Poltergeist (1982)

A 5 year old girl named Carol Anne Freeling (Heather O'Rourke) wakes up late at night and noticers that the TV in the family room is still on as programming was finished for the night so the screen was fuzzy and her father Steven (Craig T. Nelson) is asleep on the couch. She starts talking to it making out that it is replying to her.

The next day a storm is about to occur and when its night time Carol Anne and her older brother Robbie (Oliver Robbins) are scared of the thunder so they sleep with their parents as they leave the TV on.
Suddenly the programming is off the air for the night and the TV is fuzzy again but this time it's whispering and Carol Anne watches it. A spirit of a hand comes out of the TV and shakes the bed and wakes up her brother and parents. Carol Anne says "They're Here!"

The next morning Carol Anne's mother Diane (JoBeth Williams) asks her daughter what she was talking about that night and tells her mother about the TV people.
Suddenly there are supernatural powers happening in their house as at first they think it's fun and amazing.

Then at night another thunderstorm occurs and a tree comes to life and tries to swallow up Robbie to distract the rest of the family while Carol Anne gets sucked into a closet by a force and is trapped inside the fuzziness of a TV screen.

The family brings over a group of scientists to try and rescue Carol Anne as Steven later on discovers that their property has a dark secret.

An overly enjoyable film packed with plenty of suspense and extremely original too.
This is a great look at a normal everyday family thinking that they live in a quiet normal neighborhood but the house is haunted with spirits and you imagine it all starts with a TV when programming is off the air and a little girl is staring at a blank TV screen.
It shows every child's fear of thunderstorms and the dark too.

The acting is terrific and superb. Craig T Nelson and Diane Freeling play perfect off of one another as a married couple as the two of them have the perfect chemistry making it look realistic.
We get to see the late Dominique Dunne as a typical teenage girl and is a shame she was murdered as she had a promising career and this film would've been a great leap for her.
We can't forget the late child star Heather O'Rourke as at her age she was amazing with her lines making them very chilling when she talks about the TV people which were the poltergeists especially her first words when she says "They're Here!"
We have a good supporting cast too as I enjoyed Virginia Kiser as the caring scientist Mrs. Tuthill as she shows great emotions of wanting to help the family from the poltergeist events.
We most of all can't forget about Zelda Rubinstein's role as the short and powerful minded Tangina Voyant who is truly a hero in the film and repised her role in the sequels too and still does superbly well.
All in all I give all the cast members two thumbs up for their effort and hard work in this one.

In the special edition a man is hallucinating in a mirror and tears off his face.

Well Tobe Hooper hasn't had another successful film to top off Texas Chainsaw Massacre until Spielberg presented him with this one which remains his all time most successful work of all time.
He is still terrific at giving the viewers a firght with the film. He shows great scenes of the TV when the show is off the air as at first you think that Heather O'Rourke's character is just imagining things when she talks to the TV but then the next night when there was a thunder storm you hear the whispering sounds of the TV and then a spirit of a hand shakes the bed of her parents. It left me an impression when I first watched that for sure.
He also directed the scene with O'Rourke and Oliver Robins when they are in their room the next night and then the tree comes to grab Robins' character.
You will also jump when Robins notices that his toy clown that he is too scared to look at during the night time is not sitting on the chair where he placed it and then looks under his bed but the clown grabs him from behind.
Hooper worked terrifically with Nelson and Williams when they flirt with one another during the first night of the thunder storm in their bedroom as you'd think they really are a married couple.
I loved the scenes where it showed the monstrous spirit in the film which shows excellent effects too.

Jerry Goldsmith has some nice sounds with the scenes of the TV and composes well with other scenes too but however his music sounds too common with the mainstream films.

[first lines]
Carol Anne: Hello? What do you look like? Talk louder, I can't hear you! Hey, hello! Hello, I can't hear you! Five. Yes. Yes. I don't know. I don't know.

Diane: [the canary has died] Oh... Oh shit, Tweety, couldn't you have waited until a school day?

Carol Anne: They're here.

Diane: Sweetheart, last night, when you said "They're here.'...
Carol Anne: Can I take my goldfish to school?
Diane: Sweetheart, do you remember last night when you woke up, and you said "They're here.'?
Carol Anne: Uh huh
Diane: Well, who did you mean?
Carol Anne: The TV People.
Robbie: She's stoned.
Dana: Oh yeah? What do you know about it?
Robbie: More than you. Ask Dad

Diane: TV people?
Carol Anne: Uh-huh.
Diane: Do you see them?
Carol Anne: Uh-uh. Do you?
Diane: Uh-uh.

Diane: We were wondering if you had experienced any... disturbances?
Ben Tuthill: What kind of disturbances?
Diane: Oh, you know... dishes or furniture, moving around by themselves.

Diane: Bastards. She's just a baby. Help her. Help her. Can you hear what's happening? Help her.

Diane: Ahhh... this is probably going to be seem a little strange. We hear better on this channel. Don't ask me why. Well... ah... I guess I will call her. Carol Anne. Ah... i t's mommy, sweetheart. Ah, we want to talk to you. Please answer me baby. Please answer me. Please talk to me, bunny.
Marty: Look at the dog.
Diane: Are you with us now? Can you... can you say hello to daddy?
Carol Anne: Hello, daddy.
Steve: Hello, sweetpea.
Diane: It's mommy, sweetheart.
Carol Anne: Hello, mommy.
Diane: Hello, baby. Can you see me? Can you see mommy?
Carol Anne: Mommy? Where are you? Where are you?
Diane: We're home, baby. We're home. Can you find me? Can you find a way to us, baby?
Carol Anne: Mommy, where are you? I can't find you. I can't. I'm afraid of the Light, mommy. I'm afraid of the Light.

Diane: Carol Anne - listen to me. Do NOT go into the light. Stop where you are. Turn away from it. Don't even look at it.

Diane: She just moved through me. My God. I felt her. I can smell her. It's her. It's her. Smell my clothes. It's her. She's all over me. It's her. She's on me. It's her. I felt her. It's her. It is. It's... it is... it's my baby. It's my baby. She went through my soul.

Dr. Lesh: Some people believe that when you die there is a wonderful light. As bright as the sun but it doesn't hurt to look into it. All the answers to all the questions you want to know are inside that light. And when you walk to it... you become a part of it forever. Now, some people die, but they don't know they're gone.

Robbie: I got beat up once by three kids. They took my lunch money. Maybe they got hit by a truck, and they're upstairs right now.

Tangina: Help me tie this around my waist.
Diane: What do you think you're doing?
Tangina: I'm going in after her.
Diane: She won't come to you. Let me go.
Tangina: You've never done this before.
Diane: Neither have you.
[pause]
Tangina: You're right. You go.

Tangina: This house is clean.

Diane: DON'T TOUCH MY BABY.

Diane: Get away from my baby.

Dana: WHAT'S HAPPENING?

Steve: 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 head stones. You only moved the head stones. Why? Why?