FAQ for
Poltergeist (1982) More at IMDbPro »

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags have been used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.

For detailed information about the amounts and types of (a) sex and nudity, (b) violence and gore, (c) profanity, (d) alcohol, drugs, and smoking, and (e) frightening and intense scenes in this movie, consult the IMDb Parents Guide for this movie. The Parents Guide for Poltergeist can be found here.

No. The screenplay for Poltergeist was co-written by screenwriters Michael Grais and Mark Victor along with American film-maker Steven Spielberg (who also co-produced the movie). Spielberg has admitted that the idea for Poltergeist came from an episode of The Twilight Zone: Little Girl Lost (#3.26) (1962). The success of Poltergeist inspired two sequels, Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986) and Poltergeist III (1988), collectively known as the Poltergeist series. Poltergeist was subsequently novelized by American writer James Kahn.

Literally, poltergeist can be translated as "noisy ghost," from German poltern "to make noises" + geist "ghost." The typical poltergeist story is characterized by noises, moving furniture, breaking dishes, etc., usually when no one is looking. At first, the poltergeists in the film are fairly benign, performing such pranks as bending forks, breaking a glass, moving and stacking the kitchen chairs. As the movie progresses, however, they become much more malevolent.

Rumors that Poltergeist is cursed began just months after the movie's release when 22-year old actress Dominique Dunne (who plays the elder Freeling daughter Dana) was strangled by her jealous boyfriend, suffered brain death, and died five days later. Rumors intensified when, six years later, 12-year old Heather O'Rourke (who plays the younger Freeling daughter Carol Anne) died suddenly of septic shock due to intestinal stenosis (a narrowing of the intestine that causes partial blockage). Two other actors who appeared in Poltergeist II also died within the six years after Poltergeist was released.

As has been often noted, there seems to be a bit missing between when Diane is explaining to Steven about the "sliding phenomena" in their kitchen and when they suddenly appear on their neighbors' doorstep; the scene cuts right in the middle of Diane's line. The first draft of the script contained this additional material:

DIANE You can't believe the feeling.

STEVE What's the gag? There a magnet back there?

He looks behind the door in the dining room. Nothing. Steve just stands for a long moment in hapless silence, then...

STEVE I hate Pizza Hut! Where's supper? I don't understand, Diane. What the hell's going on around here?

Steve sidesteps the chalk marks, removing himself from the active area.

DIANE I figured I'd never explain it to you. So I showed you instead, but don't ask me how or what. Just help me figure out what to do.

STEVE You mean there's no gimmick?

DIANE Not from inside the house. Maybe Tuthill got himself a super remote from the Radio Shack.

Carol Anne adjusts her helmet and sits inside her launch circle. Diane and Steve are having the discussion across the room and aren't aware of her.

STEVE Maybe the shakeup and this thing...relate.

DIANE No shit.

CAROL ANNE Daddy, look at me!!

They turn but it's too late. Carol Anne shoots across the room faster than before, and with no one to catch her.

ANGLE-KITCHEN WALL

At a sickening speed her helmet smashes into the wall. Diane SCREAMS. Steve runs over. An eight-inch hole in the wall and the cracked plastic on the helmet testify to the force of impact. Carol Anne is dazed but unhurt.

CAROL ANNE You promised pizza.

It has been speculated, though without any official corroboration, that this scene was later trimmed to remove the disparaging remarks about Pizza Hut, who objected.

It was a diversion to keep everyone away from Carol Anne by making the storm look like a tornado. When the tree pulled Robbie (Oliver Robins) out of the bedroom and lodged him in its trunk, parents Steve (Craig T. Nelson) and Diane (JoBeth Williams) and sister Dana hurried outside to free him, leaving Carol Anne alone. The poltergeists were then able to create a windtunnel that sucked Carol Anne into the closet and into their dimension.

In some systems of belief about the afterlife, the transition from life to death is through a tunnel that leads to a light. To follow that tunnel and go into the light is to pass into the afterlife with no hope of returning to one's earthly life. For this reason, the scientists do not want Carol Anne to go into the light.

Spiritualist Tangina (Zelda Rubinstein) explains to the Freelings that the ghosts are attracted to Carol Anne because she is a living presence to them. The ghosts haven't yet learned to go forward (i.e., into the light) in their own deaths. Carol Anne's strong lifeforce is luminescent, and the ghosts see her as a reminder of the lives they once lived.

Because there is another presence there...the Beast. The Beast, who appears to Carol Anne as a child and a friend, is using her luminescence to keep the ghosts away from the light, to keep them trapped in the nether plane with him. She does attempt to coerce them into the light, but Steven interrupts her, mistakenly believing her words are meant for his wife and daughter.

With a rope tied around her waist, Diane enters the closet that leads to the nether plane. The Beast suddenly roars up, causing Steven to drop the rope. Fortunately, one of the scientists has hold of the rope's other end and is able to pull Diane and Carol Anne out of the nether, both covered with ectoplasm and not breathing. Diane and Carol Anne are taken into the bathtub and washed clean of ectoplasm. They both begin to breathe again. That night, they are attacked by The Beast. Diane runs outside for help and falls into the newly-dug swimming pool. Suddenly, corpses start arising from the ground. Diane is rescued by her neighbors. Diane runs up to Robbie and Carol Anne's bedroom to find that the Beast has created another wind tunnel in the closet and is trying to suck them into the nether plane. Diane saves Robbie and Carol Anne by making them all join hands, and then she pulls them into the hallway. Steven and his boss, Mr Teague (James Karen), returning from tying up a few things at the office, pull up to the house and witness the pandemonium and the corpses rising from the ground. Steven realizes that his house was built over a cemetery where only the headstones, not the bodies, were removed. Steven rescues his family and they drive off, leaving Mr Teague to witness the collapse of the Freelings' house. In the final scene, the Freelings check into a motel, first rolling the television out of the room.