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It’s been a quarter of a century since it was first released—but Poltergeist is still a Halloween favorite. The Steven Spielberg/Tobe Hooper classic stars angelic little Heather O’Rourke as Carol Anne Feeling, the five-year-old girl who, late one night, hears spirits talking to her through the static on the TV. At first, her parents, Steve and Diane (Craig T. Nelson and JoBeth Williams), think nothing of it—but then strange things start happening around the house. First, the dining room chairs start moving on their own—which, Diane thinks, is actually pretty cool. But when a storm puts their family in danger—and Carol Anne gets sucked into the spirit world through her bedroom closet—it’s no longer a laughing matter.
Not knowing what to do about Carol Anne’s disappearance, the Freelings turn to a team of spiritual experts, who tell them that their house may be under attack by a poltergeist.
Poltergeist is a creepy classic that’s filled with just about every fear that’s ever tormented a child. For starters, much of it takes place in the dark—often during a thunderstorm. Lightning flashes around the young kids’ bedroom, illuminating the scary, knotted tree outside the window (which, for some reason, has no curtains) and the creepy clown that’s smiling a sinister grin from its place on the other side of the room. And then there’s the closet. As a kid, I was always terrified of what could be lurking inside my own dark, scary closet—and had I seen Poltergeist back then, I probably would have slept between my parents for the rest of my life, for fear of being sucked into a world filled with evil spirits in the middle of the night.
Still, Poltergeist isn’t the typical blood-and-guts kind of horror movie that you often find today. In fact, it actually has a playful feel to it. There’s even plenty of humor. And although there are plenty of horrifying moments, there’s very little blood—and there isn’t a single gruesome death. No one gets stabbed or tortured or hacked to bits (which could explain the PG rating). Instead, the most terrifying thing about Poltergeist is that it all feels so normal. It’s a movie about a normal family, living in a nice house in a normal neighborhood—but, due to circumstances beyond their control, their nice, normal house becomes haunted by a very loud, increasingly angry being. It makes it feel like it’s something that could happen to anyone—that, in the middle of the night, you, too, could get sucked into another world through your bedroom closet. You just never know….
Poltergeist does a great job of focusing on the things that scare its viewers (especially the younger ones) the most: the dark, storms, evil spirits, death, and, of course, creepy clowns. Fortunately, I’m a grown-up now—and Poltergeist no longer gives me nightmares (at least none that I’d admit to)—but this eerie classic is still one of my favorite Halloween weekend movies.
As for the newly-released 25th Anniversary DVD, everything’s been restored and remastered, so the quality is great—but the DVD contains surprisingly few extras. In fact, there’s just one feature—a documentary on the scientific and psychic sides of exploring the paranormal. So while the movie itself is still as good as it ever was, don’t expect all kinds of fascinating behind-the-scenes features or retrospectives or creepy real-life ghost stories—because they’re just not there.
