Poltergeist. 1982. USA. Directed by Tobe Hooper. Written by Steven Spielberg, Michael Grais, Mark Victor, from a story by Spielberg. With JoBeth Williams, Craig T. Nelson. 35mm. 114 min.
“They’re here.” So begins the haunting of the Freeling house in picturesque Cuesta Verde, California. A sinister voice from the family TV beckons young Carol Anne, and soon the entire family is besieged by malevolent spirits. It’s up to the parents (led by matriarch Diane, played with weary resolve by JoBeth Williams) to save their youngest child.
Tobe Hooper joined forces with Steven Spielberg (who cowrote and produced) on Poltergeist, and the film is brimming with Spiebergian preoccupations like suburban sprawl, the family unit under intense pressure, and cutting-edge special effects. Hooper’s horror bona fides are evident across the film (the monster tree, the evil clown), as are his elegant camera moves. The sinister, ramshackle house of Leatherface and his clan in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is replaced here with an inviting, modern home that nonetheless becomes the locus of unyielding terror. No spoilers, but Hooper’s coda to the film is a perfect capstone to his most commercially successful picture.