Poltergeist

Saw this in the mid 80s on a VHS. Found it to be really scary. Revisited it recently aft watching the remake. The remake was bad. This movies effects were really good for that time. It has diminished over the years but the movie still stands out as one of the best pg13 horror. Moving household items, flickering lights, sudden rain n thunder, ghost investigators coming to live at the house, people passing thru another dimension/ghost world were all the stuff which inspired future horror films. The creepy smiling clown n the big monster tree really added to the scary stuff. Kids will definitely enjoy this as it lacks the tension n violence. Don't let the names of Hooper n Spielberg fool u. Its not brutal or violent neither it is tame or mild. It does hav some creepy n scary stuff.

Horror films often do not get their do, and the 7.1 rating for Poltergeist shows that this trend will most likely continue. Clearly an influential film by Chainsaw director Tobe Hooper, Poltergeist reached for, and achieved, everything that the earlier Amityville Horror failed to be; namely, scary, credible, and well acted.

Poltergeist, in a nutshell, is a story of suburban California family that discovers the darker side of the American Dream when their youngest daughter, Carol Ann, makes contact with evil spirits through the family television set. "They're here", never fails to send chills down my spine as I recall seeing this film for the first time as a teenager.

Perhaps 10 to 15 more years will finally lend the credibility to this film to finally place it among the classics in modern horror cinema.

In the Cuesta Verde suburb, in California, the real state agent Steve Freeling (Craig T. Nelson) lives a comfortable life with his wife Diane (Jobeth Williams) and their children Dana (Dominique Dunne), Robbie (Oliver Robins) and Carol Anne (Heather O'Rourke). Now Steve has decided to build a swimming pool for the family. One night, the Freelings witness Carol Anne talking to the static in their television set and telling that they are here. On the following days, the family witnesses weird events in their house and Carol Anne vanishes. Steve and Diane visit the parapsychologist Dr. Lesh (Beatrice Straight) from the university and she goes with her team to the Freelings' house. Soon she realizes that the family is living a poltergeist phenomenon. Further, Steve has a conversation with his chief Mr. Teague (James Karen) and learns that the community was built on a former cemetery. Will they be capable to retrieve Carol Anne from the demon that is holding the little girl?

"Poltergeist" is a horror movie written and produced by Steven Spielberg but directed by Tobe Hooper due to the contract of Spielberg of exclusivity while making "E.T., the Extra-Terrestrial" film. "Poltergeist" can be considered a classic of the horror genre, with an original story of haunted house. There are two sequels and one remake of this movie but none of them comparable to the original film. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Poltergeist: O Fenômeno" ("Poltergeist: The Phenomenon")

There are two types of "horror" films:There are the scary ones, which is what the word "horror" means in the first place,and then there is the bloody,gory kind.Perhaps the latter kind should be categorized under another name.At any rate,Poltergeist is a good horror film.It goes beyond the idea of typical ghosts in sheets jumping out of nowhere and saying "boo!".Most of the adventure takes place in their world rather than ours,although we cannot see what is going on there.This is a very thrilling movie.It has great special effects and all of the scare elements that make a horror film what it is supposed to be.The clown in the chair at the foot of the boy's bed was a particularly tense moment for me.This is the only movie I went to see 4 times at the theater,partly to watch others' reactions.I have often heard that the film,and it's two sequels,were the victim of some type of curse,as after each film was released,a member of the cast passed away,including Heather O'Rourke,who played Carol Anne, after the 3rd film.She was only 10.Curse? Coincidence? Who knows? I guess anything is possible.All in all,this is one of the best films ever for the horror genre.

I left the lights on the night I saw it. Because this does not take place in some classic looking haunted house, with some scary mythology attached to it. This happens in a modern house in a typical suburb. It looked like a house in my neighborhood. That nobody could afford to own at the time because of 18% interest rates in 1982, but that's another story.

It involves a typical family. The wife is a homemaker. The husband sells new houses in the same neighborhood that the family lives in. It must have been a slow work day for him because who could have afforded these houses in 1982 with 18% interest rates? But I digress. There is a teen daughter from some unmentioned first marriage because she only looks 15 years younger or so than Jo Beth Williams who plays the mother. There are two kids age 7 and 6 that belong to the second wife. The youngest, Carol Ann, was born in the house.

So the horror starts with harmless stuff like the kitchen chairs rearranging themselves when you're not looking but escalates quickly. And the movie tag line "It knows what scares you" turns out to be so true. Remember when you were a kid. What scared you? Lightning storms? Big leafless trees that looked like some kind of being with lots of arms? Clown dolls with macabre smiles? It all plays into it.

Stephen Spielberg "ghost" directed this one. You could always tell by the preponderance of wind machines and seemingly meaningless close ups - hallmarks of 80s Spielberg.

The one thing that really dates this - The poltergeist originally gets into the house when the husband falls asleep in front of the TV late at night, the Star Spangled Banner plays, the channel signs off, and then there is no signal. Cue the poltergeist. Today, channels never sign off. There is always some infomercial, with the set dressed like the old CNN Larry King Live show to add credibility, yelling at you how you can have product X for only 19.99 a month. The poor poltergeists of today are trapped listening to this nonsense, waiting for a chance to escape that will never come! Oh the humanity.

It doesn't hit me like it did when it first came out, but it is still good enough with a very shocking ending that it is still worth a a look.