Episode 98. House Warning: The Amityville Horror (1979) and Poltergeist (1982)

Faculty of Horror

Call your bank and pack the moving truck because we’re uprooting everything we think we know about home ownership. From the Lutz’ mortgage with Devil to the skeletons in the Freelings’ closet (and backyard), Andrea and Alex unearth what lies beyond and beneath the white picket fences of American suburbia.

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REQUIRED READING

The Amityville Horror. Dir. Stuart Rosenberg, 1979.

Poltergeist. Dir. Tobe Hooper, 1982.

EXTRA CREDIT

Gaylords of Darkness Amityville 4 episode. The incomparable Stacie and Anthony tackle one of the strangest movies ever made. A must-listen!

Stephen King’s Danse Macabre. King’s non-fiction treatise on all things horror.

Romance and Real Estate, Walter Benn Michaels. Michael’s chapter on the emotional ties to owned property.

Owning Up: Privacy, Property, and Belonging in U.S. Women’s Life Writing, 1840-1890. Katherine Adam’s book about the rise of individuality, property and women’s relationship to owning a home.

In the Nation, Why Owning a Home is Still the American Dream. A history of status, taxes and the uses of home ownership.

Digging Up the Indian Burial Ground Trope. Shea Vassar’s breakdown and history of the trope which includes Terri Jean’s 5 reasons for the trope’s enduring popularity.

The Terrifying True Story that inspired Poltergeist. A look at Amityville‘s neighbours that inspired Poltergeist.

Reaganomics killed America’s middle class. An examination of Reagan’s economic policies and their lasting effects.

Half-True Crime: Why the Stranger-Danger Panic of the ’80s Took Hold and Refuses to Let Go. A deep-dive into the 1980s moral panic and its after-effects.

Cursed Films: “Poltergeist”: The Shudder series by Jay Cheel tackles the many urban legends surrounding the Poltergeist franchise.

“Haunted Real Estate: The Occlusion of Colonial Dispossession and Signatures of Cultural Survival in U.S. Horror Fiction” by Gesa Mackenthun. TIL the word “occusion!”

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