Kurt Forman Pasadena City College Humanities 4 Horror Films and Mass Media in the United States: A Preliminary Analysis of Poltergeist and The Ring. “They’re here.” Poltergeist “I hate television” The Ring Horror films are a particularly reviled cinematic genre in the United States, they are nevertheless consistently successful in the box office. Success, of course, is no measure of quality, but it does serve as a generalized measure of popular interest into disturbing themes and trends in society. The popularity of Horror films revolves chiefly around their ability to surface these deep, and largely unconscious cultural anxieties. By nature, horror films engage cultural taboos concerning sex, violence, and death. As such, they make great vehicles for critical analysis into the general collective unconscious of a society at a particular point in time. By revealing an especially unflattering portrait of human nature, horror films act as mirror for repression and denial. One recurrent theme in Horror films is the collective impact of mass media on both the individual and on society. For instance, Poltergeist was released in 1982 at the onset of the mass media explosion of the 1980’s, and it introduced audiences to an all-American type family named the Freelings who lived in a California bedroom community called Cuesta Verde. In Poltergeist, the Freelings represent a prosperous American family with all the modern technological conveniences including three television sets. One night, however, the youngest daughter Carol Anne (5) begins to hear voices coming from the family room television. In an eerie opening scene, she looks deep into the television snow and begins to carry on a conversation with an unseen force on the other side of the tube. In that particular scene, horror emerges from the uncanny reversal of the television medium itself. By nature, the television set talks to its audience, it does not listen. By staging a dialogue between Carol Anne and the television set, Poltergeist destabilizes the television monologue and transforms it into a threatening presence, albeit one that is completely camouflaged in TV snow. This dialogue destroys the common perception that television is a passive medium of entertainment, suggesting that it constitutes an active agency for manipulation and control. By focusing on Carol Anne, the scene further alludes to the indiscriminate nature of television programming that targets viewers indiscriminate of their age and reasoning capacities. Audience anxieties concerning the influence of mass media are thus visualized in blunt and dramatic terms. A strong parallel can be found in the more contemporary horror film called The Ring. The central thesis of The Ring revolves around a haunted videotape that kills people exactly seven days from the initial viewing. Based on a very popular Japanese film called Ringu, the plot is directly structured on the concept of a c ...

1. Kurt Forman
Pasadena City College
Humanities 4
Horror Films and Mass Media in the United States:
A Preliminary Analysis of Poltergeist and The Ring.
“They’re here.”
Poltergeist
“I hate television” The Ring
Horror films are a particularly reviled cinematic genre in the
United States, they are nevertheless consistently successful in
the box office. Success, of course, is no measure of quality, but
it does serve as a generalized measure of popular interest into
disturbing themes and trends in society. The popularity of
Horror films revolves chiefly around their ability to surface
these deep, and largely unconscious cultural anxieties.
By nature, horror films engage cultural taboos concerning sex,

2. violence, and death. As such, they make great vehicles for
critical analysis into the general collective unconscious of a
society at a particular point in time. By revealing an especially
unflattering portrait of human nature, horror films act as mirror
for repression and denial.
One recurrent theme in Horror films is the collective impact of
mass media on both the individual and on society. For instance,
Poltergeist was released in 1982 at the onset of the mass media
explosion of the 1980’s, and it introduced audiences to an all-
American type family named the Freelings who lived in a
California bedroom community called Cuesta Verde.
In Poltergeist, the Freelings represent a prosperous American
family with all the modern technological conveniences
including three television sets. One night, however, the
youngest daughter Carol Anne (5) begins to hear voices coming
from the family room television. In an eerie opening scene, she
looks deep into the television snow and begins to carry on a
conversation with an unseen force on the other side of the tube.
In that particular scene, horror emerges from the uncanny
reversal of the television medium itself. By nature, the
television set talks to its audience, it does not listen. By
staging a dialogue between Carol Anne and the television set,
Poltergeist destabilizes the television monologue and transforms
it into a threatening presence, albeit one that is completely
camouflaged in TV snow.
This dialogue destroys the common perception that television is
a passive medium of entertainment, suggesting that it
constitutes an active agency for manipulation and control. By
focusing on Carol Anne, the scene further alludes to the
indiscriminate nature of television programming that targets
viewers indiscriminate of their age and reasoning capacities.
Audience anxieties concerning the influence of mass media are

3. thus visualized in blunt and dramatic terms.
A strong parallel can be found in the more contemporary horror
film called The Ring. The central thesis of The Ring revolves
around a haunted videotape that kills people exactly seven days
from the initial viewing. Based on a very popular Japanese film
called Ringu, the plot is directly structured on the concept of a
chain letter. After watching the tape, viewers/victims have
seven days to make a copy and pass it on or suffer the
consequences.
Here again, television programming is reconstituted from a
passive medium to an active agency of manipulation and,
ultimately, death. Horror emerges from a critical reversal in the
perception that mass media is a inert culture phenomena into
one whereby mass media constitutes an active agency imbued
with threat and malice. From the perspective of The Ring,
moreover, there is no neutral position: once infected,
viewers/victims must participate in the cycle of distribution or
perish.
Historically, Poltergeist and The Ring are separated by
approximately twenty years in time, yet thematically they are
linked by the manner in which they foreground and conflate
mass media and horror. In particular, both films exploit
generalized anxieties concerning the influence of mass media by
positing the television set as an active and menacing agency of
influence and corruption. The following essay details the
specific nature of that influence, particularly as it relates to the
impact mass media has on the American nuclear family.
Poltergeist versus The Ring:
Horror, Mass Media, and the Nuclear Family
There are many different ways to analyze the popularity of

4. Horror films in the United States. There is, of course, the
obvious appeal to sex and violence, and the overarching theme
of sadism. There is, too, the strong appeal to the supernatural,
and the ability to witness the uncanny first hand via special
effects. Additionally, there is the ever-present specter of death
and its constant companion, transcendence.
Sex, violence, the supernatural, death, and transcendence have
proven a potent and lucrative combination, and Horror films
wouldn’t be popular without them. Nevertheless, certain Horror
films stand out as exceptional examples of genre filmmaking,
and become useful tools in cultural analysis. The following
comparison and contrast essay will review two such important
and influential horror films: Poltergeist(1982) and The Ring
(2003).
Although twenty years apart, the two films share many common
elements. For instance, Steven Spielberg played a prominent
role in the production of both films. He wrote the screenplay
for Poltergeist, and was also its Executive Producer.
Additionally, Spielberg’s production company DreamWorks
bought the rights for the Japanese horror film Ringu that was
then adapted to make the United States version of The Ring.
Both films, for instance, deal at length with issues concerning
the American nuclear family in the wake of dysfunction and
divorce. Poltergeist introduces Steven and Diane Freeling,
typical parents and habitual marijuana users. There is an
especially good scene early in the film showing Steven Freeling
and his wife Diane rolling joints in bed while he reads a
biography on Ronald Reagan.
The Ring introduces Rachel, a single working mom with
journalistic ambitions and a workaholic lifestyle that leaves her

5. son Aidan home and alone most of the time. Additionally,
Rachel makes her son call her “Rachel” rather than “Mother” to
signal her unconventional attitude towards traditional mother-
son roles. The father, Noah, has essentially abandoned them to
pursue his journalistic interests in photography, and indulge an
artsy-type bohemian lifestyle.
Both films deal with punishment, ostensibly a direct result of
these dysfunctions. In Poltergeist, for instance, the Freelings
are attacked by a vengeful spirit that wreaks havoc upon their
idyllic middles class home in the master-planned community of
Cuesta Verda set in suburban California. The culmination of
these attacks results in the abduction of their youngest daughter
Carol Anne(age 5) who is held hostage in Limbo for the better
part of the film.
In The Ring, Rachel and Noah are attacked by a supernatural
force that threatens to kill them in seven days after they watch a
videotape cursed by malevolent eight-year girl ghost named
Samara. Their only son Aidan is put in direct jeopardy after
accidentally watching a copy of the tape, sending both
delinquent parents into a panic to find a last second cure.
Disaster is thwarted only after Rachel instructs Aiden in the
making of a third videotape that ostensibly transfers the curse to
a third party in the style of a chain letter.
Both films feature vengeful supernatural spirits. In Poltergest,
the Freeling family is suddenly and viciously attacked by an
evil supernatural phenomenon known only as “The Beast.” As
the supernatural powers of The Beast intensifies, it goes on a
rampage destroying the interior of the house, attacking both
family and guests, andfinally abducting Carol Anne, their
youngest child.
In The Ring, the lives of Rachel, Noah and Aiden are
endangered by the vengeful spirit of an eight-year old girl

6. named Samara with telepathic power. She has the bad habit of
killing people with her mind after they’ve watched a tape she
created by ”thermograhic projection.” Seven days hence,
Samara literally crawls through the TV set to give her victims
the ultimate evil eye.
Both films deal with burial and repression. In Poltergeist, for
instance, the Freeling’s family home is secretly built atop an
old cemetery; unfortunately, the bodies buried therein were left
behind in an effort to maximize profits. In the final act of
Poltergeist, these coffins peel out of the ground like missiles
creating a ground zero of moral indignation against the
insensitive landowner’s dwelling above.
In The Ring, Samara’s body is unceremoniously dumped into a
deep well that is sealed tight to cover up the evidence.
Additionally, a cabin is built over the stone structure to conceal
any evidence of the well itself. Unfortunately, Samara is not
exactly dead, and she wreaks havoc on the people above by
projecting her desire for revenge into the cabin’s videotape.
Both films equate evil with the television set and mass media.
In Poltergeist, the television set is used as physical conduit
between the Freeling family home and the world controlled by
The Beast. This bipartite structure has strong allusions, of
course, to the one-dimensional nature of television
programming, and the impact mass media has on the America’s
sense of self and purpose.
In The Ring, Samara also uses the television set as a
metaphysical conduit between the world of the dead and the
living. By inference, mass media becomes the moral fulcrum
against which she wreaks vengeance on the voyeuristic public.
Like The Beast in Poltergeist, Samara is cast as overwhelmingly
evil and omniscient entity, ableto strike her victims at will in
the privacy of their own homes.

7. Both films deal with generation gaps. Poltergeist alludes to the
contentious rift between the WWII and Baby Boom generations
during the counter cultural divide of the 1960’s. The film opens
on a tight shot of a fuzzy television set accompanied to the
sound of the The Star Spangled Banner. The camera pulls back
to reveal a patriotic montage of American icons concluding with
the flag raising at Iwa Jima. Steven is passed out in front of the
TV set after another night of dope smoking.
The Ring makes heavy allusions to cliché’s concerning
Generation X and it’s affinity for mass media. Rachel, for
instance, works as an investigative reporter at a major
metropolitan newspaper in Seattle, while Noah is cast as a free-
lance photographic journalist available to hire. Both are
workaholics and completely oblivious to the needs of their son
Aidan, who spends more time in front of the television set than
with both parents combined.
Both films deal with redemption. In Poltergeist, the Freeling
family leaves the bland materialist life offered by suburban and
mass-produced life in Cuesta Verde for the minimal comforts of
a Holiday Inn located on the crossroads outside of town. In a
defining and meaningful last scene, the beleaguered family
enters their communal hovel punctuated by the symbolic
ejection of the ubiquitous television set by the recuperated
patriarch Steven. Death and disaster are thus averted as the
family hunkers down to renegotiate their Christian nuclear
family status in the ensuing enlightenment of Gideon's Bible.
Although slightly less canonical, the concluding scene of The
Ring depicts a suitably rehabilitated Rachel governing Aidan in
a video dub of the haunted tape, the only known way to break
the curse. At last, Rachel attains the traditional protectorate
status of “Mother,” putting her own sons welfare above both her
career and the community at large. Ironically, then, Noah’s

8. death in the preceding scene underscores both sacrifices in the
ongoing preservation of the father’s paternal seed, the new
generation, Generation Y, washed clean of their parent’s sins.
Although approximately twenty years separates the two films,
Poltergeist and The Ring share many meaningful connections,
especially concerning the effects of mass media on the nuclear
family. That both films reside in the category of horror alludes
to the contentious and fractious notion of both the nuclear
family and its ongoing evolution in the United States. Horror,
thus, resides in both the popular display of this hallowed
generational sequencing, and its potential dissolution through
the combined forces of mass media, marketing, and materialism.
In the case of these two films, Horror is ultimately equated with
the possible annihilation of the nuclear family, and the ongoing
cultural and religious apocalypse that is assumed to follow.
General Vocabulary for Essay:
1) Collective Unconscious: the inherited part of unconscious
thought, memories, and instinct, which, according to Jungian
principles, is common to members of a people and is observable
through dreams and behavior.
2) Repression: in Freudian psychology, a mechanism by which
individuals protect themselves from threatening thoughts by
blocking them out of the conscious mind.
3) Uncanny: too strange or unlikely to seem merely natural or
human.
4) Horror: a very strong, painful feeling of fear, shock, or
disgust.
5) Foreground: the part of a picture or scene that appears
nearest the viewer.

9. 6) Exploit: to take selfish or unfair advantage of a person or
situation, usually for personal gain.
7) Sadism: the gaining of sexual gratification by causing
physical or mental pain to other people, or the acts that produce
such gratification.
8) Special Effects: extraordinary visual effects in a motion
picture or television program achieved by technical means,
either optically, digitally, or mechanically.
9) Transcendence: existence above and apart from the material
world.
10) Screenplay: a script or scenario for a film.
11) Executive Producer: the head producer in charge of other
producers at a movie or television studio.
12) DreamWorks: in Freudian theory, the narrative aspect of
dreams that conceal unconscious desire or trauma through the
use of symbols and allegory.
13) Divorce: the ending of a marriage by an official decision in
a court of law.
14) Marijuana: the dried flowers and leaves of the Indian hemp
plant, smoked or eaten as a drug.
15) Bohemian: somebody, often a writer or artist, who does not
live according to the conventions of society.
16) Middles Class: the section of society between the poor and
the wealthy, including many business and professional people
and skilled workers.

10. 17) Suburb: a district especially a residential one, on the edge
of a city or large town.
18) Conduit: a pipe or channel that carries liquid to or from a
place.
19) Omniscient: knowing or seeming to know everything.
20) Bible: the sacred book of the Christian religion.
Poltergeist Synopsis:
Poltergeist came out in 1982, the same year President Reagan
took office. The film chronicles a supernatural event in the life
of the Freelings, a white middle class family living in suburban
community in California called Cuesta Verde. Their happy life
is invaded by a hostile spirit that enters their home through the
television set and abducts their youngest daughter Carol Anne.
Trapped in Limbo, the frantic parents enlist the aid of a
parapsychologist in an attempt to save her. She quickly
ascertains that there is a great evil masterminding Carol Anne’s
abduction, and that they must work quickly to free her, or she
will remain forever between Heaven and Hell
Questions for Poltergeist:
1) What is “Suburbia?” Where is it located? Who lives there
and why?
2) What is the function of Suburbia in the United States? How
does Suburbia function in Poltergeist?
3) What exactly is a “Bedroom Community?” When did they
come into existence and why? “I can’t tell one house from
another.” How does this line function in Poltergeist?

11. 4) According to the film, what is a Poltergeist? What is the
difference between a Poltergeist and a Haunting?
5) Who are the Freelings? How would you describe their
political beliefs? How would you describe their religious
beliefs? In general, what type of family are they?
6) How does the television set function in Poltergeist? Who
lives there and why?
7) Who are the “TV people,” and what do they want with the
Freelings?
8) How does the Star Spangled Banner function at the beginning
of Poltergeist?
9) What is the function of death in Poltergeist?
10) How does the afterlife function in Poltergeist?
11) What is limbo, and how does it function in Poltergeist?
12) How does marijuana function in Poltergeist?
13) What is the significance of football in Poltergeist?
14) Who is Carol Anne, and what do the TV people want with
her? Where does the Beast take Carol Anne, and why?
15) In Poltergeist, who or what exactly is The Beast? How is
The Beast different than the TV People?
16) What is the function of ancient tribal burial ground in
Poltergeist?

12. 17) What is a Parapsychologist, and how does it function in
Poltergeist? Why can’t you get a degree in Parapsychology ?
18) Who is buried in the ground beneath the Freeling’s family
home? Why are they so mad? Why are they punishing the
Freeling family?
Vocabulary for Poltergeist:
1) Poltergeist: a supposed supernatural spirit that reveals its
presence by creating disturbances, for example, by knocking
over objects.
2) Ghost: the spirit of somebody who has died, supposed to
appear as a shadowy form or to cause sounds, the movement of
objects, or a frightening atmosphere in a place.
3) Spirit: a vital force that characterizes a living being as being
alive; a supernatural being that does not have a physical body,
for example, a ghost, fairy, angel, or demon.
4) Soul: the complex of human attributes that manifests as
consciousness, thought, feeling, and will, regarded as distinct
from the physical body.
5) Haunt: to frequent a place or appear to somebody in the form
of a ghost or other supposed supernatural being.
6) Haunted: inhabited by or visited regularly by a ghost or other
supposed supernatural being.
7) Supernatural: relating or attributed to phenomena that cannot
be explained natural laws.
8) Tract House: one of many similar houses built on a tract of
land.

13. 9) Suburb: a district, especially a residential one, on the edge of
a city or large town.
10) Bedroom Community: a town or suburb inhabited mainly by
people who travel to work in a nearby city.
11) Mass Media: all of the communications media that reach a
large audience, especially television, radio, and newspapers.
12) Television: an electronic device for receiving and
reproducing the images and sounds of a television signal.
13) Consumer: somebody or something that consumes
something, by eating it, drinking it, or using it up.
14) Materialism: devotion to material wealth and possessions at
the expense of spiritual or intellectual values.
15) Patriotism: pride in or devotion to the country somebody
was born in or is a citizen of.
16) Rehabilitation: training, therapy, or other help given to
somebody, for example, somebody who has survived a serious
injury or illness or an addiction that will enable him or her to
live a healthy and productive life.
17) Limbo: a state in which somebody or something is neglected
or is simply left in oblivion.
18) Afterlife: a form of existence believed to continue after
death.
19) Heaven: a place or condition of supreme happiness and
peace where good people are believed to go after death, and,
especially in Christianity, the dwelling place of God and the

14. angels.
20) Hell: according to many religions, the place where the souls
of people who are damned suffer eternal punishment after death.
21) Burial: the act or ceremony of putting a dead body into the
ground or into the sea.
22) Burial Ground: an area of land where dead bodies are
buried, especially an ancient site.
23) Graveyard: a piece of ground, sometimes beside a church
set aside for people to be buried in.
24) Gravestone: an ornamental piece of stone put at the head of
a grave, on which are written the name, birth date, and death
date of the person buried there.
25) Desecrate: to damage something sacred, or do something
that is offensive to the religious nature of something.
26) Repression (1): the process of suppressing somebody or the
condition of having political, social, or cultural freedom
controlled by force.
27) Repression (2): in Freudian psychology, a mechanism by
which individuals protect themselves from threatening thoughts
by blocking them out of the conscious mind.
28) Exorcism: the use of prayer or religious ritual to drive out
evil spirits.
Questions for The Ring:
1) The first line in The Ring is “I hate television,” what does
this mean in context of the film itself, and horror in general?

15. 2) Who is Samara, and why does she kill people?
3) What is the function of sex in The Ring?
4) How doe drugs and alcohol function in The Ring?
5) Why does Samara wait seven days until she kills her victim?
What is the significance of seven?
6) How does parenting function in The Ring?
7) What kind of person is Noah? Why does Noah refuse to be a
Father to Aiden? What are the consequences?
8) What kind of person is Rachel? What kind of mother is she?
9) How do horses function in The Ring?
10) Why does Samara’s mother Anna kill her and dump her in
the well?
11) Who is Samara’s real father, and why is that so important?
12) Why set The Ring in Seattle Washington, what are the
advantages of the Pacific Northwest?
13) How does the television set function in The Ring?
14) What is the function of television?
Vocabulary for The Ring:
1) Parricide: the murder of a parent or closer elative.
2) Suicide: the act of deliberately killing yourself.
3) Revenge: to punish somebody in retaliation forharm or injury

16. done.
4) Supernatural: relating or attributed to phenomena that cannot
be explained by natural laws.
5) Hybrid: an animal that results from the mating of parents
from two distinct species or subspecies.
6) Bastard: a person born of parents not married to each other.
7) Nymph: a minor goddess or spirit of nature in mythology,
inhabiting areas of natural beauty such as woods, mountains,
and rivers and traditionally regarded as a beautiful young
woman.
8) Nymphet: a sexually aware and sexually desirable young
woman, especially a woman in her early teens.
9) Folklore: traditional stories and explanations passed down in
a community or country.
10) Chain Letter: a letter sent to a number of people, each of
whom is asked to send copies to the same number of new
people, sometimes requesting and promising money to
recipients.
11) Curse:
a malevolent appeal to a supernatural being for harm to come to
somebody or something, or the harm that is thought to result
from this.
12) Virus: anything that has a corrupting or poisonous effect,
especially on people’s minds.
13) Infection: the transmission of infectious microorganisms
from one person to another.

17. 14) Contagion: an illness that spreads from one person to
another, especially by physical contact between persons or
contact with infected objects.
15) Generation X: the generation of people born roughly during
the years 1965 to 1980 in Western countries, especially the
United States, often regarded as disillusioned, cynical, or
apathetic.
16) Generation Y: the generation of people born approximately
in or after 1980 in Western countries especially in the United
Sates.
17) Journalist: somebody who works as a writer or editor for a
newspaper or magazine or for television or radio.
18) Photojournalism: a form of journalism in which photographs
play a more important role than the accompanying text.
19) Nuclear Family: a social unit that consists of a mother, a
father, and their children.
20) Sin: an act, a thought, or behavior that goes against the law
or teachings of a particular religion, especially when the person
who commits it is aware of this.
21) Paternity: descent from a father.
22) Patrilineage: descent traced through the male line.
23) Patriarchy: a social system in which men are regarded as
the authority within the family and society, and in which power
and possessions are passed on from father to son.
24) Clone: a collection of organisms, cells, or molecular

18. segments that are genetically identical direct descendants of a
single parent by asexual reproduction, for example, plant
cuttings or grafts.
25) Half-Bred: used to describe a domestic animal that has only
one parent of a known pedigree.
26) Animal Husbandry: the branch of agriculture concerned
with breeding and rearing farm animals.
27) Thoroughbred: a pure breed of horse descended from
English mares and Arabian stallions, originally bred in Britain
and most often used for racing.
28) Bastard: a person born of parents not married to each other.