Hooper, Tobe

Poltergeist (25th Anniversary Edition)

Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 01/08/2008 Run time: 114 minutes

What a combo! Tobe Hooper, the director of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, teamed up with family-oriented producer Steven Spielberg to make Poltergeist. The film is about a haunted suburban tract home in a development very much like the Arizona one in which Spielberg was raised. (Because it came out the same summer as Spielberg's E.T., it was tempting to see both movies as representing Spielberg's ambivalent feelings about childhood in suburbia. One was a fantasy, the other a nightmare.) Spielberg also cowrote the screenplay, which taps into primal, childlike fears of monsters under the bed, monsters in the closet, sinister clown faces, and all manner of things that go bump in the night. At first, some of the odd happenings in the house are kind of funny and amusing, but they grow gradually creepier until the film climaxes in a terrifying special-effects extravaganza when 5-year-old Carole Anne (Heather O'Rourke) is kidnapped by the spooks and held hostage in another dimension. Though not nearly as frightening as Hooper's magnum opus, or the original A Nightmare on Elm Street, which came along two years later, Poltergeist is one of the smartest and most entertaining horror pictures of its time. --Jim Emerson

Salem's Lot

A new england village is plagued by vampirism in this blood curdling shocker based on the bestselling novel by stephen king. Special features: interactive menus scene access and theatrical trailer. Subtitles in english and french. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 09/13/2005 Starring: David Soul Bonnie Bedella Run time: 184 minutes Rating: Nr Director: Tobe Hooper

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2-Disc Ultimate Edition)

This sensational, extremely influential, 1974 low-budget horror movie directed by Tobe Hooper (Poltergeist, Lifeforce, Salem's Lot), may be notorious for its title, but it's also a damn fine piece of moviemaking. And it's blood-curdling scary, too. Loosely based on the true crimes of Ed Gein (also a partial inspiration for Psycho), the original Jeffrey Dahmer, Texas Chainsaw Massacre follows a group of teenagers who pick up a hitchhiker and wind up in a backwoods horror chamber where they're held captive, tortured, chopped up, and impaled on meat hooks by a demented cannibalistic family, including a character known as Leatherface who maniacally wields one helluva chainsaw. The movie's powerful sense of dread is heightened by its grainy, semi-documentary style--but it also has a wicked sense of humor (and not that camp, self-referential variety that became so tiresome in subsequent horror films of the '70s, '80s, and '90s). OK, in case you couldn't tell, it's "not for everyone." But as a landmark in the development of the horror/slasher genre, it ranks with Psycho, Halloween, and A Nightmare on Elm Street. --Jim Emerson

Studio: Mpi Home Video Release Date: 08/19/2008 Run time: 83 minutes

Lifeforce

Director Tobe Hooper was a hot property after he scored a popular hit with Poltergeist (thanks in part to producer Steven Spielberg), so his follow-up film was the most wildly ambitious of his career to date. Armed with a big budget and a special effects crew led by Star Wars pioneer John Dykstra, Hooper and Alien cowriter Dan O'Bannon whipped up a movie that must be seen to be believed. That's not really a compliment, since Lifeforce isn't much of a movie when all the sound and fury is over. But you've got to admit there's something crazily admirable about a movie that starts out as a science fiction adventure about a mission to explore Halley's comet, turns into an alien-invasion thriller featuring a beautiful naked woman (Mathilda May) who's a vampire from space, and escalates into an end-of-the-world disaster flick! It's got everything you could want from a horror movie--from zombies running amok in London to rotting corpses and energy bolts to signal the apocalypse to come! Holding it all together is Steve Railsback as the Halley mission survivor who holds the key to mankind's salvation--but what fun is saving the world when you could be seduced by a sexy naked space vampire? Check out Lifeforce to see how it all turns out. The widescreen DVD includes 15 minutes of footage not seen in U.S. theaters, an eight-page booklet of production notes and trivia, and the original theatrical trailer. --Jeff Shannon

Director Tobe Hooper was a hot property after he scored a popular hit with Poltergeist (thanks in part to producer Steven Spielberg) so his follow-up film was the most wildly ambitious of his career to date. Armed with a big budget and a special effects crew led by Star Wars pioneer John Dykstra Hooper and Alien cowriter Dan O Bannon whipped up a movie that must be seen to be believed. Thats not really a compliment since Lifeforce isnt much of a movie when all the sound and fury is over. But you have got to admit theres something crazily admirable about a movie that starts out as a science fiction adventure about a mission to explore Halleys comet turns into an alien-invasion thriller featuring a beautiful naked woman (Mathilda May) whos a vampire from space and escalates into an end-of-the-world disaster flick! Its got everything you could want from a horror movie--from zombies running amok in London to rotting corpses and energy bolts to signal the apocalypse to come! Holding it all together is Steve Railsback as the Halley mission survivor who holds the key to mankinds salvation--but what fun is saving the world when you could be seduced by a sexy naked space vampire? Check out Lifeforce to see how it all turns out. The widescreen DVD includes 15 minutes of footage not seen in U.S. theaters an eight-page booklet of production notes and trivia and the original theatricaltrailer.Starring: Steve Railsback et al.Director: Tobe HooperSystem Requirements:Region 1 encoding (for use in US and Canada only) Color Widescreen Number of discs: 1Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 027616701725

The Funhouse

Naughty teens are locked in a carnival fun house with a man in a frankenstein mask. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 09/07/2004 Starring: Sylvia Miles Elizabeth Berridge Run time: 96 minutes Rating: R Director: Tobe Hooper

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (The Gruesome Edition)

This wild, operatic 1986 sequel to 1974's low-budget horror hit--The Texas Chainsaw Massacre--is an extraordinary film that demonstrates just how far filmmaker Tobe Hooper had grown in the interim between the two movies. (Between the two movies, Hooper directed, among other things, the Spielberg production Poltergeist, the critically admired Lifeforce, and the spooky remake of Invaders from Mars.) In Massacre 2, Hooper enlists Dennis Hopper as a Texas Ranger seeking vengeance against the flesh-eating family that was introduced in the first film. Meanwhile, a radio deejay (Caroline Williams) is kidnapped by the family and brought to their underground lair. The performances are crazed, terrifying, and comic; the chainsaw fights are practically epic; the lighting and camera work are artful; the emotions are strong; and the ending is astounding, unparalleled in its imagery and force. --Tom Keogh

Studio: Tcfhe/mgm Release Date: 09/09/2008

Invaders From Mars

Let's face it: a movie in which Louise Fletcher eats a bullfrog can't be all that bad. Indeed, Tobe Hooper's remake of the 1953 classic Invaders from Mars is a total hoot, remaining loyal to the original while serving up a kaleidoscopic orgy of fang-toothed beasties, dazzling pyrotechnics, and enough wretched dialogue to choke its enthusiastic cast. If anything, Hooper's too enamored of the original, and with amateur actor Hunter Carson (Paris, Texas) as the boy-who-cried-Martian, he can't sustain the original's eerily paranoid atmosphere. This big-budget Invaders compensates with campy humor (especially from evil schoolmarm Fletcher) and cool special effects by Star Wars innovator John Dykstra. Carson's real-life mom (Karen Black) plays the school nurse who believes the boy's warning of invasion, and Jimmy Hunt--who played the kid in the original--brings everything full circle as a Martian-possessed policeman. Watch the original, then enjoy this less effective but equally entertaining remake. --Jeff Shannon

The Mangler

Studio: New Line Home Video Release Date: 09/26/2006 Run time: 91 minutes Rating: R

Poltergeist

What a combo! Tobe Hooper, the director of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, teamed up with family-oriented producer Steven Spielberg to make Poltergeist. The film is about a haunted suburban tract home in a development very much like the Arizona one in which Spielberg was raised. (Because it came out the same summer as Spielberg's E.T., it was tempting to see both movies as representing Spielberg's ambivalent feelings about childhood in suburbia. One was a fantasy, the other a nightmare.) Spielberg also cowrote the screenplay, which taps into primal, childlike fears of monsters under the bed, monsters in the closet, sinister clown faces, and all manner of things that go bump in the night. At first, some of the odd happenings in the house are kind of funny and amusing, but they grow gradually creepier until the film climaxes in a terrifying special-effects extravaganza when 5-year-old Carole Anne (Heather O'Rourke) is kidnapped by the spooks and held hostage in another dimension. Though not nearly as frightening as Hooper's magnum opus, or the original A Nightmare on Elm Street, which came along two years later, Poltergeist is one of the smartest and most entertaining horror pictures of its time. --Jim Emerson

This awesome supernatural thriller stars Craig T. Nelson and JoBeth Williams as a California couple swept up in a wave of horror after sinister spirits invade their home and kidnap their child. Year: 1982 Director: Tobe Hooper Starring: Craig T. Nelson, Jo Beth Williams, Beatrice Straight

Strange Invaders/Invaders From Mars

Strange InvadersIn 1958. all folks had to worry about were communists Elvis Presley and invaders from space. When an alien spaceship lets loose some gooey green men on a small Midwestern town Main Street USA becomes Strange Street USA! This eerie sci-fi creeper unveils an out-of-this-world plot that moves furiously towards a full-throttle inspirational climax (Time)!Running Time 99 MinInvaders from MarsA slick state-of-the-art remake (Film Journal) of the 1953 thriller classic this space-age creature feature is crawling with horrifying hordes of Martians hell-bent on stealing your soul and your planet! Starring Karen Black and packed with hair-raising terror (Chicago Tribune) and magnificent (Time Out) special effects Invaders From Mars is a nail-biting voyage of knuckle-whitening fear [that] builds to a screaming pitch (The New York Times)!Running Time 93 MinSystem Requirements: Running Time 192 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: SCI-FI/FANTASY Rating: NR UPC: 027616910820 Manufacturer No: 1006941