“They’re here” Synopsis: When a family’s young daughter is kidnapped by ghosts, they must endure a terrifying ordeal to get her back.

Watch now on Amazon

Calamity Brains:

Even for an older horror movie, Tobe Hooper‘s Poltergeist is fairly slow. It runs at almost two hours, which is at least half an hour too long, considering how little actually happens in the movie. The concept for the movie is interesting, but very few of the occurrences following the interesting part (child kidnapped by ghosts and stuck in another dimension) are actually relevant to the girl’s disappearance.

The overall quality of the movie is good – I was pleased with both the acting and the cinematography. But the slow script and mediocre special effects really killed any chance I had of finding the movie worth the watch. The plot also got really generic really fast once it moved on from “my little girl is missing” to “there are restless spirits here.”

It’s not the worst horror flick you’ll see, but there’s little reason to recommend Poltergeist beyond its status as part of a classic franchise.*

*Except for the steak scene. I liked the steak scene.

Calamity Brains’ Rating: C
Watch now on Amazon