The weird edit that occurs when Steven, and Diane go to talk to their neighbor is when the infamous "I hate Pizza Hut!" line was taken out of the movie. Has this edit ever been released? Was it taken out while it was still in theaters or when it was released on home video?
shareThat WASN'T a WEIRD EDIT! It was perfectly normal! WHY does everyone call it a WEIRD EDIT!?!
People call it a weird edit because a part of the movie was cut out, thus causing the movie to have a weird edit.
shareRubbish.
Here's the scene. Fast forward to 5:00-5:15
https://youtu.be/n0Qh52XIdvs
It is a very poor edit. Watch the scene again. The mother is taking about what it feels like to be pulled across the floor then all of a sudden it cuts to them next door at the neighbors house.
Are you sure it's, in your words, "perfectly normal"?
I've watched thousands of movies in my lifetime and I'd say that's definitely a bad edit. Whether it was on purpose or they just ended up with it due to having to cut something out or they were missing footage to make it a good edit, who knows! It is a bad result from a technical point of view.
But I can easily forgive it, I would probably easily forget about it after a few minutes, as it's a great movie otherwise!
Ha ha - thanks for this.
I was rewatching this just a couple of days ago and had no idea what had happened there!
I just presumed it was some 18 rated dialogue they'd cut out!
Thats definitely a weird edit, but i totally dont remember it.
Is it that bad in all versions?
They could stil cut a pizza hut line and have a neater edit , like not cut the kitchen scene off mid sentence
PIZZA HUT DIDNT LIKE THE NEGATIVE COMMENT...THE SCENE WAS THEN TRIMMED TO OBLIGE THE PIZZA CHAIN.
shareSo that did exist?
shareI've read that the line was in the script. I don't know if it was ever actually filmed or not.
Pizza Butt is one of the worst "pizzas" anyone can buy. I would have kept the line in the film.
How is Pizza Hut that bad? Other than Papa Johns, I think Pizza Hut is the best pizza
shareYou've obviously never had a real hand-tossed freshly-made pizza from a local family-run restaurant if you think Pizza Butt or Sloppa John's is "the best." These places, along with Vomitno's and Little Sleazers, sell processed slop masquerading as "pizza."
I'm sure there's a local pizzeria in your area somewhere. The excuse that these places are "too expensive" is lame. Many offer coupons or have daily specials where you can get better food for the same price as (or sometimes for less than) that you would pay at one of the giant corporate garbage chains.
Support your small businesses and local economy.
I'll try it next time. When I wanted pizza, I'd only go to Pizza Hut, Dominos, Papa Johns or Little Cesars. I figured they would be the best
shareYou just listed four of the worst "pizza" places ever.
I avoid any "pizza" place that runs its commercials multiple times during a single quarter of an NFL game. They are spending money on slick, deceptive advertising rather than concentrating on the quality of their food. And the public continues to fall for it.
Family-run pizzerias or small local chains offer far better food, and are more deserving of your patronage than these big corporate chains that treat their employees like dirt, and serve their customers over-priced slop.
In those commercials though the pizza looks so good. And it tastes good too. But I'll try a local place next time and see if there is a difference
share"In those commercials though the pizza looks so good."
That's how the advertising industry works. The product in the commercial looks nothing at all like its real-life counterpart. Subway is another example. In the commercials their sandwiches look like they are fresh and piled high with ingredients... not the case when you get the real thing. (Subway is another place that lost my business years ago). Camera angles and lighting are a couple of the many tools used in deceptive advertising to make a product appear bigger and better than it actually is.
Advertising and marketing are basically big con games, and ad agencies are professionals when it comes to this.
You've seriously got a hang up about what pizza other people are eating. You may want to consult a professional for this.
shareIf someone else wants to eat processed slop, then go ahead. It's their loss.
I'm tired of watching our local restaurants with far superior food go out of business and getting replaced by these garbage chains. I knew the owner of our neighborhood pizza place and he was telling me his business was doing well until a Sloppa John's store opened up two blocks away. His volume immediately dropped 20% because people continue to fall for the deceptive ads and silly gimmicks like "phone apps." His store couldn't afford additional advertising so it ended up closing. We lost a good place and gained garbage.
People need to get back into the habit of patronizing their local businesses.
By the way, what is your favorite pizzeria?
shareLocal one-of-kind family-owned places that you wouldn't have heard of if you live in Florida. There are some small local chains with a handful of locations that are good, too.
You may have heard of Godfather's Pizza (named after the movie), which is a regional chain that originated in Omaha and spread throughout the central U.S. That was my favorite, but unfortunately the only remaining location in my county shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
You can read the first draft of the script here: http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/Poltergeist.pdf Go to page 22, which is the start of the sequence (Scene 37) where Diane demonstrates the sliding chair phenomenon to Steven. The line, "I hate Pizza Hut! Where's supper?" is in Scene 38.
Keep reading and you will see that Scenes 39, 40 and 41 are marked as "OMITTED." It jumps to Scene 42 at the neighbor's house. The "Pizza Hut" comment occurred towards the middle of this sequence and could have easily been edited out, if it were ever filmed. Obviously something else happened right after Carol Anne crashed into the wall. Remember, this is the first draft. Whatever happened here was excised during the early rough draft stages, which would mean it was never filmed. Maybe it was some further telekinetic phenomena that would have required extra special effects and went beyond budget limitations?
Until Spielberg or one of the writers decides to reveal it, we will never know what's missing here.
Thanks for the link! I'm looking forward to reading it.
I have heard (but I am not 100% sure) that the infamous "I hate Pizza Hut" line was indeed filmed, and was in the movie when it was initially released, but I heard that Pizza Hut threatened to sue if it was not removed hence the weird edit.
I did see this movie when it came out, but since I was only about 6 when I initially saw it I have no memory of the line in question being in the movie, nor the weird edit.
You're welcome.
The "Pizza Hut" comment came during the middle of the sliding chair sequence and would have been easy to cut out. The script lists Scenes 39, 40 and 41 as being "OMITTED." This was after Carol Anne hit the wall but before the scene at the neighbor's house. Perhaps Steven went on a rant about why he hated Pizza Hut? Or did another paranormal phenomenon occur which would have been too expensive to produce? Either way, the cut was awkward, and I would like to know what Scenes 39, 40 and 41 consisted of.
The fascinating thing is that some people swear they've seen the pizza hut scene, be it in cinema, on VHS, on television. The thing is different people claim to have seen it in different places, they recall it during the films initial theatrical run, others saw it on television whilst others claim they had an old VHS (sometimes in a foreign country like France) which contains the scene. It's all over the place with no hard defined location for where the scene remained intact and was viewed by many.
Some claim the scene never got released in any format and it's a case of the mandela effect, where by it's a shared false memory.
Some people who saw it in cinemas swear the scene was never there. Did some cinema chains get the reel with the scene un-cut in which case it must have got cut very close to the wire when reels were already being distributed.
The thing is a lot of these memories are from the early 80s, some 40 years ago now. Are people misremembering. I mean if it did find it's way onto T.V and VHS shouldn't the scene be available to view somewhere? Wouldn't someone have taken a look, found it and uploaded it online. It's the sort of thing film historians and diehard fans would love to find.
It's all very interesting to me and I do wonder if the scene did slip through the cracks and peoples memories are correct or if it truly is a shared false memory among many people. Either case is intriguing. Just another one of those fascinating tid-bits that surround this film, alongside the theory that Spielberg directed it.
"Some people who saw it in cinemas swear the scene was never there. Did some cinema chains get the reel with the scene un-cut in which case it must have got cut very close to the wire when reels were already being distributed."
It must have been shown somewhere if Pizza Hut got wind of the line, unless they had spies planted in the studio, which was highly unlikely. Otherwise, how did they learn about it?
It may have been a sneak preview, or only on the opening day of the film's premiere.
it's a case of the mandela effect, where by it's a shared false memory.
Here's a collection of online users who claim to have see the pizza hut scene.
I remember when I rented this from the library on video and the scene was cut. My younger sister couldn’t understand it because she had rented the movie earlier from the video store and she remembered the scene being longer with Carol Anne going back into the circle and then she goes zooming across the room and hits the wall. At least that’s what my sister told me. The cut was just weird and didn’t make any sense it is even in the DVD version of the movie as well but I don’t mind it anymore.
I DEFINITELY remember this scene being longer, and I have ALWAYS remembered, and wondered what happened. I saw it in Massachusetts the weekend it came out as a kid. I also seem to remember Diane describing the sensation in some sort of vaguely sexual way. Something like... Remember the night when you first did (fill in the blanks) to me? It felt like that. That was the reason I always remembered it, because as a kid, I thought it was very naughty. Who knows, maybe I', nuts regarding the conversation, but I totally remember the scene differently.
I also remember this scene in its entirety. Although I was only 4 when it premiered, I know I've seen it because I remember thinking (after Steven says he hates Pizza Hut), "I love Pizza Hut! (I still do actually). This weird "I've seen the scene, but it doesn't exist in any buyable format. But I know I've seen it!" It's "haunted" me for years. It's like the Mandela effect at play. I believe it will always linger in the cemetery of my mind of lost thoughts with no origin point. They just wander about asking, "do you know the answer?" I'm actually watching Poltergeist while I type this, which doesn't help.share
I remember that scene and the scene after that explains the weird cut. After the kitchen scene they are in their bedroom discussing what happened in the kitchen. They are getting high again and wondered if the neighbors are having the same issues. After they get high they go next door, Steven laughs a bit which makes more sense now since they just smoked. I can only assume there may have been a bit of an uproar from viewers maybe about the amount of illegal drugs being used and they are parents. Just a guess.
I to remember that scene. I was 12 when I saw this film at least 4 times. I was interested because I lived in a haunted house, laugh if you must but it's true. Nothing like the movie, but still. I remember that whole scene and then going to the neighbor's. To bad Steven Spielberg doesn't clean up and add to like he did with ET.share
I don't want to contradict anyone, but when I saw the film again years later on television, I was shocked to see that several scenes had been cut for the purposes of the schedule (like reducing the film to 105 minutes instead of 114; a common practice in Canadian television broadcasting). In my memory (I saw the film on VHS in a French dub, in the early days of video tape, probably 1983; video clubs didn't exist yet), they had trimmed a fairly effective scene in which we see the worried skepticism of the father after seeing his daughter slip on the kitchen floor. Steve Freeling was looking with obvious concern and denial for the source of this phenomenon, a magnet, the neighbor's remote control?
So after seeing the film again on TV (this is the late 1990s) I was so shocked that I even wrote a review on a French-speaking site referring to the Pizza Hut scene. I would like to point out that I had never heard that this scene had been cut and that, all media included.
Was I the victim of some kind of twisted Mandela effect, or is there a French VHS dubbing of the mentioned scene somewhere?
Yup, I remember the pizza hut comments, I just watched the movie again now with my daughter and noticed this change, along with no "God is in his holy temple " sceneshare
The original theatrical run had the line. It really stood out to me, I couldn't believe it when I heard it..
Actually, yes I do remember it from 1982. The edit was definitely not like that and the I hate the pizza place was said. I saw it opening weekend, so maybe it was cut later on during the run, but that is not how the movie was originally shown theatrically.
I agree. I was at opening showing...first day, first feature, and I remember it. I STILL think they could have made a cleaner cut then what they did, even if they had to cut out another line. ANYTHING would have been better than that lazy edit that is so JARRING and SO NOTICEABLE. Isn't the edit suppose be go UNNOTICED?share
But... Pizza Hut DOES SUCK! MacDonald's is positive cheap nutrition compared to that ultra-expensive shit! I mean, £5+ for a burger at BK? FUCK OFF!!
Enigmaticocean77, it had to have been taken out of the script before the movie was finished filming. Tobe Hooper and Steven Spielberg needed permission to use Pizza Hut's name, so the chain knew about the line ahead of time. The transition between the scenes was very clumsy, and there was no reason for it to exist in the first place because Steven saying that he hated Pizza Hut would have taken place before Diane's sentence was interrupted at the end. I was surprised that the statement was written. Poltergeist was about a simple (and sleazy) American family of the eighties, not a household where strict diets were enforced. Steven seemed like the kind of guy who would have been fine with occasionally going out for pizza or ice cream. Maybe he just didn't like the way that the restaurant produced the pizza, but it was an odd thing to say in this kind of movie.
sharePizza Butt is a giant corporate garbage chain that attempts to pass off processed slop as "pizza." I agree with Steven. He probably preferred the local family-run pizzeria.
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I read the book too. I thought that it changed too many things. I didn't like that Tangina went on a crazy rampage, jumping out of a car, and wound up running to their house.
The novelized version of the sequel I enjoyed a lot. That book was what the film should have been. The book was more of a mystery with supernatural elements added in. If you haven't read it I recommend it.
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“Novelization.” One of the harbingers of the decline and doom of our species, both as a practice and as a word.
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