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... and not only do I realize that M. Night Shyamalan stole the whole "dead people who don't know they're dead and communicate with a small child" plot from Poltergeist but the freaking Cloverfield monster comes from there, too!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZE9KZBYsko&feature=related

At about 8:06, the ghosts form into a creature which looks a whole lot like the Cloverfield monster.  At around 8:16-8:30 you get some real good looks at it.  It's skeletal, has very long skinny arms, has the same basic head profile.

Man, who would have thought?

Good points.  I've always felt Poltergeist was one of those films that was ahead of it's time.  Although it may not have excelled in special effects, it had simple scares that worked 100 times better than most of the shlock Hollywood pumps out nowadays. 

I agree, and I think they hit home with a lot of people with things like the whole clown scene. The way TV entered the plot, a signal-less TV in an otherwise dark room, for me anyways, makes me think of the movie whenever It's late and the cable goes out or such. Definitely ahead of it's time, it's about the only movie I know of that some friends of mine weren't allowed to watch because of how scary it was. Not language, or gore, or nudity, just simply fear. It's as much about what they DIDN'T show as what they did. They didn't show Carrol-Ann dismembered or all bloodied up, she was there, seemingly unharmed, but of uncertain fate. I really liked the sequel, the third one, not so much.

Poltergeist is a family film in a way that's mostly lost today.  These days, "family films" tend to be completely inane (you know, because kids are stupid) but with a lot of sexual innuendo thrown in for the adults to "get".  Poltergeist, on the other hand, is simply a movie that can scare the s**t out of the entire family!

Most reviews I read talk about how the movie is "for kids", with monsters in the closet and killer trees outside the window, but a monster in the closet or a tree that eats you ought to be scary for an adult, too!  Just look at the guy peeling his face off.  Watch the scene where JoBeth Williams falls in the swimming pool pit at the end.  That's sure as hell not just for kids!

If anything, now that I'm old enough to think about it a little more deeply, Poltergeist is even scarier than I remember it being when I was a wee lad.

(http://www.otherkidspacklunch.com/WindowsLiveWriter/poltergeist_thumb.jpg)

Is that the monster ?
It's good, ain't it ?

I'd recommend you give Poltergeist 2 a look.
However, AVOID THE THIRD ONE AT ALL COSTS!!!!.
I wonder if the third has been reviewed on the site...

Yep, that's the one, although either that image or the youtube clip are mirrored for some reason, likely the image sincethe clip has a shot if a moving van with the lettering displayed correctly.

Also, 3 wasn't that bad IIRC, it just wasn't the same, and wasn't as good.

Also, has anyone read anything about Dominique Dunne, she was the older sister. She was choked to death in her own driveway by an ex-boyfriend, whom she already had a restraining order against, and the guy does a total of around six years for it. Sad, apparently she did an episode of Hill Street Blues where she portrayed someone that had been abused, and they didn't need much makeup because she was already bruised up from him.

I'd argue that parents shouldn't show this to a kid.  For myself, this film's scares rank up there with that of the Exorcist.  Yes thats a bold statement but for myself I'd probably have less goosebumps watching Linda Blair rotate her head 360 than that damn clown scene. That scene is easily one of the most brilliant shot scene in movie history.  We've all had that god awful thing in our room we swore was going to get us one day as kids.  Of course my fear of clowns plays into that scene as well. 

The guy peeling his face off was definitely something a kid shouldn't see.  There are a lot of adult orientated scenes throughout   During the clown attack scene, the mother arguably gets sexually molested by a naughty spirit.  It starts by lifting her shirt up and tossing her around the room for a bit.  Then theres the whole pot smoking thing which I never understood as a child.  Perhaps the most tame scene is the one involving the tree eating the kid.  Even that is nightmare inducing. 

That movie had great pace, and good buildup.

The way the kid is creeped out by the clown for nights on end, and keeps tossing the blanket on his face... and then one night, it just doesn't take. 

I don't see anything wrong with showing Poltergeist to children my mum showed it to me when I was a kid and I loved it.
Except the clown bit...
Scary...

Saw POLTERGEIST new in the theatre in 1982.  At the time, the effects were great, and though it is largely a light-show, it's never boring.  I am a fan of TOBE HOOPER films.  If I had a complaint with this film, it'd be it breaks rules, and goes way over the top by the end (but certainly in a way audiences would enjoy!)  I think in our jaded "post rock" age POLTERGEIST can easily fit into the slot of "Family Film," but in its day the film challenged that purpose, and won out, a huge hit.   

Akiratubo, the idea of child medium to dead unawares was not novel when POLTERGEIST was made; I'll simply mention THE INNOCENTS but there are other examples.  I'd say M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN mined the usual sources, but created a film with a unique perspective. 

True, but The Sixth Sense explains the ghosts in almost exactly the same terms as in Poltergeist.  The scenes in question even take place between a little boy and a psychologist in both films.