Poltergeist Franchise To Be Revived By Amazon Studios

When Amazon finalized its acquisition of MGM in 2022, the company had been looking into reviving many of its titles, including Poltergeist. As experts expected, many MGM titles might be in the pipeline for a reboot, a revival or a remake into movies or series for Amazon Studios.

Last month, news broke out that the 1982 supernatural horror movie Poltergeist, directed by Tobe Hooper and written by Steven Spielberg, Michael Grais and Mark Victor from Spielberg’s story might be getting a revival.

The movie has been a classic example of horror blockbuster movies studied, dissected, analyzed and critiqued in many, if not all, filmmaking programs. Spielberg and Frank Marshall produced the movie in the 80s starring JoBeth Williams, Craig T. Nelson and Beatrice Straight.

The story mainly centres on a family whose residence is occupied by entities that took their youngest daughter. The premise has since been something parents told their kids to keep them well-behaved at home.

The movie started with a budget of $10M that collected $122M at the worldwide box office. Safe to say that people were properly thrilled and scared at the time. From then on, many audiences still cannot help but be fascinated and frightened of the movie. Even to this day, Poltergeist remains a favourite among horror films.

Despite the lacklustre follow-up movies, the franchise still poses a promising potential for a revival, especially with a new owner keen on building its own library of titles for either streaming series or movies.

Poltergeist Might Get A Reboot In Amazon Studios

Last month at the YouTube channel The Hot Mic with John Rocha and Jeff Sneider, Sneider disclosed that Amazon is looking at all the titles it now owns through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer or MGM. In fact, the scooper enumerated six IPs for the studio. They were Stargate, Legally Blonde, Thomas Crown, Rocky, Robocop and Poltergeist.

Particular concerns tend to extend or make the process a bit more tricky, as Sneider said Amazon would likely have to get Spielberg involved in the revival of the popular horror franchise. Spielberg is the writer and creator of the IP, and the only reason he was not able to direct the film was because of his other project, the sci-fi fantasy classic E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Sneider said:

Amazon is real big on series more than it is in movies. …although keep in mind… they made it official that Courtenay Valenti is coming over from Warner Bros to run film at Amazon-MGM…

…complicated by the fact that Spielberg would likely need to be involved in it. …but Poltergeist is their big horror thing.

He went on to speculate that the project Amazon will likely develop will be for a series. As current viewer behavior indicates, there is more demand for series than in movies especially in streaming.

Poltergeist Remake Likely In the Works At Amazon Studios

Poltergeist Franchise To Be Revived By Amazon Studios

Credit: United International Pictures

While there are also certain urban legends that have sprung from the production of the Poltergeist franchise, people are still very much interested in horror and particularly the kind of story that the Spielberg classic tells.

A series featuring the frightening premise will likely keep audiences glued to their seats. I can already imagine people huddled in front of their screens, scared yet still curious as to what’s going to happen next. The jump scare and the suspense of it all are half, if not more than half, the fun of the genre.

Amazon has proven to have a reputation for taking risks on its titles for series in its streaming platform. With the success of horror series and movies in recent years, a revival of the horror classic might just be time.

What do you make of the possibility that Poltergeist might just get a revival from Amazon? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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