Plot
A family's home is haunted by a host of ghosts.

Release Year: 1982

Rating: 7.4/10 (47,032 voted)

Director: Tobe Hooper

Stars: JoBeth Williams, Heather O'Rourke, Craig T. Nelson

Storyline
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 terrorise the family before they "kidnap" the youngest daughter.

Writers: Steven Spielberg, Michael Grais

Cast:
Craig T. Nelson - Steve Freeling
JoBeth Williams - Diane Freeling (as Jobeth Williams)
Beatrice Straight - Dr. Lesh
Dominique Dunne - Dana Freeling
Oliver Robins - Robbie Freeling
Heather O'Rourke - Carol Anne Freeling
Michael McManus - Ben Tuthill
Virginia Kiser - Mrs. Tuthill
Martin Casella - Marty (as Marty Casella)
Richard Lawson - Ryan
Zelda Rubinstein - Tangina
Lou Perryman - Pugsley (as Lou Perry)
Clair E. Leucart - Bulldozer Driver (as Clair Leucart)
James Karen - Mr. Teague
Dirk Blocker - Jeff Shaw

Taglines: It knows what scares you.

Release Date: 4 June 1982

Filming Locations: 4267 Roxbury Street, Forest Hills, Simi Valley, California, USA

Box Office Details

Budget: $10,700,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend: $6,896,612 (USA) (6 June 1982) (890 Screens)

Gross: $76,606,280 (USA)

Runtime: 114 min

Trivia:
Footage from this movie was used in a 2008 DirecTV commercial.

Goofs:
Continuity: At the end of the film, Steven backs out of the driveway in the station wagon without lights on and crashes into Mr. Teague's truck, yet in the next shot, still pushing the truck out of the way, the wagon's lights are suddenly on.

Quotes:
[first lines]
Carol Anne: Hello? What do you look like? Talk louder, I can't hear you! Hey, hello! Hello, I can't hear you! Five. Yes. Yes. I don't know. I don't know.

Better than a 7.1

Rating: 10/10

Horror films often do not get their do, and the 7.1 rating for Poltergeist shows that this trend will most likely continue. Clearly an influential film by Chainsaw director Tobe Hooper, Poltergeist reached for, and achieved, everything that the earlier Amityville Horror failed to be; namely, scary, credible, and well acted.

Poltergeist, in a nutshell, is a story of suburban California family that discovers the darker side of the American Dream when their youngest daughter, Carol Ann, makes contact with evil spirits through the family television set. "They're here", never fails to send chills down my spine as I recall seeing this film for the first time as a teenager.

Perhaps 10 to 15 more years will finally lend the credibility to this film to finally place it among the classics in modern horror cinema.

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