A new writing segment, "Ten Items or Less" is an attempt to consciously cutback and restrict how much I write. I get ten sentences or less to discuss a movie. That's it. Let's see if some genius comes out of working around my self-made obstacle.
"They're here," Carole Anne Freeling (a perfectly cast Heather O'Rourke) informs us in Poltergeist's most famous line. The moment rightfully deserves all the parody and recognition it has since garnered; it's a truly chilling moment, perhaps the film's most terrifying one, and it plays bluntly but primaly on our fears of not being able to protect our children. Poltergeist taps into real Reagan Era fears over the breakdown of the nuclear family and the home, putting a loving family to the test against outside forces that would tear them apart. Though this is essentially a horror movie, producer Steven Spielberg marks it with his signature brand of sentimental melodrama and cinematic wonder. The eventual explanations of the paranormal activity feel schmaltzy, but it does little to damper the film's final act which turns the film's slow burn into an explosion. Poltergeist is leavened with humor and good character moments, but it's also still properly freaky and unsettling: the face peeling, the static television sets, and all the wonderful craziness in its final moments that I wouldn't dare to spoil.
Grade: ★★★
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