Poltergeist

Poltergeist (1982) starts in an ordinary American suburban house and reveals what is underneath it. The Freelings live on a new estate. Their small daughter Carol Anne starts talking to the television after it goes off air. Then the furniture moves, the tree in the garden comes through the window, and the girl vanishes into a cupboard. Her voice still comes out of the television. The best idea in it is placing the fear in familiar things: a clown toy, television static, a tree, a swimming pool. The estate turns out to have been built on a cemetery; the developer moved the headstones and not the graves. So the villain is not a supernatural entity but the wish to save money. The muddy pool scene entered film history. The skeletons in that pool were not props. Real human skeletons were used, for a simple reason: at the time, having plastic replicas made cost more than the real thing. JoBeth Williams did not know while she was filming it; she found out after the scene was finished. The film's makeup effects supervisor Craig Reardon confirmed it years later, under oath in a deposition. The directing credit is still argued over. The credit reads Tobe Hooper; Spielberg produced and wrote. Spielberg was contractually barred from directing another film while working on E.T., and how large his role on set was has been disputed for decades. It runs 114 minutes. Good for: eighties horror, suburban dread, and classics. Less good for: a child is in danger throughout and some effects show their age.