GenX Women are Sick of This Shit!

GenX Slumber Party Movie Night: They Moved The Headstones, Karen, But Not The Goo Hole

• Megan Bennett & Lesley Meier • Season 2 • Episode 20

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TV static used to mean the world went quiet. We start there—two Gen X hosts trading dog stories and daylight saving brain fog—then pivot hard into Poltergeist, the 1982 suburban haunt that turned a living room ritual into a gateway for the uncanny. If you remember falling asleep to the national anthem and waking to snow on the screen, this breakdown will hit with a very specific chill.

We dig into why Poltergeist still works: the time-capsule set design (Star Wars cases, Speak & Spell, Alien posters), the sly social commentary hiding in a pool excavation, and the way the film never wastes a second arguing about belief. From the storm that swallows a tree to the rope-and-goo rescue that births a thousand parodies, the beats are tight, weird, and deeply human. We talk Spielberg’s fingerprints versus Tobe Hooper’s credit, ILM’s effects wizardry, and the infamous “they moved the headstones” twist that made cul-de-sacs feel like thin ground. Tangina’s entrance, the “They’re here” whisper, and the final motel TV toss get the love they deserve.

The conversation widens to the eerie production lore—the real skeletons, the so-called curse—and what the movie says about technology creep and American expansion. Along the way, we vent about SNAP cuts and why food is a human right, reflect on daylight saving fatigue, and share a Comic Con clown encounter neither of us needed. It’s nostalgia with teeth: equal parts critique, laughter, and heartfelt memory.

If you’re a horror fan, a Gen X kid, or just someone who loves a sharp cultural rewatch, you’ll find plenty to chew on. Hit play, then tell us: which 80s artifact still haunts you, and what movie should we tackle next? Subscribe, rate, and share to keep the conversation going.

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Megan:

I'm Megan Bennett.

Lesley:

I'm Lesley Meier

Megan:

And this is Gen X Women Are Sick of This Shit.

Lesley:

Hello, Megan.

Megan:

Lesley.

Lesley:

Oh my gosh, fancy meeting you here.

Megan:

How the hell did you get here? Wait, I'm in your house.

Lesley:

Hi.

Megan:

How are you?

Lesley:

Hi. I'm great. That's awesome. I'm good. I'm doing okay. Right now. Right.

Megan:

If you keep saying that, you're gonna get it's gonna get worse and worse.

Lesley:

Well, I don't want to keep thinking about it.

Megan:

You know, I'm I'm okay. You know, come to think of it. Actually.

Lesley:

Let's just stop right there.

Megan:

Kind of suck.

Lesley:

But in the first five seconds of us answering that question, I was great.

Megan:

Yeah, don't think about it.

Lesley:

Okay. I'm good now.

Megan:

It's good.

Lesley:

How the hell are you?

Megan:

I am. I'm just gonna say I'm good. And I'm gonna leave it at that.

Lesley:

How's your cute dog?

Megan:

She's really cute. She's sweet. She's my mental uh safety blanket. She's my whoopie. She's your whoopie. I should have named her whoopie. I keep thinking I should have named her noodle because I keep calling her noodle. And I'm like, that would have been a great dog's name. And I didn't do it. Noodle. It's not too late. She's only 10 months old. You could change it. Whatever she responds to. It could be her middle name. It's true. Noodle the doodle. Yeah, noodle the doodle. She's a cutie. Yeah, she's very she's she loves nothing more than just sitting on whatever sofa is in her closest proximity. And if you were on said sofa, her head is probably in your lap. It's very sweet.

Lesley:

Oh I think that's very necessary for yes. I'm enjoying the fact that we've been sitting here talking about our plans for this for the past 45 minutes to an hour. And now is when the heat decides to come on in my house. So you're probably gonna hear some hot flashing. Some blowing. There's some wind in the background. Producer Tim will do his best. However, you can't get rid of all of it.

Megan:

You may hear a little bit of wind noise. It's yeah, it's just a hot flash. For the whole house. For the whole house. Everybody gets one.

Lesley:

That's actually a pretty good lead into our conversation today. We I mean we're gonna do the other segments, but I'm just here for the juxtaposition. The hot flash for the whole house. Today we're gonna be talking about the movie poltergeist.

Megan:

And we're doing this because Leslie loves this movie.

Lesley:

I do. And it it had come up in conversation, and we can talk about why that was. And and then we were just sort of at the end of our like Halloween weekend transitioning into November kind of thing. And I was like, okay, let's watch it. Because I feel like I probably watch it every, I don't know, five to eight years. But I I forget most things within five to eight seconds. So we popped it on the other night and I was like, holy fuck. I love it. Okay.

Megan:

Yep. So I'm excited to talk about that. I want to hear your your gushing and about this particular movie. It's it's just fascinating.

Lesley:

This is deep shit people.

Megan:

I think I've seen it once all the way through.

Lesley:

Okay. Really? Yeah, okay. Well, you were wrong with me, but a little bit older than me too, like when it came out. So I'm guessing it probably hit different.

Megan:

Maybe I don't know. Honestly, I'm not even sure I saw it when it came out. It might have been a more recent within the last 12 years. Oh, okay. Maybe right on. So that would make sense too. So but that also wasn't really my genre. Like I was more of a comedy kind of person, and I still am. Like I I had a conversation with a God, who was it? Shit. See, talk about not remembering things.

Lesley:

Five to eight seconds.

Megan:

Five to eight seconds. And this was probably five to eight eight days ago. Okay, there you go. So we know it's gone. But somebody and I were having a conversation about horror movies. And I made the comment that I really don't like, oh, was somebody at work? I really don't like jump scares. Like I just I am not a jump scare person. I don't need that in my life. Like the I already have cortisol issues. I don't need that. Right. So pee your pants these days. Right, right. Like, and I, you know, there's only so many pairs of underwear in the drawer. Absolutely. So I didn't, so that's not my thing. There are horror movies and stuff that I can totally get behind because they're not jump scary. And I don't think Poltergeist is a jump scare kind of.

Lesley:

It's got it's got a critical jump scare in it. Okay. But generally, no, that is not the premise of this movie.

Megan:

Okay. Because I mean the shining, there is a jump scare in that. Poly moly. Yeah. Yeah. That one's a big one. So I can handle like one of those, but like if it's just for the sake of trying to get you to pee your pants, then it seems ridiculous and over the top to me. Yes.

Lesley:

I don't need to do that. Like, why do that to my nervous system on purpose? Right. At this age.

Megan:

Right. Like the whole thing, we went, we went to New York City Comic Con. Oh fun. And it was, it was really cool. There were lots and lots of fun things to look at and comics to buy, and far too many people. And I come around the corner and they had this big set for it. Welcome to Dairy. Dairy? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm like, oh, that's cool. Like it was a big house and people could walk through it and all this stuff. And you come around the side of it, and I look up, and there's this guy standing in the fake yard, and he's got that look on his like that big dumb smile, like that creepy ass smile. Yeah. And he was like looking up at you, like his head's down and he's looking up and he's got that big smile. It was awful. And I just looked at him and I went, Nope. And he turned around and walked away. My daughter's like, Where are you going? I'm like, nope. Well, I'm good here. Done. Gotta go. Yep. I'm glad you do. I'm sure he appreciated the fact that it did exactly what he wanted it to do. Right. Internally, he was like, Yeah, got her.

Lesley:

Winning. Right. Sweet. Okay, so we're gonna talk about this movie in a little bit. As soon as we talk about other deadly things. Yay! Welcome back to this episode of Gen X Women Are Sick of This Shit.

Megan:

Scary shit.

Lesley:

Sick of this scary shit. We are sick of this scary shit. Should we talk about the scary shit we're sick of?

Megan:

Oh God, there's so much. I'm not even sure where you start with that. Like shit, you're sick of. Okay. So currently super pissed about SNAP benefits and the government fucking with the whole, you know, I don't people's livelihood. Feeding people. Feeding people because somehow that's a bargaining chip.

Lesley:

Food is a human right.

Megan:

You know, and the Democrats are in a really shitty position right now because they're fighting for health care for people so that their premiums don't go skyrocketing, which they in some cases will triple or quadruple for people. Absolutely. It has exactly fuck all to do with, you know, making sure that legals have healthcare. Because they don't get Medicare, they don't get Medicaid, like quit repeating that narrative. Anyway so they're in this shitty position, and I just don't think Republicans give a shit. And it's really, really gonna hurt people. Yep. And I'm not happy about it.

Lesley:

Nope. And that, yep. So that shit we're really sick of.

Megan:

People deserve to be fed. They do. And these for the most part, somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 some percent of people who are on SNAP benefits already have a job. Some have two jobs, they are working their asses off, and SNAP benefits equal, ready for this, six dollars a day. So you can try to live on six dollars a day. And you, you know, good luck. Yeah. So the whole thing is making me incredibly angry. And I don't know, the, you know, nonprofits can't figure it, they can't make up the difference. Oh, heck no, we're talking about so much.

Lesley:

Yeah. So, so much. I mean, communities, our community, yeah, your community, our nonprofits in our in Indianapolis are doing the best that they can, and neighbors are stepping up. Lots of people are stepping up, but that's only gonna be sustainable for so long.

Megan:

Right, right. That money will run out. And for every one meal that a nonprofit provides, Snap provides nine. So, like you can't make that up, right? Right? Like that's just impossible to make that up.

Lesley:

Profound. So I think that's enough shit that we're sick of. This seems so stupid.

Megan:

Can I add one more thing that I'm sick of? Please. Just because I thought of it and it's a little lighter of a topic, uh-huh. But there's a pun in there because it's daylight saving time. Tell me about that. It's a lighter topic. Heart, heart, heart. Um is it like two o'clock in the morning right now?

Lesley:

No.

Megan:

Does it feel like a I mean, so when we fall back it's 8 15 by by God. 8 15 by golly, and it feels like it's like 11 30 at night. Oh yeah. Like it's all yes, my system's all messed up.

Lesley:

When we so when we fall back, I feel normal again. Okay. I'm just like, okay, like I tend to save later, and it's even worse during daylight savings time, saving time. Which is hard to say. But I love the extra daytime. I guess like I'm I don't know, it's strongly linked to light dust, Arcadian rhythms. That's how it should work out. So even the first night, I was like, oh, cool. Like I'm staying up late, but it's like a normal time.

Megan:

Yeah, it's I'm I'm all messed up. I do, I mean, I like waking up and the sun is coming up for as long as we have that, right? Because that's gonna disappear really quickly. Yeah. But I like that, but there's something about it just getting dark at like 4 30, and you're like, Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Lesley:

I do totally feel that. Absolutely. It just like all your energy is gone, like so fast. Yes.

Megan:

And I think part of it is that's my time when I start, like, I don't know, it takes me a really long time to wake up, I guess. Like everybody has different rhythms and stuff. I guess I'm just generally later in the afternoon kind of person. Heard makes sense. It's very short now.

Lesley:

Yep. And I tend to like want to do things when it's daylight. And if I come home and it's dark for some reason my brain can't go.

Megan:

Oh, I'm not going anywhere.

Lesley:

You can't do anything now. I can get up and fucking run the vacuum though, but like it's I have to make myself do it. Am I gonna run?

Megan:

Am I gonna run to the store? Probably not. Like it's very dark out there.

Lesley:

I'll wait until the light comes back. Why would I do that in the dark times? Oh, it's dark out there. I mean scary. It's fairly biological, though. I think, you know, like yeah, whatever. On a very deep primal level. Fuckers, we're not supposed to be out after dark. No, we'll get eaten.

Megan:

That's right. There are tigers. Duh. Or bears or something. Yes.

Lesley:

Dinosaurs, wolves, not coyotes, dinosaurs.

Megan:

There's never been dinosaurs and people.

Lesley:

Woolly mammoths.

Megan:

No matter who says what, they never existed at the same time.

Lesley:

But there were woolly mammoths and people at the same time. Yes. Okay.

Megan:

Learned about that in Epcot.

Lesley:

They thank goodness for Epcot. Okay, well, let's make a hard transition. Speaking of dinosaurs, who died this week? Old people? Yep, sure did. Which ones? You have a list. I have I have one. Well, we have a couple. We know that Dick Cheney died today. Oh, yeah. And we don't have to say anything more about that. I'm real broken up. We also know that today, or no, yesterday, we're recording today, but yesterday was November 3rd. Diane Ladd died. A mother of Laura Dern. Yep.

Megan:

And I just read that her cousin also, was she also in the First Wives Club or whatever, too? Like, didn't you have like weren't they?

Lesley:

I don't know if she was in the First Wives Club. That's a great question. I mean Diane Keaton was in First Wives Club.

Megan:

Oh no, it wasn't. It was Seth Midler and Goldie Hahn. Yeah. Okay, okay. All right.

Producer Tim:

But I also think uh Diane Keaton may have passed.

Lesley:

She she did. We're getting there. She did. I got you. But she was related to uh Tennessee Williams. Really? Yeah. Fascinating. Through marriage and blood relations. How about that? Tennessee Williams was the second cousin. Her first husband, Bruce Dern, Laura's father, was an Academy Award nominee. There were all these. And Laura and her mom achieved the rear feat of mother and daughter nominees for their work in Rambling Rose. But I being a younger, whatever, younger-ish person, became familiar with Diane Ladd watching Wild at Heart with Laura Durham. Yep. Which I really enjoyed. And that's when I found out who she was.

Megan:

I, you know, you mentioned Tennessee Williams and that relationship. And in my head, Tennessee Williams is so much older. And he is not, or was not. When was he? He died in 1983. No shit. No shit. I'm picturing him as like an 18. He died in the 1890s. Way back in a way older day. He was born in 1911 and died in 1983. I as a theater person, I am shocked.

Lesley:

No, but I think that that like it's always in history. Right. We're not right. I mean, when you and I were in college, it would have been taught as part of theater history. Yeah.

Megan:

And we're gonna wear older.

Lesley:

Right. And I would not have retained that he had died in IT because I was like 10 years old. So she passed away. And as producer Tim said, Diane Keaton also died on October 11th. And I just really enjoyed Diane Keaton. She was funny, she was quirky. I liked how she dressed.

Megan:

I didn't, I guess I, you know, this was sort of a shocker to me. Like I guess she just seemed so young.

Lesley:

Yeah. I think she was what almost 80? 79. Okay. Yeah. So you know in terms of like energy, how she is in movies, how she is in interviews, that kind of thing. Like you just think of her as a younger person. I think that's really fascinating. What is the age that like people remember us at being when we die? We'll have to ask in the future after we're dead. Future us. Yeah, somebody let us know. We'll be like, what did you think? So those were kind of like related.

Megan:

Easily 78. She he's like in, you know, him. She was like a thousand years. Methuselah. She was ain't so old. Because she bitched about daylight saving time.

Lesley:

She Megan Bennett, she must have been 80 when she was on that podcast of hers. God damn old baby. Did you ever think about that? Like, okay, like probably we're not ever gonna take this down. Like, we'll just go see now and forget we ever did it. So will it just stay out there? And people it'll be like this weird record, and they'll be like, why were these people on a podcast? Maybe they'll put it on Voyager like 12 or something. That would be really significant.

Megan:

On a little gold record and send us out in this space. That would be so Gen X, right? Like, like, hey NASA, if you need a gold record of two old biddies bitching about shit and trying to remember what the hell was going on when they were kids, the aliens, we got a podcast for you.

Lesley:

You'll be like, why were you making toys of us? We don't look like that. A little bobblehead. I know. Oh. Well, this might be a great time to like take a break. We should do that. And then we'll come back and I'll tell you all about this amazing film.

Megan:

I am looking forward to it. Gen X Women Are Sick of This Shit is supported by Lilas. Love You Like A Sis, a Gen X Women's Social Club. What's Lilas, Megan? Lilas is our uh off platform, off uh the Books of Faces, off all of the other traditional social media. Uh, it is our space and place for Gen X women to come together, have conversations, meet each other. It's a social club. It is a social club.

Lesley:

It's a membership-based club. Memberships are $10 a month. Um, that does help support us in growing the platform. We purchased a platform that would host a network of women so that you could come together and meet each other in real time.

Megan:

In a safer space, right, than a traditional social media platform and a much more personal space. So what do we do there, Leslie?

Lesley:

We host movie nights where we live stream some of our favorites as they are available to us for group watches of films from the 70s, 80s, and 90s. We host a space for a monthly book club. We host trivia nights. Trivia nights once a month. We have a live text chat. Four prizes, even. For prizes. That's true. Um we the space is able to host like weekly text chats so that you can kind of check in in real time with people. I would say the critical difference between kind of what this space is and any other social media space that I've experienced is that it is active. You will have to engage in it or be engaged in it by other people. So it's not like a passive consumption thing.

Megan:

It's like making connections. Yep. And if that's what you're looking for, the opportunity to meet other people, to find people who are maybe in the same similar spaces as you are.

Lesley:

Like-minded, same time phase of life, navigating all of those transitions, then this might be the right place for you.

Megan:

So check out Laddie Last. You can learn more about it at GenXwomenpod.com.

Lesley:

Welcome back.

Megan:

Oh, that was scary.

Lesley:

Boo. You doing okay?

Megan:

I don't know. You're gonna scare me a little bit. I'm gonna be fine. I really fine. I'm a big girl. I can make this happen. I can I'm fine. I am a little a little scary.

Lesley:

It's menopause, it's not my fault. I can't do anything about it. I can't help my scariness. Just what happens.

Megan:

It's fine. I'm a big girl. I can handle all of it. You can bring it. I believe in you. Okay.

Lesley:

So we're gonna talk about poltergeist. What's the famous line from poltergeist? There. Like that.

Megan:

Excellent work. Thank you very much. I've been studying. Good job. It's like you're an actress.

Lesley:

Actressa. Actressa. So you said you did not see poltergeist as a young person. Correct. You saw it as a less young person.

Megan:

Now, I was also thinking, have I seen it all the way through? Ah, valid question. And I am not, I can't confirm or deny that. Heard. Okay. I am 78.2% sure I've seen like the shining all the way through. Oh, okay. But I'm see, it's still a little whooshy.

Lesley:

I'm not sure. Right.

Megan:

You know?

Lesley:

Oh, that's some pretty fucking scientific accurate. You like that?

Megan:

Like I pulled that completely out of my ass.

Lesley:

I think that because that sounds scientifically accurate, I will cite it in a really important study. And say that it's the truth. Yes. Because that's the world that we live in right now. My opinion is somehow fact. It it well, yes, or something. My golly, especially when you say 78.2%. I know it sounds it sounds like it's totally chat GPT, which we all know is 100% true. It it tells us nothing but the truth all the time. Uh-huh. It loves you. Please. We would do much better to have a fucking encyclopedia in our house again.

Megan:

Do you remember those days? Yes. I remember those days. I loved encyclopedias. It took longer for us to figure stuff out, but that's okay. It is okay.

Lesley:

Like it's okay to go to the library and look something up. Yes. And to not have it instantly, you retain things. Yeah.

Megan:

It's weird though, isn't it strange? Like how because we've had the internet for so much of our life that it is sort of hard. Like I feel like I'm losing that grip on what it was like to not have it. Sure. You know, I mean, we remember it. Yes. Sort of, but it feels like it's slipping away. Like it's, I don't know.

Lesley:

Like if you were interested in something, you would just kind of have to like maybe do some reading and and then go, okay. So I think I have a thesis. Let me go to the library and use some of the databases, and then like go through the card catalog and maybe talk with a writing coach and like workshop my concept. Yeah. Find some resources, make sure that it will be valid. Right. No.

Megan:

And like that's all gone. Pull together my own ideas, write them with my own words. On a piece of paper with a ballpoint pen.

Lesley:

Yeah. I a paper mate. Vital skill. The fact that we aren't writing is also making us dumber. Yeah. That we're not writing with our hand, our hands, literally, because our that's how we process that. We could really go down this rabbit hole. Oh, I know. But guess what, folks?

Megan:

We should probably talk about this in the future at some other point. Absolutely. That whole switching from Yeah, from like living in a non-digital world to a fully and completely immersive digital world. Yeah. I agree. That's cool. That'd be fun. All right. Talk to me now about poltergeist and why you like it so much. Well, let me tell you, Megan.

Lesley:

Okay. This came up last week because we were sitting at one of our locals having a delicious tiki drink. And it's spooky season. So we were talking about scary movies. And the age range of folks that we were talking to, they're like probably mid-30s, mid to late 30s into 20s. Okay. So we were just chatting about it. And I just think Poltergeist is an epic, spooky movie. It's just really iconic, all these things. And I think only one out of seven will say that had seen it. Wow. And only a couple of them had heard of it.

Megan:

Oh. So wow, that's even I mean, like I could see not seeing it. Absolutely. Because it's not like something that's on rotation all the time on TV or whatever. And also, who watches TV anymore? Right. So you have to stream it with purpose.

Lesley:

Yes, you would have to go find it or find it in like carousel of like spooky movies that's been curated on Netflix or something like that. Or you had parents who cared enough to educate you properly and show you said movie.

Megan:

Sit down, children. We're going to watch this little girl sit in front of a television for 12 hours.

Lesley:

Exactly. Yeah. And that was the conversation. Okay. Because the premise of the movie, if it were made today, would not work. Because the only reason that Caroline becomes possessed and the way that the poltergeist gets access to the house is through the television. Do you remember what was different? First of all, we had fucking just television and not cable. But what else was different about TV when we were kids?

Megan:

TV ended at like 11 o'clock or whatever. You had the national anthem flag. Yeah. You know, whatever. And then you had fuzz.

Lesley:

Yep. And the static would be on. And you know, your dad would be passed out in the armchair, or your mom or your grandma, or whoever was passed out in the armchair with their Miller light in their hand. Maybe I'm speaking from experience. I don't know. But the static would be on. Yeah. Like that. Yeah. Producer Tim was reenacted.

Megan:

Soothing, soothing static.

Lesley:

And that's how the ghosts fucking got in through static. Through static. And there's a theory that's put forth that's like, because the channel's not picking up signal, it's able to receive signals of another kind. Oh. So this is much deeper than I anticipated it was going to be. I mean, we could really go into the very accepted parapsychology of all of this, highly researched. However, so that's how the conversation came up. Okay. And it was just like, okay, first of all, you you wouldn't the movie wouldn't work in the same particular way. It was such an innocuous thing. Just like the TV's on in the living room, of course it goes off. Everybody would know that. There would be no cultural weirdness. You wouldn't have to sit there and explain it absolutely. So like any of these 20 or 30 year olds, that is completely foreign to them. 24-7 media, 24-7 entertainment. There's never a break. Like ever. No.

Megan:

So just imagine there's like do any channels go off anymore?

Lesley:

I don't have network television. So I don't know.

Megan:

So I have YouTube TV, which I guess is just like, you know, whatever. But who I'm also pissed at right now because they're in a fight with ABC and General Hospital. They erased all my fucking general hospitals. This is why we need to keep our fucking VHS tapes, people. I had two weeks of unwatched general hospitals and they erased them. And do you think I can find them? No, I cannot. Fuck those people. I'm so mad. Keep your media. Keep your media. Anyway, not not related to this or anything, right? Like not related to Poltergeists.

Producer Tim:

Network, network television is also 24 hours now.

Lesley:

Oh Jesus.

Megan:

So there's no silence. I mean, I guess it's like, and they're probably, you know, it's all infomercials.

Producer Tim:

It's it's yeah. I mean, it's look at the ball bearings in this dildo. You know, like it's shit like this.

Lesley:

Is that how it they sell on network television after the dark?

Producer Tim:

Last time I watched it, yeah.

Lesley:

Look at the ball bearings and this dildo. This dildo. I am. I'm staying up later tonight. Says the man who doesn't obviously have a dildo.

Producer Tim:

No, I'm I mean, I'm just saying.

Megan:

But if he's shopping, he knows where to find one.

Lesley:

He does.

Megan:

Channel six. In in late night.

Producer Tim:

In the uh in the in the early 2000s, there was an older woman who came on.

Lesley:

What? This is true. Okay. I'm sorry. There's like a record scratch. We're gonna interrupt this program, friends. Tell us your story about dildos.

Producer Tim:

Okay.

Lesley:

But keep it quick because we still gotta find a sense of it.

Producer Tim:

No, no, no, I know. Okay, so in the early 2000s, I was uh in a relationship that that person worked at a bar. So our hours of existing in the world were shifted to the later and bar hours. Yeah, bar hours. So I would watch TV to wind down from social interactions, and it was late night.

Megan:

That's what he called it. And that's what wound you up. Social interactions.

Producer Tim:

Anyway, so there was like one in like this is how I know network television just goes to infomercials. They sell those hours to whoever is willing to pay for it. Highest bidder. Right. And there was an elderly woman who spoke very frankly.

Lesley:

Oh, this was not Dr. Sue, though. No, Dr. Sue. Dr.

Producer Tim:

This is not Dr. Ruth. Dr. Ruth. Okay.

Megan:

It's a Dr. Ruth like I shit you not.

Producer Tim:

This woman looked like she could easily be both either an aloof professor of a community college and both and live in a mobile home park somewhere.

Megan:

Okay.

Producer Tim:

And she's awesome. Yeah. So she would have guests on and they would talk about these products. And like, I will never forget this one because not only did it have ball bearings in the middle of it, she turned it on and it would like move. And it was like was it, was it yeah? Yeah.

Megan:

That's amazing.

Producer Tim:

It would oscillate like a tentacle a little bit.

Megan:

Okay, so there's a reason for that, but I'm not gonna get into that right now.

Producer Tim:

No, that's fine.

Megan:

All of the women who are listening to this, they know why. Like I don't have to explain it to them. Okay, they get they know why it's undulating.

Producer Tim:

Yes.

Lesley:

I just did the longest Google search ever in the whole history of the world on my phone.

Producer Tim:

Did you find it?

Lesley:

And of course, and I remember. Remember this because we've had this conversation and I've done this Google search before. It's Sue Johansen, a Canadian sex educator who gained popularity through late night television shows, including reruns on American networks like the Oxygen Network. While she was Canadian, oh, while she was Canadian. I was like, did she become not Canadian later on? Help me understand. Her shows were widely seen in the US, and a US version of her show, Talk Sex with Sue Johansen, aired in the late 2000s. Yes, that was a fine burger. She was a registered nurse who became a sex educator and was known for her frank, no-nonsense approach to sex education on her shows, like Sunday Night Sex Show.

Megan:

So here's here's what I think is great. This makes me very happy that Tim absorbed that information. He did. That he was not just a typical dude. He wasn't just watching it and like it went in one ear and out the other. Right. He learned something. He did. He knows about ball bearings. He does and how important they are in the dildo industry. In in dildos. Yes. Bravo, Tim.

Lesley:

Well done. Bravo. I mean, at least you know that women had a place where they could use a dildo, which I would say is probably a step up from some, yes. From absolutely, yeah. Who don't even know where the baby comes from. It's from the pee-pee hole. Oh Lord. Okay, back to poultry. We're gonna put the needle back on the record. Maybe that's an after hours clip. We don't know.

Megan:

Oh no, that soccer needs still to be left in.

Lesley:

Let's return to 1982, which is both the release year for the film and the year that the film is set in, which is meta. Ironic, not ironic. Super meta. Yeah. Well, and my understanding is like there actually is quite a bit of kind of political and social commentary in the film. So it being sent in the set in the present moment is on purpose. Here now. In 1982, suburban America met the supernatural through a flickering TV screen and a I would say soon to be missing little girl. Poltergeist was not just another haunted house story, it was a mirror reflecting the dreams, fears, and contradictions of the 1980s. Okay. There we go. So the premise of this movie is that there's some crazy shit going on in this house. Okay. And the little girl, just being a small child who's a listener and a noticer, and she's really sensitive and attuned and emotional, is easy to communicate with through the static on the TV.

Megan:

So the spooky ghost people or things, right? Yes.

Lesley:

Are talking to her while she's watching not a later commercial, not Sue Johansson, but just fuzz. Yeah. Like the one of the opening shots that just sort of sets the premise for the whole movie is like it's it's storming. Oh gosh, there's so much I want to say. It's storming, they're trying to get the kids to bed, they're trying to get the kids to bed, the kids, you know, whatever. And so everybody ends up in the family bed, right? There because they can't get the kids to stay in bed. It's terrible outside. And the static is on on the TV, and it the little girl like kind of sits up and she's sort of listening, and then she crawls down to the end of the bed and she sits down and she's just sitting there staring at the TV. And she says, Yes, yes, you know, okay. She's like, I hear you, you know, whatever. She says these tiny little words, and then we move on from there. So it like sets the premise right away, which I find just ever so terrifying. So Poltergeist was produced by Steven Spielberg and directed by Toby Hooper and uh written by Steven Spielberg, Michael Grass, AIS, and Mark Victor from a story by Spielberg himself. Okay. And the stars in the film, I I was familiar with these people just because they were actors of our era, but Beth Williams, who's a total fucking hottie in it, and then Craig T. Nelson. Coach. Coach, there we go. Okay. So they're like the adults that are in the movie. And just in reading about it, I had no idea there was any like controversy behind the scenes. But evidently Steven Spielberg was directing E.T. at the same time. Okay. Kind of, or like there was some proximity there. And so he was contractually bound to not direct anything else. But this was like kind of his baby. So there are all these stories, like if you go look on Reddit or do just like a quick Google search, or there's like just fan sites and that kind of thing, where, yeah, I mean, Toby, poor guy whose name is already gone 5.5 to 8 seconds already out of my brain. Toby Hooper was like director in name only. Okay. But then there are different accounts based on the different actors or people who worked on the set. They're like, no, he was the one doing all the blocking. He was placing all the actors. Like it was a collaboration.

Megan:

Steven Spielberger was meeting with him after work and saying, you need to redo this shit because it's not worse than that.

Lesley:

He was actually on set like five to six days a week. So he was very hands-on. And it's sort of like, could you really not let him direct? You know what I mean? Like that his ego was all over it. He was the producer of all these things.

Megan:

And so maybe, I mean, maybe Toby knew going into it, right? Like he was saying, I don't know.

Lesley:

I I imagine the egos of the time. It was sort of like, you're gonna get to do this movie. Right. But it's Steven's movie, you know, like not by everybody else in the corner. It's Steven's movie. Regardless, some of the.

Megan:

But if it's a hit, then maybe this guy gets more jobs, right?

Lesley:

Like but this controversy has gone on for a long time. It's come up even in like modern day. There was, I'm I'm not writing anything down. This is not a research-based podcast at all. But some of the stuff I was reading is like this came up much later, like a decade or two after the movie was out. And Steven Spielberg was kind of dissing him and just like throwing shit, and some money was involved. And he was like, I really directed it. And or I was on set every day. There were things that implied that he hadn't done a lot, and so it wasn't great. And actors have different accounts and all this stuff. Regardless, the movie happened. It was Spielberg's story, and it became like a total fucking classic.

Megan:

Yeah, I feel like this one is along the same lines as The Shining and Rosemary's Baby, and you know, Exorcist and kind of like of that same heft.

Lesley:

Yes. Like, absolutely. And this why when we what rewatched it the other night, I guess the reason it stuck out and I wanted to talk about it, I was like, okay, like if you watched a movie about Gen X right now, like let's say, well, I mean, even just watching Stranger Things, like there are the set is dressed to kind of look Gen X, but this is literally like a day in the life. It's like a house, it is 1982, it is everything that we grew up with. I mean, we were just looking at like the children's bedroom and all of the things that were lined up in the windows. Yeah. And it was unbelievable.

Megan:

Well, it's funny because you, you and I talked about that before we started recording, and I did pull it up and it like to look in the in the bedroom. And there's the star, the Darth Vader collector's case where you had all of the different Star Wars figures in there, speak and spell, amazing. I love that thing. The Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, like little action sets, and Sky Fighter and an A, like a the poster for Alien the movie. A there was some cross promotion, right? Yes. Yeah. So it's interesting. Like you got Steven Spielberg with all of the Star Wars stuff.

Lesley:

Right. Like putting all of George Lucas's stuff. Sure. It would have absolutely been culturally relevant.

Megan:

But but also it's my best friend, and I'm kind of working on this movie too.

Lesley:

And yeah, all that. So absolutely. Well, and you found like in the corner, like in one of the shelves, there was like a pillow.

Megan:

Oh yeah. Like Jeffrey from Toys R Us. Yeah. Like a pillow, Jeffrey.

Lesley:

Was like in that scene, and I was like, no way. Oh my gosh.

Megan:

Yeah.

Lesley:

But it is just like that is childhood. You know, I was born in 73. So I was like nine, almost 10 when this came out, and my brother certainly had all of these things.

Megan:

There's a Mylar balloon that's floating around. There's this creepy, creepy clown.

Lesley:

Yeah. Uh you know, there's a creepy clown.

Megan:

Does that have a I again I've only seen this once.

Lesley:

Does the clown have a well when you said this movie probably doesn't have jump scares, the clown is the single jump scare. And it is the worst. And I have to say on principle, who the fuck bought that clown? No child wants that clown. Nobody wants that clown. That was there just for it to be terrifying.

Megan:

Yeah, if you see a clown in a movie, it's probably not gonna go well. Nope, absolutely not. Stay away from that movie and that clown. Unless it shakes the clown, which is, you know, that's a deep cut, by the way. I believe Bobcat Goldthwaite. Is that right? Tim's nodding at me, so I think that's right. But yeah. That one's funny. Oh my gosh.

Lesley:

So early 80s, Reagan's president. Okay. MTV is just launched. Sure. And this, you know, families had much more technology. And this family is sort of a like middle class, I think is what they would be described as the freelanks family. They've got like some three-bedroom home. You know, it's it's really average. What stood out to me when I was walking, watching the house is like, this is a nicer home. Oh yeah. Rest in PCM TV, it is done. Yeah, that's right. Saying that the beginning and the end. It's a nice home. Like they're doing well. We find out quickly that they're gonna have a pool put in the backyard, all of these things. So they're like, they can afford a fucking pool, but they're not super rich. Yeah. I mean, this is there's some manicured lawns, but like there's no extra. Right. Right? This is their house, it's not a lifestyle. It's just a regular so we're not styling things like we do on social media these days.

Megan:

It's kind of like the the house from ET, too, right?

Lesley:

Like just sort of it's just a functional fucking house.

Megan:

Just yeah, just like your regular middle class 80s.

Lesley:

Absolutely. Nobody's freaking out about anything. It's like it's not a McMansion. Absolutely not. So they are just like happily plunking along. So there was like this commentary in the movie about technology creep into like every corner of life, families gathering around the television. Let me just hit this microphone. And it was just a normal house, right? Like there wasn't like anything gothic, there wasn't a haunted house that was happening. It's just the house next door.

Megan:

Yeah. So really quickly, like Amityville horror was a house, right? Like that was there was obviously something incredibly creepy about that house.

Lesley:

Yes. And they went there on purpose, right?

Megan:

And it's like yeah, maybe rethink that.

Lesley:

Why did you go there? Yeah, it's pretty wild. So the the premise of the movie starts like right away. And what I love so much about it is that no one in the film, none of the actors, it is not, it is never questioned. Like the movie goes so fast, all of the characters, everybody buys in immediately. It's just absolutely accepted. Well, we should get there, but they're able to find the experts that they're able to find without question on a university campus to help them figure out what the fuck is going on in their house that seems to be like a gate to hell.

Megan:

To be fair, that happens a lot because in Ghostbusters, right? Like it was pretty easy to find Zankman. Yes. He was just kind of milling around.

Lesley:

So because it was it's a fucking scary movie. There are tons of effects. They were really cutting edge. Industrial Light and Magic did the groundbreaking special effects. There were portals, flying toys, which is one of my favorite fucking scenes after the bedroom of the children as well, and haunted by the poltergeist. You can like open the door and you can see the special effects, but like a compass, okay, right? Okay, with the little needle on the end. Oh. It's like a record needle. So it like meets a record and it flies around a room. There's a jack in a box, like all these toys are flying around and coming up to the people's faces when they're in the door. So this sounds terrifying. It was really, really cool. It was amazing. So the family was Diane, Steve, Carol Ann, Robbie, and Dana. The feelings. Dana is 16, Robbie's eight, and Carol Anne is like five, I think. And we were doing the math because it comes out that, like my God, five seconds. I'm glad I have fucking things written down. Three to five. Diane is 32. Okay. And so I was like laying in bed the other night, and I'm like, oh, okay. So that means she got pregnant when she was like 15 or 16 years old because her oldest is 16 years old. And you know, they probably like finished high school. He went off and got a job. He's selling real estate. Like they're fine. Right. And there's just no big thing about it.

Megan:

Completely unrealistic.

Lesley:

It's all good.

Megan:

But maybe I mean maybe in the 80s, maybe.

Lesley:

So 82, they're in their 30s. So that means they were born in the like 50, 60 to 70, 80. No, they were born in 50. Yeah. So yeah. Yeah.

Megan:

So their parents were so they were baby boomers that, yeah.

Lesley:

Yeah, they are boomers, but they're kind of like hip or boomers, at least in the I mean, all the boomers were at some point younger. That's true. I guess we were all hip at at some point. Everybody was hip at one time. So the Freelings home is the American dream. Safe, suburban, new, but their house is built on something buried.

Megan:

Okay. It is so could I ask a question? Please. Because I'm remembering a little bit about this movie. Yes, yes. Yes, not much. Was there a there's a super scary dude, like skeleton-y looking dude?

Lesley:

Yeah, like so many skeletons.

Megan:

Is he a preacher?

Lesley:

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So there was also there's poltergeist, poltergeist two, and then there was a poltergeist three. Oh, god help me. Poltergeist II, you do see more of the preacher, but it does extend the story. So there are tons of fucking skeletons. Okay. Because if you have not seen this movie, fucking spoiler alert, the whole housing edition in Mesa Verde or Costa Verde, California, was built on a cemetery. And so an ancient Indian burial ground, right? I mean-ish. They kind of say that, but they are like it's it's like an old pilgrim cemetery. Like those are the kind of characters that you sort of find out. You can't do that.

Megan:

You you you just can't do that.

Lesley:

No, you need to move the bodies if you're going to do that. That has been done. I mean, cemeteries have been relocated in the name of progress. But in this case, they just moved the headstones, which left me slightly incredulous because really, like, you kind of have to dig down and like put plumbing and I mean, if I want to bring some reality into this totally made up movie, I was like, well, at some point somebody would have absolutely. And the other thing is they had dug that pool all the way down. I mean, it was like 10 feet down and had not run into anything yet. So unless the pilgrims were super industrious and burying people 20 feet down, I mean, at some point somebody probably would have noticed. However, for the premise of this film, we're going to accept it as truth. And all of those spirits were really fucking pissed off. And so basically the TV is like an access point into the home because you know what they want to do, Megan? They just want to nap. They just want to go, they just want to go to the light. Okay. But you can't. They're stuck.

Megan:

Well, wait a minute. Wouldn't they have had a long time after they like died in the world?

Lesley:

That's where the second movie comes in.

Megan:

Yes. They had a long time to like move on to the light, right? Before somebody built a house on them.

Lesley:

So if I'm remembering correctly, and I'm probably not, like, I remember watching the second movie and this creepy old dude is like very and I think what the premise is is that he was like leading them across the country or something. We're gonna talk in the way the way backs. Okay, in the Oregon Trail. Seven in the Oregon Trail. And so like it was kind of like a religious group cult. They got to miss wherever it was and died of dysentery. And he totally, and he just didn't want to let their spirits go. There was some sort of like access to power, like he wanted to keep them all trapped there. Whatever.

Megan:

I feel better about poltergeist now rather than rather than the second one. Because the creepy old dude like really creeps me out.

Lesley:

So he is not in the first one, not as a fully developed character, but there is a scene where it hints at the shapes of these people, and there is a character with like a wide-brimmed hat. Okay. And if you've seen them both, you're kind of like, okay. But I mean, the consequence is because we don't have the real creepy old guy, the family just gets attacked by like skeletons popping out of the ground towards the end. So, okay.

Megan:

So you're digging the ask me questions. Yes. Tell me all yes, yes.

Lesley:

You mentioned the little girl goes missing. The little girl goes missing. So where is she? Okay, so this is you know, big deal.

Megan:

The the prep the opening of the movie. I just want to say I'm sorry for all the people who've never seen this movie or or not. Like maybe you're coming along. And you're just like with me. This is the best.

Lesley:

Thanks. So they kind of they lay it out early on, right? It's this beautiful idyllic home, but immediately something is wrong because little Carolyn has a canary and named Tweety. Oh, oh, yeah. You know, Tweety. And sadly, Tweety is dead. First thing canary in the coal mine. Uh legit. And so there's this beautifully shot scene of Joe Beth Williams as the mom holding Tweety. She's like, ah shit, Tweety, couldn't you wait for like a school day? Because then we could have just gotten through this. And we could have gotten a replacement bird. Totally legit 80s momming. And there's this scene where she's just perfectly poised over the toilet squatting, getting ready to drop the bird in a toilet, which you wouldn't do because the bird's fucking really big.

Megan:

Yeah, that's gonna clog up your that is gonna piss off the spirits, but the moment don't flush the bird.

Lesley:

Little Carol Ann walks into the bathroom and goes, No.

Megan:

Okay. That's some trauma.

Lesley:

So this is the first thing. And so there's this whole like, you know, I mean, it just felt so 80s. There's this whole Tweety Bird funeral, the dog is there, it's chaos. The little girl, like, wants a flower and a napkin and a Twizzler in there. And she's brilliant. She's such a great actress. So they put Tweety in a cigar box. And bury him in the backyard. And then but not too deep. Not too deep because the fucking dog who's called Ebuzz, Eboss, Ebuzz is what we think it is, is digging up the bird. And then like and she's like, you know, she buries the bird and she's so sad. And then she looks up. Can I get a goldfish now? And don't you know? In the next scene, she got fucking goldfish. And in the very next scene, they're excavating for the pool and they dig that fucking bird up. It is so 80s. It's just like I feel like the bird should be alive, right? Very impermanent. Little pet cemetery action. I did like that movie. All of these things kind of like set like, okay, something's not quite right. And the little boys in the backyard, and he's looking at this giant tree that they like chose to leave in the yard, even though it's clearly dead. But the dad goes on and on about how that tree's been here for a really long time and it's really important. You know what I mean? And don't you know that fucking tree ate that kid later on? I mean, that tree got hungry. It's a seriously pissed-off tree.

Megan:

And so then so do so, okay, you've got the little boys eaten.

Lesley:

Like dead did? Later he gets eaten. Dad rescues him. It's fine. We have to have a reason for the family to go outside in order for Caroline to be left long enough to get disappeared.

Megan:

Eating a ch eating a child, the tree eating a child is a yeah, okay it's a distraction.

Lesley:

You like you do. So they're just all these little like hints that something is gonna go wrong. There's the premise of the storm, and then the second night the storm comes back, and that's when all hell fucking breaks loose. So there's like really good kind of and you know why, right?

Megan:

Because you're digging a pool and you get a hole, and now the water's getting in, and it's really pissing the spirits off because now they're soggy. Now they're wet.

Lesley:

It's so sad. They got things to talk about. So the the storm kind of comes in. You can tell it's an unnatural storm. Sure, of course. The boy is very scared. The dad has given him like a reassuring thing to do like, count the seconds between the thunder and the lightning, and you'll be able to tell that you're gonna be okay. So the audience is lulled into like, oh, this all worked last night. It was fine, it'll work again the second night. Nope. Sorry, motherfuckers, that tree is gonna bust through that window in the middle of the storm. Take that little boy and try to swallow him so that the poltergeist can pull Carol Ann, her sweet innocent self, into the TV. Into, we don't know where a closet? It's a place with a lot of jelly, is what we find out later. Ectoplasma. So it's kind of like in between worlds. It is a world in between worlds. The jelly filling in between. It's like a jelly donut. It's filled with a lot of jelly because when they go in and rescue them, they're gooey. They're gooey? They're gooey. That's totally ectoplasma. And they have to put them in a bathtub to get them to wake up from the goo bath. Who are you gonna call? Exactly. Well, the reality is I'll tell you who they call.

Megan:

Yeah, because you said that there's like somebody just locally that they could just pick up the phone and be like, Yeah, it's so brilliant.

Lesley:

Let me see if we can find her name. Her name is Nancy. Oh god. Okay. She's like a psychologist.

Megan:

Okay. Okay, yeah, tell me. Okay. Oh, here she is. Okay, now I'm gonna totally confuse. This is so bad. Oh, I love it. We're going to confuse her with the the organist in uh 16 Candles when Molly Ringwald's sister gets married. There's that organist, and she actually's got like a squeaky shoe.

Lesley:

She might have been the actress in that, but this, but it's a different character. I think it might be the same. Have you pulled it up? Organist 16 Candles. So brilliant. Oh my god.

Megan:

We need to do more of this where I'll tell you a story about a movie that I can ever see. Yeah. Okay. So good. This is so dumb. I really love it.

Lesley:

So while he's looking that up, the initial okay. So wait, let me just back up a little bit. Carolyn gets pulled into what they call a portal inside the closet. Okay. So the the closet door opens. There's all this light. I was reading they used like um lighting through. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's totally hers. Zelda Rubenstein.

Megan:

The film with a role alongside her other more famous role in movies like Poltergeist. Fucking brilliant. Totally okay. Look at you. Do I know anything? Can I remember like what I had for lunch? I cannot. But do you remember that?

Lesley:

Somehow I just pulled that shit out of my life. Brilliant. So she's like the Deus Ex Machina for all of this, right? Okay. They go and get the first team of experts, and then she's the other expert that gets brought in when the first team of experts is like stumped and needs extra help.

Megan:

Okay. Okay. All right.

Lesley:

So she's just brilliant.

Megan:

I mean, okay. She's awesome. She's just okay as an organist. She was just mediocre. Yeah.

Lesley:

Was not quite the same level.

Megan:

Well, recalling.

Lesley:

She's not rescuing people from a portal in a closet that is filled with poltergeist spirits. And goo. And a lot of goo. So much. We have to really wrap this up. People are going to get so fucking bored. So essentially, the first character is a parapsychologist, Martha Lesh, and she is a trained psychologist. They make it all so like you just buy in because she's like, I'm a psychologist. And then I got interested in this weird stuff, and everybody was thinking I was crazy, but she works at a university. So when they're not gets sucked into a hole, oh, and they've been having like weird shit happen. Like the way the weird shit happens is like suddenly like tree chairs start to move themselves in the kitchen. Like they start noticing little things first. And that gets them to kind of interact with it. And then they steal the kid, they being the poltergeist spirits. So the dad goes to the nearby university, I'm guessing like UCLA or whatever, and hooks up with these people. So Martha, Ryan, and Marty show up to investigate and they determine there is a poltergeist intrusion involving multiple ghosts. Thank you, Wikipedia. And Steven learns from his boss that the Quest of Verde development was built on top of a former cemetery. And the graves were moved to a nearby location, supposedly. Supposedly. The one character that totally gets the shaft in this movie is the teenage daughter. Like she's kind of in and out. It does feel like they cut a bunch of her stuff. And she's just basically like out with her friends most of the time because like shit ain't right. And everybody's got the TVs on all the time so that you can talk. I mean, she can't study. Important thing. Carolyn can be to spoken to through the TV. Okay. So can call to her and Carolyn is looking for her, but she can't see her. And she's in there with all of the people. Like there are all these other spirits. And then there's a really bad spirit who's like controlling her or keeping her there.

Megan:

Oh. See, I could see, like, maybe, you know, she's just in, they wanted her because she's can talk to them. Like they're lonely.

Lesley:

Well, that is part of it. Good instincts.

Megan:

Oh, good.

Lesley:

The parapsychologist explains that the reason that they want her is because she has like a life force. She's a really strong light. Okay. And they've been trying to get to the light for a long time, but they've been stopped by the bad guy, black man. Yeah. Yeah. Scary guy. And so they want her. It's she's like warm and she radiates life. And they're like to get to this place. No, he wants to control everybody. So he's like, got Caroline. What's wrong with him? Ah, he's a white guy.

Megan:

Oh, there you go.

Lesley:

Sorry.

Megan:

That'll do it.

Lesley:

But um but uh I will say it's not just that. He's like a cult leader, you know? When you're in charge of a cult, you don't want to like give up your cult. You want to keep all your people.

Megan:

If you give up your cult, your cult, what do you have? So what is a cult leader without a cult?

Lesley:

Nothing. Just a guy. Guy on the guy on a corner yelling at a microphone. Just a guy, I guess. So there's a lot more to this movie. I can't play by play it, but some of the most brilliant, brilliant scenes, the whole living, kid, the whole family's sleeping in the living room because the children's bedroom is now fucking just haunted as fuck. All the cool 70s stuff that is left that hasn't been sucked into the hole in the closet. Okay. It is a goal. In the closet, like is all up there, so they can't open the door. You know, it's still did they get their stuff back? Uh oh no, this is the end of the movie. You're gonna fucking love it so much. The spirits are so pissed, they fucking suck the whole house. The entire house and all of the shit just goes into like a hole in the street. But Carolina's storm, right? We do rescue her because she's covered with jelly. Okay. They bring her out of the goo-hole through the ceiling. It's a it's a portal. Okay. I mean, it's really deep science. You just you'll have to watch it.

Megan:

Yes, I'm clearly not up on my there.

Lesley:

The bad poltergeist. Yes. Bad poltergeist. There's a really well-known scene where um one of the guys goes in to get some food out of the kitchen and he's like eating a chicken leg, and he bizarrely pulls a steak out of the refrigerator and slaps it on the counter and is going to cook it. Okay. But then he starts seeing things, and the chicken leg has like maggots all over it, and the steak starts to move, and he imagines he's pulling all of the skin off of his face. It's the scene I can't watch. It's like too much body horror. It's so gross.

Megan:

It's it's worms, Michael. No, maggots. It's maggots, Michael. Thank you. Tim's like looking at me like, Megan, don't fuck with that. You know better. Do better.

Lesley:

Do better.

Megan:

Do better, do better with your with your bad reference to a completely different movie. Oh my god. I find this fascinating. It's actually super fun. And number one, I don't have to watch it. And I'm okay with that. Like now I don't have to, but maybe, maybe I want to.

Lesley:

There's some incredibly wonderful accepted 80s. I'm gonna, I'm using the word wonderful with this, very accepted 80s misogyny written into the script early on. Okay. Where like the mom, like the high school girl, she's like in a very appropriate, appropriate, you know, knee length skirt, blouse. She looks very young. I mean, she looks like a 16-year-old when we were 16-ish. She's getting on her bike and she's being like catcalled by the guys digging the pool. And the mom's just like, ah, oh, boys will be boys. And she does this great thing and like flips them all off, and they're like, hey, but nobody thinks anything of it. It's not like menacing or anything. And I'm like, yep, that's how I grew up. That's pretty much how it was. Exactly it. It is just quintessential.

Megan:

But I think it's really fun about this. So, like, I know we've talked a little bit about Stranger Things. Yeah, for sure. So clearly, the Duffer brothers, when they were thinking about Stranger Things, I'm sure they have seen Poltergeist 100 million times. Absolutely. Because it sounds like there's very much upside-down sort of yes, totally.

Lesley:

There is that vibe. So they can't figure all this shit out on them by themselves. The para the para psychology team. So they have to go get the piano player from 16 Candles. And they have to bring her in because she's like a medium and like can speak with spirits and knows how to go into the goo-hole where everybody's covered with jelly. And they need her to like help them figure this whole thing out. Her character name is oh my god, it starts with a T. It's not Tamson, it's Tahen. It's something. I can't find it right now. It was right in front of me. Sorry, I did it again. Oh gosh, I don't want to pause it. Wait, is it up there? A little more. I literally just had it.

Producer Tim:

It is uh Tangina.

Lesley:

That's it. I was hoping it would pop up down here. Tangina. What's her last name?

Producer Tim:

There is no last name.

Lesley:

Oh, I think it's in here somewhere. We're not gonna do that though. My brain will try to figure it out. She's brilliant. So they bring her in. She's a spiritual medium. Oh, can you see it? Oh, there she is. Tangina Barons. Zelda Rubenstein as Tangina Barons are both amazing by those names up.

Megan:

She should have just stayed herself. She should have.

Lesley:

Zelda is a much more appropriate name for a medium. That's what my daughter wanted her name to be.

Megan:

Did she really? Yeah, she really did. She's very mad that we didn't go with that. I'm sorry. It is what it is. We're so sorry, Jim.

Lesley:

So she cleans the house, helps them rescue their daughter from the goo hole. Everything is supposed to be fine. And then the house gets sucked into it. Well, you know it's not fucking fine. They pack everything up, they're getting ready to move. Going into the goo hole. Mom had to go rescue the girl, right? Because a daughter will come to her mother, blah, blah, blah. But it wasn't just that. But like they sent and they dress Joe Beth Williams in this beautiful white, very like late 70s, early 80s kind of like outfit. So she's dressed for like optimum goo coverage. Like it's just gonna glow. Her hair is beautiful. She's she seems light. She's glowing. She is. She is a light. She's an angel. She's just gonna go in and like rescue her daughter. They're gonna pull her out through the other hole in the ceiling. Goo hole. Yep. And they'll get her that way. So she goes there, they get her out, everything's fine, and the medium declares the house clean. So then the family, of course, is gonna move the fuck out. Yeah. And as a result of going through the goo hole, she has this like amazing white streaks in her hair that look really, really hot. But for some unknown fucking reason, after they've packed up, I don't know, 70% of their house.

Megan:

Yeah.

Lesley:

And the kids are all gonna go just like take a nap while they're waiting for their dad to wrap shit up at the office. She decides to go color her hair. And don't you know? Oh, yes, that quizzical face is exactly what we were making the other night. What? I was like, why? Okay, okay, but it's fine. It's fine.

Megan:

Okay, okay, okay, okay. So my house is possessed. My children have been sucked into the house through a goo hole. I've had to like wash goo off of them. The tree tried to eat my son. Yep. The all my shit's gone because it's been sucked into a hole. I'm not fucking sticking around that house waiting for coach to get off of work. Fucking coach.

Lesley:

Come home and go out. You dove into a whole pool. You fell into your pool full of skeletons. Why? Like that happens while they were trying to like save their kid and all of this. Oh, it happens after she dyes her hair. That's the curse, women. Don't dye your hair. You're gonna fall into a pool full of skeletons.

Megan:

Come in. Let your poltergeist grays come in. Absolutely. Just let it happen. Seriously, though.

Lesley:

The house was clean. Oh, okay. Until further notice. And then they got the notice. And it was a big notice. It was right on the door.

Megan:

I don't give a shit if it, if like the, you know.

Lesley:

We're just leaving right now.

Megan:

I'm certainly not coloring my hair. I'm certainly why. I am not spending enough time in that bathroom to color my hair.

Lesley:

So at the very end, there's like caskets busting up through the floor and the walls and like out of the pool and like through the yard. There's bodies, bones everywhere. It's clear the creature in the house is clearly going. So she they get everybody out, and then the house gets like sucked into this hole into some Tangina slips out of existence. Tangina should stick to organ playing at weddings because that is a shitty job as a you know, she was really just like a goo-hole rescue expert society expert and did not actually send the spirits away. She thought she had though. She thought she'd sent them all to the light and it was fine. Black hat guy. I think he's the problem. Yeah, probably.

Megan:

I mean, we'll learn that in the next movie. He's the problem. Which I will not watch.

Lesley:

Which is totally fine. So there are a couple of aside from just the fucking, you know, like spellbinding story that you have been listening to. Joe Beth Williams was not aware that she was swimming in a pool full of real skeletons.

Megan:

Oh, so the actress herself, they put her in a pool full of actual why?

Lesley:

Because they were cheaper than rubber skeletons at the time. They were released from like a medical some, some, some, some. And the technology to like make fake skeletons at the time was not that great. And they were kind of floppy.

Megan:

And so they used real bones. All of those people really wanted to be in theater. I'm gonna break it in someday into the movies. You're gonna you just need to be able to swim with real skeletons. Wait, just wait some day. Are those real skeletons? At least the bones of me on the real screen. Oh, you know.

Lesley:

Yeah, we could donate our skeletons to movie magic in the future, please. And they'll be like, my god, these crazy women, don't they know that we don't use real skeletons anymore? So there is a little bit of like a curse, a poltergeist curse. And I I do remember this. I didn't know why, but I just like, oh, it's a scary movie. It's sort of like the Scottish play. Uh-huh. You know, it's got this like vibe. So the 16-year-old character was played by Dominic Dunn. And I think like the day that the movie came out, or shortly thereafter, she was actually murdered by her boyfriend, which was horrifying. And she was a young teenager. Heather O'Rourke, who played Carol Ann, which was the youngest daughter, died when she was 12 in 1988 from complications of an intestinal obstruction that was misdiagnosed, which is really sad. Julianne Beck, this one's less woo-woo, played Reverend Cained, creepy black cat guy, and poltergeist 2, died of stomach cancer shortly after the film was released. Will Sampson played-I mean, to be fair, he didn't look good. Taylor in poltergeist 2 died in 1987 from complications following a heart and lung transplant. And then Lou Perryman played Pugsley, the construction worker in the original. The construction workers are the ones that are like the straight up funny misogynist. Can we put those two words together? Yes. Ha ha ha ha. He was murdered in 2009. So the alleged origin of the curse was the use of real human skeletons as props. The real skeletons were believed to be a cost-saving measure, and the practice is seen as a direct parallel to the film's plot about spirits being disturbed by the desecration of their gold.

Megan:

There is a little irony there, isn't there? Just a wee bit of irony.

Lesley:

It's it's an it's freaky enough for it to be freaky.

Megan:

Um is wild. Yep, absolutely. Is Craig T Nelson still alive? Yeah, he is. So he's hanging in there, but he probably didn't go swimming with the skeletons, right?

Lesley:

Uh no, he was at the office. You know, just they just gave him this line. He was off. It was such a like it was such a shitty piece of writing because it doesn't make sense, but it's clearly set up so that they can do this whole finale like closing scene.

Megan:

I mean, he probably went to the office to list the fucking house.

Lesley:

Right? Well, and it there is a little bit of this, like, you know, he gets tempted by the devil, right? Like the developer offers him like tons of money, a new house in phase four, all of this stuff. Like, you're our top sales guy. Like, keep, you know, keep going, keep going. And after all this shit happens and he finds out what the company did, you know, he's the ethical kind of like every man. He's like, fuck you, I don't need your fucking money. I don't want anything.

Megan:

That's good.

Lesley:

His house gets sucked into nowhere. Yeah. And they leave. So of course he shows up in the car, he rescues his family, gets them all in there. They do this is probably one of my favorite. It is, it's the closing end. I'll I have too many words about this. They get in the station wagon with the dog, everything's fine. Dana finally shows back up. The teenage daughter makes it dog makes it, he's all good. And they get in the car, they drive to a fucking hotel, they're at a holiday in. Oh no. The shot is brilliant. I just keep hitting this. My hand is too excited. It's got the neon light, yeah, holiday in. They go into the room. Oh no.

Megan:

It's a motel, so the rooms are on the outside. Because movies never end the way you think they're gonna end. There's gotta be something. Close the door. Yeah.

Lesley:

It waits like 10 seconds. And the TV opens the door, throws the TV out of the room, closes the door. Okay. So it is it is a nice little knot.

Megan:

I was afraid like maybe there was just some static or something when they opened the open the door to the room and it's not. They didn't torture you in that way.

Lesley:

They like end the movie as a chance.

Megan:

With a little like little finesse. Yeah. So there's like a little giggle at the end.

Lesley:

All right. You went on a journey. That was something, and I don't hate it. It's quintessential 80s. If you have not re-watched it in a long time, listening audience, and if you bothered to get to the end of this conversation, watch it because it's just wild. You are like, oh yeah, or it feels there's so much sense memory. It's like, yeah, this feels accurate. This these were my friends' houses. You know, it's this was I didn't live in a subdivision like that, but like I remember them. You know, it's yeah, it feels right.

Megan:

So there you go. Well, that is super fun. Thank you for taking me on into the Google.

Lesley:

Anytime. Google does not have ball bearings. Oh my god, that's so funny. Sue Johansson from Canada did not know about it, sadly. However, here we are. I loved it. So maybe next time. Oh, there he is. You should see me a picture of Scooby. Oh, I'm so sorry, scary dude.

Megan:

Yeah, he was right there. I like him. It freaks you out. I really don't like him.

Lesley:

Maybe you find a comedy scene.

Megan:

Oh, right. Like yes. As an actor. I'm sorry he died.

Lesley:

Absolutely. He was so scary. Uh, such a scary, scary dude. And he is in that second movie. And it's gotta be pretty soon after the first one because it's a except for Dominique Dunn, because she was right. But yes, it is the same cast. So there you go. That's what we got.

Megan:

That's enough. We'd move to the other side of the world. That is enough. That took and probably rent like 40 minutes.

Lesley:

Probably. Sorry, friends. We'll edit that down. Uh-uh. We'll see what happens. That was fun. Hope you enjoyed your little stroll. You're welcome. My pleasure.

Megan:

All right. I'm gonna pick the next movie. So we have to call this like some sort of movie night or something. Yeah, we'll find something clever to say. Sweet. I'll see you next time. Yes, let's do that. And we'll be my god, we're getting into the holiday season. Shh. We'll talk about that later. Okay. I'm not gonna talk about that now. Good night. Thanks, everybody.

Lesley:

You have been listening to Gen X Women Are Sick of This Shit. Hey Megan. Hey Leslie. What do people do if they want to find us?

Megan:

Well, we have a website that people can find us on, and that is GenXwomenpod.com. We also have a Facebook page. We have an Instagram account as well. We have a YouTube account where we put YouTube shorts and other little tidbits up there. We have a TikTok account.

Lesley:

I don't talk the tick.

Megan:

You don't tick the talk? I barely talk the tick, but I did put a TikTok or TikTok. That's okay though.

Lesley:

That's great. We need to know how to get that works.

Megan:

Can people buy merch? They absolutely can. We have a merch store on the website itself. And we also have an Etsy store too. So they're just pretty easy to find. It's just Gen X Women. Etsy.

Lesley:

And if you are listening to this podcast, presumably you found it somewhere. And while you're there, give us a review. Yeah. Let us know what you think. Throw some stars at us. That'd be great. Take one, two, three, four, or five. Ooh, five. Maybe.

Megan:

And and also make sure that you are hitting subscribe so that you're notified whenever a new episode drops. Most important. We also have a five minutes of fame that I think we should tell people about it too.

Lesley:

Hell yes. We want to know your stories, your five minutes of fame stories. You can send those stories in on the website. Or you can call 1888 Gen X COD and leave your story for us, and we will play it live in our next episode.

Megan:

We'll listen to it on a little red phone just like Batman.

Lesley:

That'd be a Batbone. I think that's it. I think great.

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Lesley Meier

Host
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Megan Bennett

Host
Contributor

Tim Barrett

Producer

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