Poltergeist is a tremendously overrated movie. I watched it again the other day for the first time in 20 years and had the exact same reaction as the first time. The plot simply doesn't hold together.
There are too many elements introduced in the story, or hinted at, and many of them are never explained properly or "paid off" later. It's classic mediocre scriptwriting. Steven Spielberg is a terrific director, but a middling writer. He wrote this story, about some of his childhood fears and recollections, and the movie plays like a disjointed series of set pieces, which are only partially related by a poorly thought-out framing story.
First it's about unsettled ghosts. Then it's hinted in one scene that Satan is involved somehow. This, and how it relates to the ghosts, is never explained. Then corpses start breaking through the ground. So why now, some 6-7 years after the house was built over the graves? Where have all these spirits been for 7 years?? Again, this is never explained. And why only in this one house, if the whole subdivision was built over the graves? And what's the deal with the tree that grabs the son and tries to devour him? Can anyone tell me what the hell this has to do with the rest of the story as it plays out, because I sure can't! Just another action set piece.
And in classic bad script fashion, the characters suddenly start acting clueless in order to further the action. After all that's just happened, the family decides to spend one more night in the house and the mother lets her children sleep in the same room which was the center of all the evil?? OH, PLEASE! Even Tobe Hooper's direction is slow and plodding, and many of the scenes just don't pack the wallop they should. IMDb states that Spielberg held Hooper back, so this may not have been his fault, but it's still a problem with this movie.
I'm sorry if these complaints seem nit-picky, but I don't think they are. Any good movie, including a good horror one, needs to be coherent and have things make sense and be understandable. Poltergeist simply has too many irons in the fire and it comes off as disjointed and unsatisfying.
There are too many elements introduced in the story, or hinted at, and many of them are never explained properly or "paid off" later. It's classic mediocre scriptwriting. Steven Spielberg is a terrific director, but a middling writer. He wrote this story, about some of his childhood fears and recollections, and the movie plays like a disjointed series of set pieces, which are only partially related by a poorly thought-out framing story.
First it's about unsettled ghosts. Then it's hinted in one scene that Satan is involved somehow. This, and how it relates to the ghosts, is never explained. Then corpses start breaking through the ground. So why now, some 6-7 years after the house was built over the graves? Where have all these spirits been for 7 years?? Again, this is never explained. And why only in this one house, if the whole subdivision was built over the graves? And what's the deal with the tree that grabs the son and tries to devour him? Can anyone tell me what the hell this has to do with the rest of the story as it plays out, because I sure can't! Just another action set piece.
And in classic bad script fashion, the characters suddenly start acting clueless in order to further the action. After all that's just happened, the family decides to spend one more night in the house and the mother lets her children sleep in the same room which was the center of all the evil?? OH, PLEASE! Even Tobe Hooper's direction is slow and plodding, and many of the scenes just don't pack the wallop they should. IMDb states that Spielberg held Hooper back, so this may not have been his fault, but it's still a problem with this movie.
I'm sorry if these complaints seem nit-picky, but I don't think they are. Any good movie, including a good horror one, needs to be coherent and have things make sense and be understandable. Poltergeist simply has too many irons in the fire and it comes off as disjointed and unsatisfying.