 "Poltergeist (25th Anniversary Edition)" | 2010-01-26 |
| - Reviewed By Arnita D. Brown from USA |
While living an an average family house in a pleasant neighborhood, the youngest daughter of the Freeling family, Carol Anne, seems to be connecting with the supernatural through a dead channel on the television. It is not for long when the mysterious beings enter the house's walls. At first seeming like harmless ghosts, they play tricks and amuse the family, but they take a nasty turn they horrify the family to death with angry trees and murderous dolls, and finally abduct Carol Anne into her bedroom closet, which seems like the entrance to the other side.
Poltergeist is quite the genuine horror thriller. It pulls you inside its devious mind like the little girl being sucked into the white noise of the television portal. The characters are believable and the suspence hits you stone cold, like a boxer's right jab in your face. Poltergeist is certainly one of the most influential supernatural movies of its generation. Poltergeist will shake your norms and rattle your soul.
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| "It's baaaaack....." | 2009-11-23 |
| - Reviewed By Susan C. Parks from Highland, CA United States |
| Just wanted to upgrade from VHS to DVD. The movie was filmed on our street and its cool to see our house a few months new. Steven Spielberg was interesting to watch. At one point he sat in his director chair, in the street (filming was up and down the street) and the kids gathered around. He really tuned into the kids. He asked our son who his favorite director was. Without missing a beat, our son said, "George Lucas". Spielberg laughed aloud. Of course, it was always all about Star Wars from the moment he saw that film. An Army veteran, it still is! |
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| "They are heeere... again. This time in Blu-ray" | 2009-11-22 |
| - Reviewed By xyzzy from Arlington, Texas |
Nothing like giving older films the Blu-ray treatment and allowing a second or third life.
The Freeling family live in a cozy suburb. They are not alone. They live with an old tree that loves tasty children and an assortment of TV people. Their young daughter Carol Anne Freeling goes for a visit beyond the pale. This is just the beginning.
The movie is a classic; many of the things we know about Poltergeists actual came from this movie.
My favorite scene is when they move into a motel and jettison the Twanky.
If you are not familiar with a Twanky, It is more of a TV that has a tendency to follow you here and there.
American Dreamer 1984: I Love the 80's Edition
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| "A true ghost story classic that stood the test of time!" | 2009-10-03 |
| - Reviewed By John from Socorro, New Mexico USA. |
It seems like a typical suburbs with the Freeling family in California, the young 5 year old daughter Carol Ann (Heather Rouke) seems to be communicating with people in the TV. The parents named Diane and Steve (JoBeth Williams and Craig T.Nelson) are skeptical about the odd behavior going on at the house such as chairs moving by themselves, lights turning on and off on their own and plenty of other weird things, even the son Robbie (Oliver Robins) and teenage daughter Dana (Dominque Dunne) are weirded out by strange things in the house. It seems the house does have secrets from the past left untold including being near the cemetery as these ghosts seem friendly and playful at first. Later it turns out they abduct little Carol Ann into a vortex inside the house trapping her in as they purposely terrorize the family. They hire some paranormal experts (Beatrice Straight, Martin Casella and Richard Lawson) including a dwarfish psychic named Tagina (Zelda Rubinstein) to bring her back and clean the house of spirits.
Terrifying and original supernatural horror drama from writer-producer Steven Spielberg and director Tobe Hooper is one of the greatest horror movies of all time. It's based on Spielberg's old childhood fears even of ghosts then turned into a screenplay that got approved by MGM then directed by Tobe Hooper as it took nearly a year and a half to make, in June of 1982 along with Spielberg's phemeoneal ET sweeping the box-office by storm this movie came along and also became one of the highest grossing and most critically acclaimed movies of the year. Brilliant acting by the cast that even launched the career of Craig T. Nelson, excellent special effects that hold up today, a memorable score by Jerry Goldsmith and jolts galore in this non-stop rollercoaster ride of pure thrills and scares.
This Blu-Ray offers one hell of a transfer with terrific sound as it's in a book with a mini-behind the scenes look at this remarkable motion picture with a 2 part Documentary on actual poltergeists and the trailer. |
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 "Reviewing the blu-ray content, not the movie" | 2009-10-01 |
| - Reviewed By An Amazon User |
1. I love this film, and this review is not a review of the film.
Okay...that out of the way. The extra features are horrible. No commentary? No behind-the-scenes?
The only extras are a couple documentaries about real life ghost hunting, which in my book equates to nothing.
However, the remastering is decent enough to warrant rebuying on blu-ray if you're a big fan of the film. |
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 "Great Blu-Ray...but not perfect" | 2009-09-27 |
| - Reviewed By The Completist from Missoula, MT |
Most Blu-Rays are either great (The Road Warrior) or terrible (The Ninth Gate), so it's rare when I find one that underperforms juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust a little bit; even a Blu-Ray with virtually NO special features has a magnificent picture (The Dark Knight) or some other compensation.
POLTERGEIST is one of these.
The transfer is great. I was 2 when it came out so I never got to see it as a big-screen experience and it is a revelation to see it as such: I liked this movie before and I LOVE it now. However, the transfer's not the problem...it's the master. I don't think they cleaned the film sufficiently when they struck the master because there's noticeable dirt and pinprick abrasions throughout the film: it's not terrible, or even plain bad...but if you are a videophile like me, it can be a bit unnerving. The worst part is the living room scene where they first speak to Carol Anne: there's a series of faded vertical scratches through the middle of the screen throughout the entire scene...I would have hoped they'd notice that and paint it out, but they didn't. Thankfully the scratches are thin and faint (and they don't show up again) so they're not unbearable, but they are irritating. The film is grainy, but in the good way (1980s film stock wasn't as sharp as it is today) although some grains seem a little larger than others at times...but I can't prove it.
As for special features, well, I think POLTERGEIST is never gonna have the special features it deserves due to the whole Spielberg/Hooper controversy, so I won't get my hopes up. Basically the picture reminds me of first generation DVDs of classic movies (the first Road Warrior DVD comes to mind)...much better than VHS, but it could be improved/cleaned up.
Colors, tones, blacks and all that other stuff seem to be fine. Aside from the maintenance issue, I don't see any other problems with this transfer and at $20 right now is a great find. |
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