Poltergeist [DVD] [1982]

Description

Product Description Suburbanites Steve (Nelson) and Diane (Williams) suddenly experience paranormal activity in their home. What begins as minor excitement quickly turns into nasty ghostly encounters. The disappearance of their daughter Carol Anne (O’Rourke) forces the Freelings to bring in parapsychologists and a professional exorcist to exorcise their home. Special features Two-part documentary "They Are Here: The Real World of Poltergeists Revealed" Part I: Science of the Spirits Part II: Communing with the Dead desertcart.co.uk Review It’s been a long time coming, but at last the digitally remastered version of the original 1982 horror movie has arrived. Tobe Hooper, the director of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, teamed up with family-oriented producer Steven Spielberg to make Poltergeist, about a haunted suburban home in a development very much like the Arizona one in which Spielberg was raised. (Because it came out the same summer as Spielberg's E.T., it was tempting to see both movies as representing Spielberg's ambivalent feelings about childhood in suburbia. One was a fantasy, the other a nightmare.) Spielberg also co-wrote the screenplay, which taps into primal, childlike fears of monsters under the bed, monsters in the closet, sinister clown faces, and all manner of things that go bump in the night. At first, some of the odd happenings in the house are kind of funny and amusing, but they grow gradually creepier until the film climaxes in a terrifying special-effects extravaganza when five-year-old Carole Anne (Heather O'Rourke) is kidnapped by the spooks and held hostage in another dimension. Though not nearly as frightening as Hooper's magnum opus, or the original A Nightmare on Elm Street, which came along two years later, Poltergeist is one of the smartest and most entertaining horror pictures of its time. --Jim Emerson Review: POLTERGEIST BLURAY FROM WARNER HOME VIDEO - Many years have passed since I saw this film in the cinema (Many many). My memories are vague and I came across this Blu ray browsing desertcart. Glad I saw it again even though I have very mixed feelings....The BLURAY - Excellent quality - bars top and bottom crisp clear picture and colour. Good sound and subtitles. This release a bit low on extras for those interested - not me. The FILM? Well paced with some serious shock/horror moments, and generally well acted. No swearing or undue gore. My problem (and this is me, so don't let what follows necesarily put you off buying.) I just could not like or accept the family. Somehow the stoney faced husband and his slightly ditsy wife just failed to connect. The kids were good and hopefully survived any traumas!!! (Iknow sad things happened to the two daughters). Plot holes...How come NO ONE in the neighborhood seemd to be aware of the terrifying sounds and sights emanating from the house ((until the very end). It made no sense. Zelda Rubinstein was excellent and the actors did their best - just not for me. A good 5 stars for the fact it IS a classic beautifully presented by Warner, and if you have never seen it...Well - Get it and hopefully enjoy. Review: Beautiful transfer, definitely a high definition master. - Poltergeist is one of those horror movies that has production values way above average for the genre, and as such feels almost like it should be regarded differently. It's a supernatural horror, one that just happens to have been made by a big studio with a decent budget, and the skill of Steven Spielberg behind the script and camera (he's suggested to have directed most of the film despite Tobe Hooper being credited) and also co-editing with Michael Kahn. As a result, Poltergeist is beautiful film, with cinematography on the level of the best films of the period, with fantastic performances from all the actors, and a stunning score from Jerry Goldsmith. Whether you enjoy it or not is, of course, a matter of personal taste. I for one think it's an exceptional film. So, how does it look on Blu-ray? Quite honestly, it looks fantastic. I'm sure Spielberg would never allow one of his own productions to be put out on Blu-ray without a great HD transfer. The images are sharp and clear, in full original format, with detail maintained in darker shots. As seems to be a case with the format, poor visual effects shots tend to be highlighted, but I didn't find that to be the case with Poltergeist. Most of the effects are so unique stylistically, achieved to some degree optically rather than with lots of compositing, that you don't suddenly find yourself distracted by them looking bad on Blu-ray. I must admit, the scene where Marty pulls off his face looks like it always did. I always felt it was very unconvincing and only worked because of it's grotesqueness, but if you liked it before, I'm sure you won't be bothered by it. The "Wizard of Oz" shot of the tree going into the twister looks no worse, either. The sound is crisp and clean, although this is a film that was always very well mixed anyway. I can honestly recommend the Blu-ray of Poltergeist as a substantial improvement over any previous release, definitely a worthwhile upgrade.