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Poltergeist

1982

Tobe Hooper

Heather O'Rourke, JoBeth Williams, Craig T. Nelson, Beatrice Straight ...

6.8

33,058

Horror. Fantasy Realtor Steve Freeling and his family have moved into a new house on the Cuesta Verde development estate. But there they find that their new house is haunted. This proves at first amusing. But then in the midst of a storm their youngest daughter Carol Ann is sucked into the closet and her disembodied voice then comes to them, pleading for help from inside the tv. With the help of a team of parapsychologists and a medium they attempt to ... [+]

	Media	Author	Review
		Roger Ebert rogerebert.com	"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 (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"
		Vincent Canby The New York Times	"A thoroughly enjoyable nightmare (...)It's also witty in a fashion that Alfred Hitchcock might have appreciated"
		Ian Freer Empire	"A brilliantly orchestrated collection of jumps and jolts, childhood phobias that will scare you witless for its 114 minute duration"
		BBC	"'Poltergeist' contains many good elements but the assembly of them is haphazard and the overlong running time allows the film to dawdle when it should be racing (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Dave Kehr Chicago Reader	"Though the shocks are well conveyed, it's the sweetness that lingers, making this the first cute and cuddly entry in the genre"
		Variety	"'Poltergeist' is an annoying film because it could have been so much better (...) the story is truly stupid, though well-acted"
		Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"[It] has Steven Spielberg’s fingerprints all over it, but has a disturbing, satirical edge that’s all its own (...) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Alan Jones Radio Times	"[Hooper] puts on a dazzling show, and the intuitive performances are uniformly on the panic button (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Eric Henderson Slant	"'Poltergeist's most canny conceit is how it takes the concept of a haunted house (...) and plops it in the middle of the most mundane of all possible locations: American suburbia (…) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"

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