Poltergeist (1982)

This movie has some of the creepiest and most disturbing scenes you can imagine, yet it retains the warm feeling of a family movie somehow! The story makes you feel and care about the characters, and the great practical effects keep you on the edge of your seat. When it comes to buildup and "using your scares wisely" this movie could be used as a textbook. Basically when something happens in this movie, you will remember it! See it, you will not regret it.. and you will definitely not forget it!

I admit to not being a big fan of horror movies, but this was actually a nice exception. What really impressed me is how good the acting is. All of the characters in this film feel so real. I especially love Heather O'Rourke. Now, this movie has become infamous for a number of reasons. Shortly after it was made, the actress who played the elder sister, Dominique Dunne, was strangled to death by her ex boyfriend.As if that weren't enough, the skeletons used in this film were actually real. Hey, that's two confirmed rumors that appeared on Snopes! Anyway, for the most part, the visuals were great and they seemed to hold up quite well. I really do feel sorry for this family and all that they're going through. My only complaint is that there's this scene at the beginning where these guys watching football complaining about watching Mr. Rogers. Never speak ill of him! ***1/2

To me, a 10 is a perfect movie, 9 is near-perfect, 8 has its flaws but is undeniably a classic, and 7 is a very good movie that's not quite as influential or memorable. That's Poltergeist. Don't get hung up on it, it's just my opinion. Poltergeist is superbly crafted, well-acted, and beautifully shot. The score is excellent and the special effects hold up. This movie is not as scary as some other horror classics. Most people would complain about this. For me, it's a positive: it makes the movie better for those getting into the genre. If you're big into horror from nowadays, I definitely wouldn't recommend Poltergeist, but for those who are passing fans of horror or who want to into the genre, or if you don't like horror but your friends want to watch something scary so you all watch Poltergeist. Also, I would recommend it over the 2015 remake. 80s films just have such charm, even when it's on-the-nose (Star Wars memorabilia, the dad reads a book called "Reagan: the President, the Man"). Also, don't bother with the bad sequels.

Poltergeist: Tobe Hooper; Steven Spielberg. In the clichéd phrase: This is a movie that those who like this kind of thing will like. A movie I wanted to like, but found dated and disappointing. The performances are adequate, although the family are disconnected and loveless; why, for instance, include an elder daughter who gets less than five minutes of screen time? (And given my arithmetic , would have been born when her mother was sixteen.) As so often in Spielberg, a child is endangered; as so often in Spielberg, the child is rescued, in this case, safe in her mother's arms, and covered in red-orange jello. Unsurprisingly, the visual effects now seems a bit quaint,, which is not the movie's fault. What is its fault is its failure to make us care about its characters. For example, when the medium asks which is the authoritative parent, the couple are at a loss. Also objectionable — one hopes then as now — is JoBeth Williams's costume for the final showdown, a not quite crotch length tee shirt and visible white panties — enough, presumably, to satisfy male voyeurs — and in the bathroom is subjected to a kind of supernatural rape. But hey — a mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do, and she couldn't be expected to know that "this house is not clean" before she luxuriates in the tub, thinking all is well. Unless, that is, she'd ever seen a horror movie, which would have alerted her that as a woman with a daughter, she'd constitute the Final Girl. Given the running time, she should also have known that the house is most definitely not clean, and that she'd have to face a final showdown with fierce and enraged ghosts and spirits. I admit to being puzzled by television's being the conduit to their world. Is the message that TV is dangerous? or that children shouldn't be allowed to watch it? or that they should be taken to the movies instead? Presumably not this film, which in my admittedly conservative view is too gruesome for preteens (although they probably love it). If there's a Lubitsch touch, let's propose a Spielberg touch, and assume that had Spielberg had time to direct it, it would have been a different and better film. But if he had, we might not have ET (with its feisty single mother and convincing children), and that we would miss more acutely than this film with its unconvincing family.