E's Reviews RETRO: Poltergeist (1982) **Some Spoilers**



POLTERGEIST was written by Stephen Spielberg, directed by Tobe Hooper, and stars JoBeth Williams, Heather O'Rourke, and Craig T. Nelson. A young family are visited by ghosts in their home. At first the ghosts appear friendly, moving objects around the house to the amusement of everyone, then they turn nasty and start to terrorize the family before they take the youngest daughter.

This film is a classic ghost story and one of those movies that I find constantly on my Halloween lists every year. It's got everything you could ask for, a spooky house, a great cast, and some very interesting special effects. The film has a few things I have issue with, primarily the fact that it goes from very tame to downright terrifying. It's something that's plastered all over the film. You have these two huge creative minds in Spielberg and Hooper going up against one another, and you can definitely tell which scenes were crafted by Spielberg, and which by Hooper. Personally, I wanted more of the scares. The script was a bit strange to me, too. The medium comes in and says the house is cleansed and yet, guess what! More ghosts. And this time they're pissed off. It was something I just kind of rolled my eyes at and said out loud "c'mon...what a joke..."

That being said, this film is a classic chiller. There are sequences with a clown that made me terrified of clowns all over again. There's a sequence with a tree trying to eat a child that definitely was definitely all Hooper. That stuff was just insanity. There was also a bit of body horror and gore that surprised me for a PG-13 horror film, particularly when one of the paranormal investigator's face melts right before his eyes...That made my stomach churn a little bit. The cast is actually quite good in this film, particularly the little girl who definitely sold the "They're here" line.

Even with the film's shortcomings, I always have a good time enjoying this movie. I just wish Spielberg would've given legendary director Tobe Hooper the freedom to really go all out with the scares.

Final Score: 8/10

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