"They're here......."

Title: Poltergeist
Date: 1982
Synopsis: A young family move into a newly built house and are visited by what seem to be playful and non-malevolent spirits. Soon the spirits reveal their true nature by snatching the family's youngest daughter. Hell literally breaks loose and the family find themselves in the centre of a supernatural nightmare.

Before I even start to review this film, I feel it's important to explain a couple of things, that is after I found the courage to come down from the curtain rail!

Horrors, in my opinion consist of two genres; the first being 'ghostly' horrors, The Ring, The Grudge, The Exorcist are a few examples. I.E. anything that contains ghosts, demons, hauntings or supernatural horror. Then there is the 'gore' genre, examples include Hostel, Saw (anything after Saw I doesn't count) and the previously reviewed I spit on your grave. Now there are a few shades of grey of course, films that cross the two genres but generally it's either one or the other. You can put me in front of a film that has enough fake blood and gore to fill a tanker, and make even those with the most iron-clad stomachs turn green and I'll barely bat an eyelid save for the odd 'eww'. However, put me in front of a 'ghostly' film and I'll be climbing the curtains in fear! I think it stems from watching The Exorcist (something I'm in no rush to ever repeat) at a fairly impressionable age, and a rather hairy experience in the haunted mansion at Euro Disney at an even more impressionable age. It doesn't make for a very brave Gemma that's for sure!

Anyway, I'm slowly trying to wean myself onto this genre a little more as I don't want to miss out on some great scares, or great film work. So on the reliable recommendation of Chris we chose to watch Poltergeist. We're introduced to the young Carol Anne (Heather O'Rourke) who begins speaking to something inside the white noise on the TV. After the film of the same name back in 2005 I've been a little wary of hearing it or seeing it so that set my nerves on edge from the start. Following the first of a spate of storms, whatever was inside the TV comes out, and Carol Anne turns to her parents who are laying in bed and says, 'they're here.....' and I'm sure it's at that point that several people must have lost not only their popcorn in the cinema!

At first the spirits seem playful and the family are happy to play along, that is until the family decide to start digging the garden to put down the American-staple swimming pool. It later turns out, unbeknownst to the family, that the house was built on top of a burial ground (yep, that old gem.). I guess spirits don't like this, and happily retaliate by stealing the youngest daughter, inside her closet, communicating via the white noise to her terrified mother. So when you're told not to sit too close to the TV, you now know why!

Determined to get their daughter back, they first enlist the help of a paranormal investigation team who set up a vigil while the scared family attempt to sleep. It's around this time that one of the guys on the investigation wanders into the kitchen looking for food (apparently it's ok to raid the fridge of these tormented people for steak in the middle of the night - it must be an American thing). One of the cardinal rules in any 'ghosty' horror should be 'if there are ghosts around, don't, for God's sake DON'T look in ANY mirrors! Anyway, he does, and his face just starts peeling away, blood, gore, bone, all in the pretty white china sink, it's pretty grim.

Reaching desperation, the family bring in Yoda, err, I mean Tangina (Zelda Rubinstein) whether it was just a coincidence I don't know, but her voice is exactly that of a child's and in this she's slightly insane, more than a bit creepy, but overall she's the don of psychics. Explaining that Carol Anne is attracting spirits to her with her life force and that she must lead them into 'the light' Tangina continues to explain there is one spirit with her, referring to it as 'the beast'. I'm not sure if this means what it says, but the beast is holding Carol Anne captive by appearing to her as a child, therefore tricking her into staying on the spirit side along with all the trapped souls.

Carol Anne's mother travels through the closet after her daughter, and after falling through the other side covered in what genuinely looks like strawberry jam, she's thrown in a bath and is once more clutching the tiny Carol Anne. I was sure that it was the happy ending I was so desperately craving by this stage. Unfortunately, when the sound stop you just know something bad is happening. Her ordeal has caused Carol Anne's mother to turn partially grey, and so while she's dying her hair in another room havoc breaks loose once more in the kid's bedroom. The unthinkable happens, and Oliver's clown comes to life. Having watched it stay stationary right up to this point, I knew my luck wouldn't hold out, and honestly, after reading Stephen King's 'It' I really don't like them. Really, really.

After a struggle, their mother tries in vain to open the door into the children's room, and runs outside into the storm (which has been raging for days) slipping, somewhat predictably, into the hole dug for the pool. It's here we see all the coffins floating to the surface of the pool. Scared out of her wits (and after falling back in at least twice) she makes it to the kids and pulls them to safety. Just in time for her husband to return home and a coffin to pop up right outside the front door. Like the all American hero, he (after a LOT of fumbling) gets them into the car and off to the welcoming neon lights of the local holiday in. Weary and emotional the family slam the door shut on their ordeal, their old house having now been sucked into a black hole, leaving all graves and bones exposed.

The credits roll, I exhale. The door to the hotel opens, my chest tightens. The father pushes the TV out onto the balcony. LOL.

I was expecting some white noise here, that mercifully didn't come. I think my heartbeat has just now returned to normal and I'm a little more confident I'll sleep tonight. Well overall, it wasn't as scary as The Exorcist, but considering how old the film is it still made me jump on a couple of occasions. 8 screams out of 10.