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Poltergeist 1
A family's home is haunted by a host of ghosts. Initially friendly and playful, the spirits turn unexpectedly menacing, and, when the youngest kid goes missing, the parents turn to a parapsychologist and eventually an exorcist for help.
28 November 1923, Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, USA
31 July 1957, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA
27 December 1975, San Diego, California, USA
23 November 1959, Santa Monica, California, USA
20 January 1933, Sparta, Tennessee, USA
16 December 1949, USA
28 May 1933, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
15 August 1941, Cooke County, Texas, USA
22 June 1952, Van Nuys, California, USA
10 April 1921, Erick, Oklahoma, USA
February 19, 2013
Spielberg, here credited as producer as co-writer, shows the other (darker) side of suburbia in this horror film, made in the same year as the superior E.T.
May 20, 2003
Poltergeist is like a thoroughly enjoyable nightmare, one that you know that you can always wake up from, and one in which, at the end, no one has permanently been damaged. It's also witty in a fashion that Alfred Hitchcock might have appreciated.
February 09, 2006
It is consistently redeemed by its creator's dazzling sense of craft.
June 29, 2013
"Poltergeist" is a lot more dedicated to its cause than most viewers today are probably used to. It builds to something of value. That may not make it the most profound film of its genre by any stretch, but it does make it one of the most memorable.
September 11, 2013
Hooper's direction may lack its usual edgy personality -- apparently over-ruled by Spielberg's script suggestions -- but he puts on a dazzling show, and the intuitive performances are uniformly on the panic button.
October 07, 2014
The buildup is slow and deliberate, creating a vivid sense of love and warmth within the family who share the harrowing adventure.
September 25, 2007
Given the talents, Poltergeist is an annoying film because it could have been so much better.
September 11, 2013
Hooper and Spielberg have worked long and hard to bring the ghost story to its fullest potential. They have succeeded.
September 25, 2007
Though the shocks are well conveyed, it's the sweetness that lingers, making this the first cute and cuddly entry in the genre.
October 23, 2004
Hooper and Spielberg hold our interest by observing the everyday rituals of this family so closely that, since the family seems real, the weird events take on a certain credibility by association.
June 01, 2011
The film delivers honest special-effects shocks without forfeiting its good nature.
October 25, 2014
One of the 1980s' most distinctive and important horror movies.