Poltergeist

This movie has been one of my all time favorites for more than ten years. Like many other people in the '80s, the first time I saw this movie it scared the hell out of me.

I compliment on the fact that there is no bloodspilling or graphic violence or even a single killing in the movie to make this movie sensationally scary. It relies on those trendy '80s special effects to make the movie truly frightening.

I still think this movie is scary, because I have always found supernatural forces and things that are out of the ordinary in this world to be more frightening than some idiotic blond woman being chased by an ax-wielding maniac. The script is so well written, the acting heartfelt and wonderful, and the direction and production techniques are top-notch. I have never seen horror movies embody all those elements since "The Exorcist."

For those of you who have not seen this movie, SEE IT! It may not scare you like today's modern horror flicks, but it will sure entertain and enlighten you. Has a horror movie ever done that????????????

Truly spooky and disturbing horror film from the early-1980s that will make you jump from your seat. Craig T. Nelson and JoBeth Williams seem to lead a normal life. He is a successful real estate agent and she is a loving housewife. They have three beautiful children, but one night all that slowly changes. The youngest child (Heather O'Rourke) starts talking to unseen spirits through a scrambled television station. The parents don't think much of it, until furniture starts to move on its own. However, the real terror does not start until O'Rourke is taken to another dimension by "the TV people". Now paranormalists led by Beatrice Straight must come in and try to get O'Rourke back to her family. Tobe Hooper, who is best known for the highly over-rated "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", does an admirable job here with the film's direction. However, it is rumored that Steven Spielberg came in during his "E.T" days and did the bulk of the work. This makes more sense as the film is really frightening and disturbing. The special effects are also impressive and "Poltergeist" ends up being one of those films that just sticks with you for a long time after you first see it. 4 stars out of 5.

Imagine the archetypal middle class family - mum, dad and three kids - all muddling along nicely in their home next to a graveyard, until things really do start going bump in the night! Doors, chairs and drawers start having minds of their own; the lights come on when it suits them, not you... Well initially, the "Freeling" family think this is just a bit of a giggle - that is until their daughter "Carol Anne" (Heather O'Rourke) disappears and when the paranormal investigators discover she is in an other dimension, only able to communicate via the white noise of the television screen, the battle is truly on to retrieve her from her truly malevolent captors. Zelda Rubinstein is super as the medium "Tangina" and Tone Hooper really does manage to use her character, and that of the little girl - as well as some pretty eery light works to create a suspenseful couple of hours that have you on the edge of the chair. Not, I have to say, because I particularly wanted the child back - I'm a bit with Ian Fleming on that front; but because these evil spirits could easily subsume the whole of humanity! Chilling stuff!

I've read several reviews of Poltergeist and most people (including Siskel & Ebert)don't seem to have seen the same film as i did! All the criticism surrounding the storyline as how ridiculous and unbelievable it is. Well it's a ghost story, although i've always felt it was closer to a modern day fable in which the parents have to prove their love for their daughter going so far as to having to go to another dimension to retrieve her (well, the mother does that). People keep saying that the ghosts are in the TV and that Carol Anne was sucked into the TV, for Christ's sake, have these people actually watched the film? Another thing is that some critics complain that after the film was over they still didn't get what the spirits wanted and why they targeted the little girl. What about the sequence between Steve Freeling and his boss and the monologue delivered by Tangina where she EXPLAINS what is going on?! Sure, the film is not perfect, there's that infamous edit jump, too much cutesy with the burial of the bird and the lack of complaint from the neighbours about the thundering, thumping, screaming sounds that go on in the house, but it is a fable people! The acting is great, we really care about the characters, and because of some great dramatic sequences with Diane Freeling (brilliantly portrayed by JoBeth Williams)we realize that (SURPRISE!) the film isn't so much about the ghosts and (iconic) special effects, as it is about the drama of parents thrown into a supernatural situation they never saw coming and having to bring their daughter, that they hear THROUGH the TV (she's NOT IN the TV), back into our world. The action sequences are greatly imaginative and entertaining, Jerry Goldsmith's score is his best, being horrific, tense, spectral, childlike and such a masterpiece. I do love this film and wish that people would actually see it instead of making erroneous assumptions about it.

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.