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POLTERGEIST (1982)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

I first saw "Poltergeist" in 1982 in a packed movie theatre. It was an unnerving experience for me, and far too gory and violent to qualify for a PG rating. Mind you, I was only 11 at the time. I have seen it a couple of times since but only now do I see what a humane horror film it is. Like "The Exorcist" and others of its ilk, "Poltergeist" is a superb ghost story that makes us care for its characters because they are allowed to be themselves, and they play it straight in the face of both good and evil forces.

The characters are the Freelings, a close-knit family in suburbia. There is Steve (Craig T. Nelson), a successful real-estate agent who reads Ronald Reagan biographies and watches "A Guy Named Joe" at the same time! There is his wife, Diane Freeling (Jobeth Williams, in one of the two best roles of her career), who loves Steve and her kids deeply. The three kids include the teenage daughter, Dana (the late Dominique Dunne), who stays up at night on the phone, her younger sister, Carol Anne (wonderfully played by the late Heather O'Rourke) who has a habit of staring at the television screen, and the young brother, Robbie (Oliver Robins), who has trouble counting before the sound of thunder strikes. This is a close-knit family, but there are those nicely understated touches of humor that show more humanity than the average cutesy family you might see on Lifetime. When Diane finds Carol Anne's dead bird in the cage, she says, "Oh s**t. Couldn't you have waited until after her birthday?" Then there is the terrific scene where Diane rolls a marihuana cigarette while Steve listens to her story about how as a child, she was inadvertently kidnapped. But something is about to happen to this family, some kind of unseen force is ready to strike. The rolling clouds in the ominous sky are beginning to set in. The tree outside Robbie's house is certain to strike terror soon enough. And Carol Anne should know better than to stare at television screens for so long.

"Poltergeist" sets up its characters so well that when the inevitable evil strikes, it truly scares us. And, boy is it scary. The first indications are almost funny in a way. Chairs pile up in pyramid fashion on the table. A force pulls chairs and little Carol Anne across the kitchen floor. Lights flicker and burn with intensity. And, then the real terror begins as little Carol Anne disappears into a closet, and is somewhere in the house. Robbie is almost sucked into a tree. Steve is having trouble sleeping. Diane can smell her daughter nearby. "Poltergeist" feels like a funnier, wicked, jolting freakshow than a horror movie, and it puts "The Amityville Horror" to shame. The latter film had a sense of eerie mood but this movie really delivers with moments that will require you to cover your eyes.

Though it is directed by Tobe Hooper ("The Texas Chainsaw Massacre"), "Poltergeist" feels like a Steven Spielberg production (he co-wrote the screenplay). In fact, there is a lot of the mood and atmosphere of "E.T." in this film (coincidentally released the same year). Even the kids play with "Star Wars" action figures just like Elliott does in "E.T." The genial tone also recalls Spielberg's sentimental flourishes but I have the feeling that Hooper has infused it with some of his own playfulness and humanism. The scene where Diane feels Carol Anne has made contact with her soul is exquisitely rendered, delivering an emotional crescendo that will make your heart melt. That feels like a Hooper scene whereas Spielberg might have laid it on a little too thick. And Hooper's wickedness is evident in the scene where one of the paranormal investigators imagines ripping his flesh from his face thus exposing his skull.

The Freeling family feels like a real family, people you may see in your neighborhood. All the details of their lives feel right, and Craig T. Nelson and Jobeth Williams instill the parents with the right mixture of pathos and believability. Heather O'Rourke has many eerie scenes, particularly when talking to the television screen or when she notices things that her parents (and, we, the audience) do not see. Dominique Dunne has a small role but there is a funny moment where she tells off some leering construction workers with obscene body language, while her mother smiles approvingly. Oliver Robins has those precious looks of bewilderment and shock, especially with a toy clown who possesses a crooked grimace.

Emotionally involving, humanistic, magical, often terrifying, "Poltergeist" is one sensational movie, a roller-coaster ride that delivers its thrills and laughs in equal measure. But how could anyone rate this PG is beyond me. It is decidedly not for the kiddies.