I remember watching this quite young because it was a popular movie when I was a kid and my whole family watched it, I think. Of course, I identified with the boy in the film and I even had a tree outside my bedroom window.
Click here for a list of all other films reviewed and considered for this October 2012 series of horror reviews
My memories of Poltergeist
resonate from my childhood when I was scared almost senseless by the
supernatural spirits that haunt the Freeling household in a California suburb.
As I watched it again many years later I realized that probably as a child I
saw my own family in the Freelings. There’s Diane (JoBeth Williams), who is a
housewife raising three kids: the teenaged Dana (Dominique Dunne); middle child
Robbie (Oliver Robins) and the five or six year old Carol Anne (Heather O’Rourke).
Steven (Craig T. Nelson) is a local realtor and stalwart Dad who wants to
protect his family. I must have been about Carol Anne’s age when I first saw
the film. I have an older brother and sister just like she does and my parents
were also in their mid-30s back then. I even had a large tree growing outside
my bedroom window just to cap off the similarities.
