 It has been some time since I watched Poltergeist, the Spielberg 80s haunt, which had everyone echoing the a little girl’s familiar and eerie phrase “They’re here.” Cut to 2008, some 20 years later and it’s time to see if this film held up like a bottle of fine brandy or has since been merely relegated itself to eternal 80s cheesedom, doomed to fight for a film goers attention with movies like Short Circuit. I have to say it still holds a potent brew.
For those of you born after 1982, I would not automatically click through to something else. This is a decent, if not classic, thriller slash horror film, without the slashing. It surely is a good ghost haunt of a tale. By today’s standards, there is much, much worse out there. But, that my short change the craftsmanship of this horror thriller. Poltergeist involves a typical suburban American family and the haunting of their house. Somehow, and I profess to be no expert on Poltergeists, one takes over their TV set and communicate with the little girl Caroline, who can communicate back. It sucks her in and wham, she is gone to the netherworld, somewhere, we are not sure. A poltergeist if you must know, is something that is unseen and moves objects around the house. Apparently, there is a famous case called the Rosenheim Poltergeist, which took place in Germany back in the 60s. The family goes ape shit about this, quite naturally and begins to bring in a bunch of experts. I also wondered if they contemplated switching cable channels. I mean after all, they got lousy reception and the package literally sucked their daughter in. Can you imagine that call to Comcast today?
“Yes, operator, your digital box swallowed my child? Can you send over a technician?”
“We can have one there Tuesday between 12 and 4.”
“You either get my daughter back today or credit my account. If you can’t do that, I am switching to satellite.”
But, I digress. This haunted house stuff is serious business and I rather still enjoyed this flick some many years later after having seen it originally when it came out in 82. Wow, 25 years later. I guess on that account it is still a good thrill.
First, there are a few signs that the ghosts have arrived: Carol Anne carries on a seemingly one-sided conversation with a TV set that's turned on but has no signal; soon thereafter her pet bird dies. Later an earthquake occurs that only the Freelings experience. Carol Anne announces, "They're here."
The next morning, glasses break at breakfast, forks bend by themselves, and when the mother, Diane (JoBeth Williams), asks Carol Anne, "What did you mean? Who's here?" she answers, "The TV people."
The ghosts play harmless tricks at this point and entertain the mother, including moving and stacking the kitchen table chairs. Of course, Diane must convince Steven (Craig T. Nelson) that night by showing him. He then announces that "Nobody goes into the kitchen until I know what's going on."
During a terrible thunderstorm, a gnarled tree comes to life and grabs Robbie (Oliver Robins), Carol Anne's brother, through a window. However, this is merely a distraction used by the ghosts to get Carol Anne's parents to leave her alone.
They take Carol Anne through her bedroom closet into their dimension. Robbie is rescued, and the family believes that a tornado caused the trouble, until they realize that they can't find Carol Anne. They search the entire house including the new swimming pool until Robbie hears Carol Anne through the T.V. The rest of the film involves the Freelings attempting to get their daughter back from the Ghosts. If that is not enough to keep your attention, here is what I would offer should:
You get the quality of Spielberg in his early 80s period where he was turning films like there was not going to be a 90s. He had ET and Raiders of the Lost Ark to kick start the 80s big block buster boon. Poltergeist is no E.T. or Raiders in terms of classical longevity. Poltergeist did not change a genre like those other films had done. But, it is darn good, a workmanlike effort by Spielberg, very Hollywoody too—a good venue for special effects tricks and gore. It is fun to see and perhaps appreciate how far special effects have come, how they are still used in cinema and lastly, how styles have changed since the 80s. There was and is always something charming about Spielberg’s suburbia, which has served as many a backdrop for his films.
Craig T. Nelson shines as the father of the household. Other than that, most of the other roles required good screams and looks of fright. The little girl did that pretty darn well. The plot is sort of corny, but serviceable. We don’t really get any back story into why the house was chosen as the lot of lots to have the first Polterpolooza.
We learn during the film a greedy real estate company built their subdivision over old graveyards. But, it was pretty much left at that. Was a family massacred on the very spot where their home was built? We don’t know. However, the scares were pretty good. I will finish this up by stating I never saw the sequels, which I hear sucked, so I won’t begin to make any comparisons in that regard (I don’t plan on watching them either).
I guess I would not say this is not a cool film per se, but it’s not bad. Instead, I will say it is a cool family sort of film in that you can watch this one with the young ones. My five-year-old daughter thought it was pretty scary and the inner kid in me found it entertaining still 25 years later. Cool to watch with family. We’ll leave it at because I don’t spook easily. Matthew J. DeReno is watching movies in Pittsburgh.
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