This was destined to be a classic from the moment Steven Spielberg began putting this down on paper. He doesn't direct, only write and produce (still not an easy feat), and the direction of Tobe Hooper is outstanding at keeping Spielberg's vision alive. It's the story of a modern southern California home built over a gravesite which leads to the ghostly experiences occurring that result in young Heather O'Rourke disappearing inti the abyss. Mom JoBeth Williams and pop Craig T. Nelson bring in a group of paranormal experts (lead by Beatrice Straight) but it's poltergeist expert Tangina (Zelda Rubinstein) who seems to have the power to deal with it and get O'Rourke's Carol Ann back.

For anyone who's ever gone into a park late at night and thought that the trees looked like evil beings, that began to believe that their toys were possessed or found old cemeteries fascinating, this is a magical ride of good vs. evil that they won't soon forget. There's a legend already behind the making of this, and in nearing its fortieth anniversary, that legend is as powerfully spooky as the film itself. Every moment of this film is powerful and feels so modern in the realm of the spirit world and in its making. The timeliness of this hasn't ages at all.

With growing tension from the moment that O'Rourke sneaks downstairs and tries to engage with something in the TV's static (following the end of the broadcast day, the one untimely reference in the film), this builds to something that in spite if the evil involved is breathtakingly beautiful, almost like a ballet in how it is presented. Every prop in the film becomes an element of evil vision, and you'll never look at a clown doll or a walking robot toy or an empty swimming pool covered in muck the same way again.

I only looked away once upon seeing this again for the first time in many years, knowing what was going to transpire with one of the paranormal experts when he went into the kitchen to make a steak. The acting is very natural yet intense with Nelson and Williams play and parents who are actually real people beyond their role as dad and mom, and Oscar winning Straight is quite touching. But the ground breaking performances by O'Rourke and Rubinstein are the heart and soul of the film, although it's haunting for the memory of teen actress Dominic Dunne whose tragic end was just one obstacle the film faced after the conclusion of the filming. The music by Jerry Goldsmith is a plus, and the special effects are simply glorious. This is one horror classic, a triumph in modern cinema, that is worth seeing over and over.

I left the lights on the night I saw it. Because this does not take place in some classic looking haunted house, with some scary mythology attached to it. This happens in a modern house in a typical suburb. It looked like a house in my neighborhood. That nobody could afford to own at the time because of 18% interest rates in 1982, but that's another story.

It involves a typical family. The wife is a homemaker. The husband sells new houses in the same neighborhood that the family lives in. It must have been a slow work day for him because who could have afforded these houses in 1982 with 18% interest rates? But I digress. There is a teen daughter from some unmentioned first marriage because she only looks 15 years younger or so than Jo Beth Williams who plays the mother. There are two kids age 7 and 6 that belong to the second wife. The youngest, Carol Ann, was born in the house.

So the horror starts with harmless stuff like the kitchen chairs rearranging themselves when you're not looking but escalates quickly. And the movie tag line "It knows what scares you" turns out to be so true. Remember when you were a kid. What scared you? Lightning storms? Big leafless trees that looked like some kind of being with lots of arms? Clown dolls with macabre smiles? It all plays into it.

Stephen Spielberg "ghost" directed this one. You could always tell by the preponderance of wind machines and seemingly meaningless close ups - hallmarks of 80s Spielberg.

The one thing that really dates this - The poltergeist originally gets into the house when the husband falls asleep in front of the TV late at night, the Star Spangled Banner plays, the channel signs off, and then there is no signal. Cue the poltergeist. Today, channels never sign off. There is always some infomercial, with the set dressed like the old CNN Larry King Live show to add credibility, yelling at you how you can have product X for only 19.99 a month. The poor poltergeists of today are trapped listening to this nonsense, waiting for a chance to escape that will never come! Oh the humanity.

It doesn't hit me like it did when it first came out, but it is still good enough with a very shocking ending that it is still worth a a look.

Sometimes to judge a film fairly you really need to consider the time at which it was made and what film-making technology existed at that time. This was the first big budget film to really tackle the subject of paranormal investigation, and at the time it was made it was seamless and sleek. It would be easy for people today to put it down for some of the early 1980's effects, but let's flip this perspective around and consider that no CGI what-so-ever was used. But at the same time, "Poltergeist" has a strangely family-friendly vibe. It was directed by Tobe Hooper, but it has the unmistakable fingerprints of producer/writer Steven Spielberg all over it. It focuses on an ordinary, harmless suburban family living their usual lives (their biggest problem is the death of a pet bird), which is suddenly thrown into chaos by outside forces. And unlike most horror movies, there isn't even a lot of violence... well, except for one grotesque hallucination.

Don't expect the usual gore and typical shocks you see in all modern horror films these days, Poltergeist is not about that. With all of the elements of visual effects, sound, acting, directing (Tobe Hooper) and writers (Steven Spielberg) this is one film that achieves everything you want to see in a motion picture. Anyway, Jo Beth Williams and Craig T. Nelson are great in this film. They have real chemistry. You believe they love each other and are a team. The kids are pretty great, too. It's actually quite a thoughtful movie and even has an odd warmth to it. Though there are a few scary moments. The final fifteen minutes are played out to such effect, that one could call it pure horror.

Overall rating: 7 out of 10.