EPISODE · Oct 24, 2025 · 41 MIN
EP. 42 Poltergeist / Thirteen Ghosts
from Burn After Watching · host Borderlnd
In this episode, we explore two very different but intimately related visions of haunted homes: the suburban nightmare of Poltergeist, and the bizarre, labyrinthine nightmare of Thir13en Ghosts. We begin with the now-classic 1982 film Poltergeist, directed by Tobe Hooper (with heavy involvement by Steven Spielberg), where the typical American family’s home becomes the nexus of malevolent, other-worldly activity. We’ll unpack the mythic wife, mother, daughter, and the youngest child Carol Anne who is drawn into a spectral portal—and how the film taps into suburban anxieties, grief, and the invasion of domestic space.Then we shift to the 2001 remake/modern re-imagining Thir13en Ghosts, directed by Steve Beck, where a widower and his children inherit an eccentric uncle’s mansion—only to discover it’s a glass-paneled machine, a trap filled with twelve (actually thirteen) vengeful spirits. We’ll examine how the film transforms the haunted house into a literal machine of horror, how it uses spectacle, design, and mythic structure of ghosts.
What this episode covers
In this episode, we explore two very different but intimately related visions of haunted homes: the suburban nightmare of Poltergeist, and the bizarre, labyrinthine nightmare of Thir13en Ghosts. We begin with the now-classic 1982 film Poltergeist, directed by Tobe Hooper (with heavy involvement by Steven Spielberg), where the typical American family’s home becomes the nexus of malevolent, other-worldly activity. We’ll unpack the mythic wife, mother, daughter, and the youngest child Carol Anne who is drawn into a spectral portal—and how the film taps into suburban anxieties, grief, and the invasion of domestic space.Then we shift to the 2001 remake/modern re-imagining Thir13en Ghosts, directed by Steve Beck, where a widower and his children inherit an eccentric uncle’s mansion—only to discover it’s a glass-paneled machine, a trap filled with twelve (actually thirteen) vengeful spirits. We’ll examine how the film transforms the haunted house into a literal machine of horror, how it uses spectacle, design, and mythic structure of ghosts.
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EP. 42 Poltergeist / Thirteen Ghosts
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