Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘Poltergeist’ (1982)

Written by Scott Edwards

There is nothing like a good ghost story to get your heart pumping, especially if the spirits are not that friendly towards the living. I have always been fascinated with Haunted locations, but have never been to a place that is infected by a poltergeist, yet. They say that poltergeists are caused by the unconscious mind of a living person under some sort of stress, but it is not usually a ghost.  Like I said, I have yet to witness this in my adventures and am actually surprised that I did not have one when growing up, as I was always stressed and upset about all kinds of things.

Steve and Diane Freeling have the perfect life going for them, they live in a nice house, Steve has a good job and all of the kids are healthy and happy. There does not seem to be anything that could ever go wrong with the family and even though everyone has a problem of their own, it is nothing that the family cannot work around. There does not seem to be anything strange happening in the house, but one night when young Carol Anne hears the static on the television, she starts yelling at the set that she cannot hear whoever is trying to talk to her. Young Robbie is starting to experience fear from the items around his room, the clown that sits at the end of his bed is always looking at him weird and the tree outside has been watching him. As Robbie has always had an overactive imagination, his parents know a couple ways to control it, but never in their wildest dreams could they imagine what their happy little life has in store for them.

When feeling what seems to be an earthquake in the bedroom, Steve is calling his friends to see if they felt the same thing. As he finds out that it only has happened in his house, he seems to let it go as an isolated incident, but in the bedroom the family dog E. Buzz seems to be responding to someone who is not there. While Diane thinks this is strange, she does not know what to make of it, but when working in the kitchen she finds out that there is something different going on in her home. With the chairs being pulled out from the table, Diane thinks that one of the kids is playing a trick on her, but when the chairs wind up on top of the table, she knows that these ‘T.V. People’ who Carol Anne is talking to are real. With this being something out of the ordinary, a spot in the kitchen seems to be a center of activity and when something is placed in a specific spot, it slides across the floor without anyone or anything being there.

The house is far from all fun and games as something evil is awakened during a terrible thunder storm. As Robbie’s tree comes alive and tries to eat the boy, the family’s attention is pulled away from who it is really after, little Carol Anne. As she is taken by the house, the family does not know what they are dealing with and turns to a ghost hunting team that can hopefully give them some answers. As Dr. Lesh and her team enter the house, they find out that it is the most active location that they have ever investigated. Not believing that the house is haunted, but a poltergeist has taken up residence there, they run their normal tests and find that Carol Anne is still in the house, but will need to call in someone else to try and bring the child back to the land of the living.

This is one of those movies that I can watch whenever it is on, and even sometimes seek it out from my collection. I am a sucker for a good story and even a bigger sucker for a ghost story and this one fulfills my needs when it comes down to it. With so many strange things going on around the house, the family accepts it, but they did not see or feel the evil presence and had no idea what it was up to while gaining strength. While normal answers cannot be found about what is happening, I loved the interactions between Dr. Lesh and her team and the reaction shots are just amazing. Watching as the Freeling family has learned to come to terms with what is happening, I have two favorite scenes in the movie that always stay in my mind; one, when Steve opens the locked off room with everything flying around in it and two, when Steve is trying to answer the psychic with his mind. They always stick with me and the look on his face is just priceless. So now I am forced to want to find a family that is suffering from a poltergeist and find out what differences there are between that and the normal hauntings which I have become a huge fan of. Stay Scared!

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