6. Poltergeist

Poltergeist
Tobe Hooper (or was it Steven Spielberg?), 1982.

After their youngest daughter is kidnapped by the television people (aka angry ghosts), the Freeling family must find a way to rescue her without falling victim to the spirits themselves.

First off, the title doesn't make sense. They actually take a moment, halfway through the film, to explain how a poltergeist is different from a haunting, as if to justify it - but then they proceed to give us a fairly textbook example of a haunting. Weird - but I suppose the alternative title was already taken.

Nitpicking aside, Poltergeist is a really middle-of the road movie. It's got some wonderful bits of creepiness (the second conversation with Carol Anne after she disappears, for instance), and a stronger emotional pull than I was expecting (see that same scene), but it never really comes together the way it should. I think the problem is that Spielberg doesn't really want to be making a horror movie, because I have the same issue with Jaws. In both cases, you have the trappings of a horror movie, but when you dig past those trappings, you find the beating heart of an adventure film. There's a light touch to most of the peril, a strong "quest" element to the plot, and a great big ending that is simultaneously epic and anti-climactic. It should be the moment where things become most intense, but it isn't, really. It's just louder - kind of like an action movie. So you have the structure of the movie pulling it in one direction, and the moment to moment details pulling it in the other (perhaps this is the best proof that Hooper really did direct the movie), and then you have a layer of borderline satirical suburban life slathered over it just to really confuse the issue. It's enjoyable, and there's a lot of very well-crafted parts, but it's a mess overall.

6/10