The family's home seems to be suffering from evil spirits spreading in the place. The ghosts haunted the small family on an ongoing basis. The chase began in a friendly and simple way, but things began to expand and turn into clear threats of kidnapping and murder. When the little boy was out of the house, both parents turned into a telepathic doctor for the return of their missing son, and eventually they would eventually become people dedicated to exorcists.
"Poltergeist" is a lot more dedicated to its cause than most viewers today are probably used to. It builds to something of value. That may not make it the most profound film of its genre by any stretch, but it does make it one of the most memorable.
Poltergeist is like a thoroughly enjoyable nightmare, one that you know that you can always wake up from, and one in which, at the end, no one has permanently been damaged. It's also witty in a fashion that Alfred Hitchcock might have appreciated.
Radio Times
September 11, 2013
Hooper's direction may lack its usual edgy personality -- apparently over-ruled by Spielberg's script suggestions -- but he puts on a dazzling show, and the intuitive performances are uniformly on the panic button.
Hooper and Spielberg hold our interest by observing the everyday rituals of this family so closely that, since the family seems real, the weird events take on a certain credibility by association.
EmanuelLevy.Com
February 19, 2013
Spielberg, here credited as producer as co-writer, shows the other (darker) side of suburbia in this horror film, made in the same year as the superior E.T.
