morning.