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.

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.

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????????????

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!

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.