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Poltergeist

Poltergeist

List Price: $14.97
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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Ahhhh...fond memories
Review: It looks just a tiny dated today like the Satan head coming out. Classic Spielberg effects. He still uses those same techniques today.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This Movie is Good and Spooky!
Review: I saw Poltergeist when I was a teen and it was a great movie. Craig T. Nelson, Jobeth Williams and Heather O'Rourke were terrific in their rolls. There were some scenes in this movie that really spooked me and I recommend Poltergeist to fans of horror movies. The scary scenes involving the closet and under the bed make me think of the fears that some little children have when they are in that monster stage when they think they have monsters in their closets and under their beds and I wonder if that is where the idea for those scenes came from. I don't have this DVD yet but I would definitely like to add it to my collection of horror movies on DVD so I can watch this spooky movie on Halloween!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Scarier than Texas Chainsaw Massacre. A 10
Review: This movie just goes to show you that a movie doesnt have to be rated R to be scary. In fact this movie is scarier than most of the R rated movies Ive seen like The Exorcist,Friday The 13th,Nightmare On Elm Street and even Halloween.Michael Myers is scarier Freddy Kruger and shocks you with that white mask but not as scary as the scene in Poltergeist when the corpses are rising out of the ground.In fact the only movie Ive seen scarier than this is Silence Of The Lambs.
There are just very few things as your whole house turning against you.Thats all I have to say about that.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Thumbs up!
Review: This is, flat-out, my favorite horror movie of all time. It is not the best movie I have ever seen, nor the scariest, goriest, most intense, most spectactular, or most intelligent. But it holds a place in my heart that no other horror film has been able to dislodge.

There are three aspects to this film that I would commend to your attention. First and foremost, this movie has heart. (Well duh, it's a Spielberg project!) The family members are well-drawn and well-portrayed, and the love, humor, and tension between them is never far from the surface of the movie. The movie finds its emotional center in the relationship between the mother and the youngest daughter (portrayed by JoBeth Williams and Heather O'Rourke, who, not coincidentally, turn in the finest performances of the movie). One may accuse this film of dipping into sentimentality on occasion where these two are involved, but this emotional core is also what makes the movie tick.

Second, this movie does what I prefer my horror movies to do. There are a handful of moments of genuine Bejeesus-expelling fright, but this is not generally a movie for which you will be wanting to close your eyes throughout. (Which is not to say that this is a fun-for-the-whole-family movie! When it scares, it goes for the juglar. I would definitely advise a PG-13 mindset.) Nor is it a movie that focuses on the adrenalin factor (though the last 30 minutes are quite a rush). For the most part, rather, Poltergeist goes for the chill down the spine, mostly through the fear of things not seen or understood. Here, it succeeds brilliantly, on both childhood and adulthood levels. Zelda Rubinstein's speech halfway through the movie is an example of the latter, as her character Tangina explains to the by-now terrified family members what is happening to their house. Her dialogue may be corny and full of new-age spiritual references, but it NEVER fails to send a shiver down my spine, as she taps into the fear of losing an innocent child to an unknown malevolent presence, and absolutely hits pay-dirt.

What makes this movie particularly chilling is its soundtrack and sound effects. While this movie has been justly praised for its visual effects (though a bit dated by modern standards), this movie is brilliant at getting you to HEAR and FEEL terror instead of just seeing it. Not only does Goldsmith effortlessly weave an beguiling suburban childhood motif with thoroughly eerie and sinister orchestrations, but the sonic images are guaranteed to stick in your head just as effectively as the visual ones. Consider the static from the TV, the earth-shaking groan of a tree, Carol Anne's voice emanating from the walls, the sound of raw meat inching along a countertop, the sound of a flourescent light changing in intensity, even the sound of Tangina's voice... Poltergeists are ostensibly phenomena that create noisy disturbances, and while this movie stretches that definition quite a bit, the noises in the movie are one of the things that keep me returning to this ill-fated house and family again and agaain.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Run to the light, Carol Anne!!
Review: It may be hard to believe, but I still get a chill watching this movie after twenty years. I hope eventually the studio will release a director's cut, or at least a special edition DVD with deleted scenes, documentaries, etcetera. The remastered Dolby 5.1 sound is excellent, but the aging and non-remasterd picture could use some help. Poltergeist incited the Motion Picture Association of America to create a new PG-13 rating.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Okay...maybe 3 and a half stars.
Review: POLTERGEIST is a decent film (I guess), worth seeing for its performances, special effects, and cinematography. It works better as a sci-fi movie than a ghost story. The most disturbing scenes hadn't any special effects, or really didn't need them. The screenplay is highly overpraised (probably because co-producer Steven Speilberg contributed to it). He and the other writers tried to make this suitable for children by adding sappy dialogue but then show us skin dripping off of someone's face. Most importantly, the climactic exorcism sequence (also too gory for its own good) was only three-quarters of the way through the movie. Screenplays need structure! In the ghost movie genre, I recommend THE INNOCENTS (1961). Don't make the same mistake I did and rent (even worse: buy)this mediocre movie

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Supernatural Masterpiece!
Review: I don't know why this movie was rated PG? It was much scarier than that. It's about a house built over indian burial ground. Resulting in a bizarre and terrifying haunting for the family. A force kidnapps their daughter and takes her into the after-life world. The family battles the vengeful spirit's campangue of terror as they try to get their daughter back. Everytime I see a fuzzy TV screen I think of this movie. The clown-doll part was so scary! As well as the utility room scene where he starts ripping his face off and into the sink. I heard that a lot of terrible things happened to the people who were involved in making this film. Just like "The Exorcist".

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: So Far Away From Realism...
Review: I don't know about you, but I seek for some degree of realism in the movies I watch. Realism becomes even more crucial if horror movies are at stake; because nobody can get engaged with phony horror scenes. I constantly watch horror movies, and bought 'Poltergeist' on an occasion, with great expectations, since it was directed by Spielberg. But I am very disappointed with the production, as it stands out as a black mark among Spielberg's great works. Why?

The whole notion of becoming one with television, receiving messages from 'them', talking to 'them', and then after all scaring people by some strange forces is totally meaningless. The use of little children with blank faces is effective in that it exploits strange feelings inside us. However, I do not think that the little girl in this movie succeeds in that. Special forces, moving chairs, sudden tornados are all a part of this movie.

I believe that Spielberg had done a far better job with his Jaws series. And believe it or not, I felt more tension when I was watching those, and not 'Poltergeist'. If you like to see things that do not occur in the normal life, than please go on, and see 'Poltergesit', for you will not be disappointed.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Kinda boring
Review: I've seen this movie a couple of times on various television stations, and it just isn't that scary. Maybe the premise of a girl getting sucked into a t.v. is scary to some, but not me. The reason I give this 3 stars is the scene where the guy is ripping his face off. I still get chills from that scene, and after watching it, I have a hard time sleeping

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Don't Waste Your Time
Review: A lot of people complain that "The Ring" (my favorite horror movie) doesn't make sense. It does too- you just have to think about it. *Here*, however, is a movie that does not make sense. It's kind of fun, but ultimately just a bunch of random and increasingly eerie occurences, climaxing in a total freak-out. I don't understand how most of these strange happenings could be related to the Freelings building their house atop an old graveyard, particularly not that "powerful, angry soul" trip. Not only that, but the stupidity of the characters is remarkable (why the hell would you spend one last night in a haunted house before you move?). The special effects (which are not at all bad for 1982) are the best features.
I admit I was pretty scared while watching this movie, but as soon as it was over I realized the absurdity of the whole thing. The fear did not stick with me for even half an hour (unlike "The Ring", which has tempted me to sleep with my lights on every night since I watched it). To make matters worse, "Poltergeist" is nearly two hours long, and to me seemed to last about twice that amount of time. Trust me, there are better ways to spend your time.


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