It uses pretty much the same plot as the 1982 film, but the social context is different. The 1982 Poltergeist wasn’t exactly the world’s most original film – Steven Spielberg basically threw together a bunch of elements from 1970s made-for-TV ghost stories (The House That Wouldn’t Die, Something Evil, This House Possessed, etc) and handed them over to Tobe Hooper to ramp up into a fun, effects-heavy spook ride. Like most things devised by Spielberg, it’s a collection of bits and pieces he likes – Nigel Kneale’s short story ‘Minuke’, the Twilight Zone episode ‘Little Lost Girl’ – blended with unashamed hokeyness. If it had a high concept it was that a bland new suburban house could be haunted, if it were built on a graveyard. Despite a couple of dud sequels, it remains a name-brand horror property – there was even a remote TV spin-off, Poltergeist: The Legacy – and so it inevitably gets a remake for the Insidious generation from Sam Raimi’s Ghost House shingle. NB: these are my notes on the film, not a review – so you might not want to read them if you’ve not seen it yet.
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