Poltergeist – review

I come to praise Poltergeist, not to bury it.

The good reviews that movies get, lives long after their release;

The bad ones are oft deleted along with their authors;

So let it be with Poltergeist. The noble Spielberg, its writer n producer

Hath told us that Poltergeist was an ambitious project:

If it were so, it was a great vision

And greatly has Poltergeist been received.

Here, under leave of Spielberg and the rest—Director Tobe Hooper, cast, crew and other learned critics,

For Spielberg is an honourable man;

So are they all, all honourable men–

Come I to speak in Poltergeist’s 25^th anniversary edition DVD pick celebration

It was my expectations and dreams being crushed before me:

But Spielberg says it was an ambitious project;

And Spielberg is an honourable man.

The story speaks to us about the couple – Freelings who were leading a happy life in a suburb home

Whence, bizarre and inexplicable incidents begin to happen there

The little daughter hath declared that she could speak to ghosts through a television set. A television set?
Did this in Poltergeist seem ambitious?

Then maybe to make it seem more ambitious, the little girl had been showed to be kidnapped by the ghosts through a closet door, – a portal

Or was it this that seemed ambitious?

The Couple were then shown to consult Parapsychologists to rescue their daughter who now spoke to them through the television set!!!

And When that the ghost had been shown appearing in their hi tech equipments as techni-coloured ray like beings, I had wept in frustration,

I had wept further more when the parapsychologist roped in a medium too who spoke at length about confused spirits not finding the portal to the next dimension and a bad spirit, called the Beast, and wept the most at the outrageous climax of corpse and skeletons exploding from the swimming pool.

Ambitious horror projects should be made of chillier stuff:

Yet Spielberg says it was ambitious project;

And Spielberg is an honourable man.

You all did see that on the Oscars

In three sections, it was nominated (not in the major categories)

And In which thrice it was refused, was this ambition that Spielberg spoke?

Yet Spielberg says it was an ambitious project;

And, sure, he is an honourable man.

I speak not to disprove what Spielberg spoke,

But here I am to speak what I do know.

You all did love me once, not without cause:

What cause withholds you then, to mourn for my state?

O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,

And men have lost their reason. Bear with me;

My heart is in the coffin away from the DVD of Poltergeist,

And I must pause till it come backs upon me to complete watching the rolling credits.

GC verdict: Alright! That was quite harsh on my part and my due apologies to The Bard of Avon, Shakespeare and Spielberg, but I think I had raised my expectations too high on hearing it to be from the house of Spielberg. Secondly as the movie was made in 1982, by the time I saw it i.e now, the special effects, this must have been special back then, had paled in front of recent ones like Grudge, Gothika etc. It did not even have the subdued menace and chill of old timers like Exorcist and Psycho, hence I did not find it impressive in spite of its box office success and critical acclaim.

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