Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Steven Spielberg originally conceived this movie as a science-fiction thriller, a sequel of sorts to "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," with much-more-sinister aliens terrorizing a family's rural home (that was the premise of "Night Skies," the Spielberg concept that was never produced but was eventually cannibalized by other projects including "E.T. The Extraterrestrial" and this film). When Spielberg brought in Tobe Hooper to direct what later became "Poltergeist," Hooper convinced Spielberg to drop the science-fiction trappings altogether and make it a straight-up supernatural horror story.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: Robbie is grabbed by the big, gnarly tree outside his bedroom window during a severe thunderstorm, and Steve rushes outside to save the boy as a full-blown tornado passes overhead. The tornado sucks up the tree (which certainly weighs several tons); yet, completely defying physics, Steve and Robbie remain unaffected by the powerful updraft, even though the two are directly beneath the tornado vortex.

Charles Austin Miller