Poltergeist

Make no mistake: Poltergeist is a Spielberg film, no matter what the credits say. His stylistic fingerprints are all over the movie, never more so than in the opening third, which turns a suburban haunting into an occasion for Spielbergian movie magic before the ghosts get down to business.

The buildup is slow and deliberate, creating a vivid sense of love and warmth within the family who share the harrowing adventure. The climaxes are horrific, with effects recalling ''Raiders of the Lost Ark,'' but in a less exotic setting.

Poltergiest is no nonstop scream express; at times it pulls its punches (Spielberg wants that PG rating), and at times its effects are bigger than life and less than terrifying. But like Spielberg's Jaws, which was a perfect genre movie, Poltergeist does what it's supposed to do about as well as it can be done.

Poltergeist proves closets are full of skeletons and scurrying ids. Hooper and company arouse childhood fears, teasing away adult defenses, making us hunker in our seats as the kids dive under the "Star Wars" sheets. It gives us the jeebies, third stage, without letting up, but spiritually, it's uplifting. [4 June 1982, p.13]

A surprisingly yet successfully restrained lesson in how to haunt a house.

A fitfully witty and reliably spine-tingling horror melodrama...While it works you over effectively, Poltergeist betrays a good deal of rather dubious, uncoordinated manipulation. [4 June 1982, p.D1]

Given the talents, Poltergeist is an annoying film because it could have been so much better.

Poltergeist is a 1982 horror that delivers pure terror and suspense. The way it was made showed a caution to providing nothing but first class, we have many great moments like a clown coming alive, I think a tree grabbing hold of the kids, Carol Anne disappearing into thin air among other things.. For it's time it was genius and remains a classic and the acting is great especially from Craig T. Nelson who seems pretty genuine as a concerned father who's five year old daughter has been abducted by evil forces and he summons a medium to help bring her back.... Poltergeist is an excellent film that delivers shocks and twists and keeps you on the edge of your seat but avoid the sequels and the remake... Also stars Heather O'Rourke, JoBeth Williams, Zelda Rubinstein.

Set in the heart of SoCal suburbia, Poltergeist depicts a thriving young family whose third bedroom closet happens to overlap with a portal to limbo. This spells trouble when they break ground on a new swimming pool and inadvertently disturb the dead, setting motion to an increasingly nasty series of paranormal conflicts. At first, these spectral transgressions are amusing, akin to a set of simple parlor tricks, but things take a turn for the serious when a rotting tree attempts to make a meal of the boy and a violent vortex **** their youngest daughter into the spiritual plane. As early ’80s spookers go, it’s a noisy ride. Steven Spielberg wrote, produced and (allegedly) co-directed, and while his influence is noticeable in the more grounded establishing scenes - little dashes of neighborly disagreement and parent-child bonding - those don’t last very long. As soon as the wilder stuff takes over, this film goes straight over the top. Shortly after snickering over a simple chair-stacking demonstration, you’ll be treated to vomiting steaks, decaying faces, giant freaky ghost dogs and pulsating meat tunnels, and that’s only scratching the surface. Even the team of three mediums, experienced authorities who are brought in after the girl’s disappearance, is stunned by the bald theatrics of it all. They’ve never seen anything remotely like this; a loud and proud haunting that’s so happy to be seen, it even points all the experts’ digital observation equipment in the right direction before commencing with a showy midnight demonstration. Those floods of howling insanity are tons of fun, but reach a crescendo after the powerless pros’ overnight house call. At that point, the film seems to lose its way, like it doesn’t know where to go or how to get there. While the effects blowout continues topping itself, the story settles into a circle of hollow repetition that makes a thunderous racket without really saying anything new. That’s doubly true of the multiple fake-out endings, which feel completely redundant and unnecessary. A lively example of big-money fright that’s raucous and rowdy but long overstays its welcome.

It is more to be discussed than experienced, if only it had the sassiness that it was building towards. Poltergeist Hooper is a messy filmmaker. He makes messy films. Full on. Widen your imagination as much as you can and he has got that too. Blood baths, annoying amount of screeching and screaming and more cringe worthy images than probably necessary. All of this comes under his recipe to make a fine horror film; a classic to be honest. The director Tobe Hooper has Steven Spielberg, Michael Grais and Mark Victor as writers in his backroom and there are no regrets. And Spielberg is going all the way in on his signature emotionally cheap family drama dose that works, as always, all the time in the film. In fact, that is the only thing binding this unholy spirited house with one single thread. For daft performance, cheesy visual effects and dogmatic opinionated characters are pushing the film out of the window whenever they get the opportunity. And adding to those teary sketchy scenes is the mythology weaved as a narrative. And even though it's rigid and arrogant in its views, there is enough room for you to rest comfortably. Just the whole portal and the other dimension and the way it functions, every bit of that aspect of the storytelling is squeezed properly for a satisfying experience. The horror, the humor and the drama, it checks off this list boldly whenever it faces its demons. It also concerns for the generation gap, property investment, gullibility, misuse of resources and taking it all for granted, into account to ground the film with deeper resonant themes. The supporting characters are also saving this illegal activity surprisingly and smartly. I mean, the guests entering this haunted house are more comfortable than the ghosts, the Poltergeist, demanding not equal, but all the rights to the land that they supposedly own- talk about a bad investment and a bad day.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

I thought poltergeist was a really terrible film, the story line was extremely disappointing, I almost fell asleep because of this film, a really disappointing horror film that didn't scare me at all