Night Time, original treatment before Poltergeist, is remarkably different

Last Updated on July 23, 2021

While news regarding the POLTERGEIST remake is quiet this year there’s still a hell of a lot more to talk about until then. For example, NIGHT TIME was the original draft before the bearded man himself, Spielberg, dropped by to make a few changes. Those changes eventually became the spook-fest POLTERGEIST we all love and adore.

Now that Halloween has come and gone and I’ve had my fair share of college costumed parties (not), I was pleasantly surprised to find a link to the original story, NIGHT TIME, and its changes. Down below is an excerpt from a web-page that introduces you to both treatments. It gives you a brief description and a little history of POLTERGEIST and what would have been NIGHT TIME. Check it out and give the fanpage a look through for the rest of the sweetness!

In early 1980, Steven Spielberg collaborated by mail on a treatment with Tobe Hooper while Spielberg was shooting “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” The treatment, originally titled “Night Time” (perhaps a derivation of the aborted “Night Skies” project), was a ghost story set in the suburbs. Several months after the initial 11 page treatment was written and sold to MGM, Spielberg added about 20 more pages which further fleshed out some of the story’s initial ideas. It’s very interesting to note which elements of the finished film were there from the very beginning. However, more notable are the things which didn’t end up in the shooting script at all. In fact, most of the scenes in the amendment pages are completely different from what would eventually end up on screen. I would argue that what was added/changed later on in the actual screenplay made the story much better. 

To give a taste of the difference that Spielberg’s treatment made, in NIGHT TIME the Freelings were supposed to have four kids instead of three. Carol Anne was originally planned to be possessed instead of kidnapped by the ghost and the Freelings would have left Carol Anne in the house during their final escape. Tough love. Read other differences right here! Now let’s see how much longer we have to wait until we get news on that remake.

Hope your Halloween was like this