Soon, things in the house begin to move by themselves and Diane (JoBeth Williams) observes highly repeatable behaviour in the Kitchen where things move across the floor.
This all seems quite fun. Carol Anne says the "TV people" are behind it all.
Funnily enough, no good will come of this.
CW: strobing lights
Amazingly I've never seen this influential horror all the way through before, it's one of those things I've only seen snippets of.
However it stands up well. Spielberg's fingerprints are all over it despite Tobe Hooper's credit so the "wholesome 80s suburban family" sections are pitch perfect.
Once the weird stuff starts happening they don't mess about it's full on screen ghosts and manifestations, all of which have that very early 80s signature ILM look. Smoke and super bright stabbing spots/strobes/lasers with animated flourishes over inserted practical effects that stand up well. The only thing that looks dated is a hallucination where somebody scratches their own face off.
It's the template for a massive number of later movies. A perceptive child, parapsychologist ghostbusters, an eccentric medium, stuff flying round the room, a sinister clown and a fake "this house is clean" ending.
By modern standards it's not very scary but I tell you one thing it is. Well lit. At every point you can see what's going on and they don't hide the action in a miasma of murk like almost every modern horror. I know sometimes that's to cover up some deficiency in the set or effects but c'mon people a little light didn't worry ILM in 1982. I know that's ILM but you've got over 40 years of advancement in the craft on them.
There's little to fault here. So many 'classic' movies are considered classic because they got there first and don't stand up to viewing afresh (I'm looking at you Dr. Strangelove) but Poltergeist could almost have been made as a retro piece in the last decade. In fact you could argue it has been when you look at things like Insidious etc. that are clear descendants.
Highly recommended 8/10.