Poltergeist (1982) - USA

Poltergeist is the first and most successful Poltergeist film, released on June 4, 1982 and nominated for three Oscars. The film was directed by Tobe Hooper and was co-produced and co-written by Steven Spielberg along with Michael Grais and Mark Victor, his first major success as a producer. The plot revolves around the haunting of a suburban family home that is suspected to be the work of poltergeists.

The film is often referred to as cursed because of the murder of Dominique Dunne and early death of Heather O'Rourke, as well as the fact that actress JoBeth Williams has pointed out in television interviews that she was actually told that the skeletons used in the well-known swimming pool scene in the first Poltergeist film were real. This has been the focus of an E! True Hollywood Story on the Poltergeist Curse.

This film was ranked as #80 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments.

There are two types of "horror" films:There are the scary ones, which is what the word "horror" means in the first place,and then there is the bloody,gory kind.Perhaps the latter kind should be categorized under another name.At any rate,Poltergeist is a good horror film.It goes beyond the idea of typical ghosts in sheets jumping out of nowhere and saying "boo!".Most of the adventure takes place in their world rather than ours,although we cannot see what is going on there.This is a very thrilling movie.It has great special effects and all of the scare elements that make a horror film what it is supposed to be.

After a quarter-century, Poltergeist remains one of the most popular movies whose reputation rests almost exclusively on behind-the-scenes diversions.

In the suburbs, a young girl (Heather O'Rourke) begins hearing voices from the television set, and is soon abducted into the screen. Her father (Craig T. Nelson), mother (JoBeth Williams), older sister Dana (Dominique Dunne) and brother Robbie (Oliver Robins) attempt to find her. They hire a medium (Zelda Rubinstein) to clean the "possessed" house, and each experiences spooky occurrences of their own. Robbie battles a demon tree, while other characters are plagued with things like steak. (All of these terrifying things are found in any suburban home.) Hooper and Spielberg spend a great deal of time setting up the suburban world of the characters, and we know them each intimately before the terror starts. (Parts are actually pretty funny!) The filmmakers also understand the value of a good resting point before things fire up again. The special effects may overwhelm the ending, but they do little to dull the power of the whole. The film spawned two sequels, and each of the films were plagued with creepy events. Dunne was murdered a few months after the first film opened, actor Julian Beck died after making Poltergeist II, and little O'Rourke died at age 12 after completing Poltergeist III.

This is a must watch for Horror Movie Fans .

IMDB Info :

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084516/