Poltergeist (1982)
Average Rating: 7.2/10
Reviews Counted: 53
Fresh: 46 | Rotten: 7
Smartly filmed, tightly scripted, and -- most importantly -- consistently frightening, Poltergeist is a modern horror classic.
Average Rating: 6.6/10
Critic Reviews: 6
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 1
Smartly filmed, tightly scripted, and -- most importantly -- consistently frightening, Poltergeist is a modern horror classic.
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Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 154,844
My Rating
Movie Info
With Poltergeist, directed by Tobe Hopper, Steven Spielberg had his first great success as a producer. Released around the same time as Spielberg's E.T., the film presents the dark side of Spielberg's California suburban track homes. The film centers on the Freeling family, a typical middle class family living in the peaceful Cuesta Verde Estates. The father, Steve (Craig T. Nelson), has fallen asleep in front of the television, and the dog saunters around the house revealing the other family
Jun 4, 1982 Wide
Apr 18, 2000
MGM Home Entertainment
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Cast
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Craig T. Nelson
Steve -
JoBeth Williams
Diane -
Beatrice Straight
Dr. Lesh -
Dominique Dunne
Dana -
Oliver Robins
Robbie -
Heather O'Rourke
Carol Anne -
Zelda Rubinstein
Tangina -
Martin Casella
Marty -
Richard Lawson
Ryan -
Michael McManus
Tuthill -
Virginia Kiser
Mrs. Tuthill -
James Karen
Teague -
Dirk Blocker
Jeff Shaw -
Robert Broyles
Pool Worker #1 -
Noel Conlon
Husband -
Sonny Landham
Pool Worker #2 -
Lou Perry
Pugsley -
Philip Stone
Football Announcer -
William Vail
Implosion Man -
Joseph Walsh
Neighbor -
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Allan Graf
Neighbor -
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Poltergeist Trailer & Photos
All Critics (53) | Top Critics (6) | Fresh (53) | Rotten (7) | DVD (25)
The film delivers honest special-effects shocks without forfeiting its good nature.
Top CriticGiven the talents, Poltergeist is an annoying film because it could have been so much better.
Though the shocks are well conveyed, it's the sweetness that lingers, making this the first cute and cuddly entry in the genre.
It is consistently redeemed by its creator's dazzling sense of craft.
Top CriticHooper 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.
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.
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.
Thanks to Poltergeist, more than a few of us still sleep with the lights on: the world has changed, but our closets haven't.
A frightening, supernatural horror film that defined a generation.
One of the all-time great haunted house movies.
...a compelling and consistently creepy piece of work...
Spielberg clockwork: great suburbs, great special effects, great abuse of an expositive score, great overuse of the slow push-in, great hot mom, great irrelevant dad, great plucky little kids.
...more of an extravaganza than it is a horror flick. (Blu-ray Edition)
Think of it more as a fun-ride than a horror movie.
Twenty-five years on, the film is still looking remarkably good %u2013 and, I'm betting sales of clown dolls have never quite recovered.
Though its special features have apparently crossed over into the next spectral plane, the image of the 25th anniversary Poltergeist DVD will have you gazing into the light.
After a quarter-century, Poltergeist remains one of the most popular movies whose reputation rests almost exclusively on behind-the-scenes diversions.
It's a highly effective and uncommonly emotional horror film, and in the summer of 1982, I preferred it to Spielberg's more universally admired E.T.
A wonderful bit of horror fantasy...
So darn good it makes me wish Spielberg hadn't given up on the horror genre.
This 25th anniversary disc needn't have been the pointless milestone it is.
At first this takes the form of your classic poltergeist activity (moved furniture, that kind of thing), but it becomes weirder.
A surprisingly yet successfully restrained lesson in how to haunt a house.
Audience Reviews for Poltergeist
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Carol Anne: They're here!
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- Steve: [shouting in Teague's face] You son of a bitch! You moved the cemetery, but you left the bodies, didn't you? You son of a bitch, you left the bodies and you only moved the headstones! You-only-moved-the-headstones! Lies! Lies!
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- Tangina: This house is clean.
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- Steve: Look, something's funny going on here next door. Something.
- Diane: We were wondering if maybe you had experienced any disturbances.
- Tuthill: What kind of disturbances?
- Diane: Oh, you know, like dishes or furniture moving around by themselves.
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- Diane: Now reach back into our past when you used to have an open mind, remember that? Just try to use that for the next couple of minutes.
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- Diane: It's like another side nature, that you and I aren't qualified to understand. When you overreact, it makes what happened much to important.
Discussion Forum
| Topic | Last Post | Replies |
|---|---|---|
| Speilberg's ordinary family sububurb setting for extraordinary events is epitomized by this film. | 2 months ago | 0 |
Latest News on Poltergeist
March 7, 2013:
Gil Kenan Hired to Direct Poltergeist RemakeMGM taps the "Monster House" director to trap Carol Anne in the television all over again.
February 28, 2011:
Tobe Hooper Possessed by DjinnDirector Tobe Hooper is attached to helm "Djinn," about a family who must confront a nasty spirit in...
October 13, 2010:
The 20 Most Iconic Horror Movie Scenes of All TimeStock up your Netflix queue for Halloween with Moviefone's list of the 20 most iconic horror movie...
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Foreign Titles
- Poltergeist (UK)
- Poltergeist (1982) (CA)
