Steven Spielberg, at the beginning of the '80s, was very busy, primarily with finishing the filming of "Raiders of the Lost Ark".

Even before starting filming the film, Steven had a fixed thought: to make the sequel to “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”.

Steven, at the end of the 70s, had written a story called “Night Skies” where it told of the meeting between eleven extraterrestrial scientists who come into contact with an American family, all contextualized in a horror way and the director wanted to use this story to build the sequel to the famous film.

We arrive in 1982 where MGM decides to produce a film whose story is made by Spielberg himself and whose direction is entrusted to Tobe Hooper (already famous for “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” in 1974).

The story of this new film (still untitled) should follow that of “Night Skies” but Hooper tells Spielberg that he is not interested in extraterrestrials but would be inclined to use ghosts as protagonists.

Spielberg accepts and reworks the story by placing as protagonist a very normal American family made up of Steve (father), Diane (mother) and her three children Dana, Robbie and little Carol Anne who take possession of the new house in the Cuesta Verde neighborhood in California.

The actors will all prove to be up to the task: from Craig T. Nelson to Jobeth Williams, from Zelda Rubenstein (extraordinary in the role of the medium) to little Heather O'Rourke who with this film and the next will become a small star.

The film will prove to be an authentic jewel of tension: 

• Hopper demonstrates that he is in a state of grace by not missing any shots and managing to manage the timing in an absolutely perfect way;
• Spielberg manages to create a balanced screenplay but which in the second part becomes pure horror with an almost unsustainable increase in pace and tension;
• the Maestro Richard Edlund (of Lucas' ILM) created cutting-edge SFX for that time (the one with the slice of meat is famous...);
• the actors all look perfectly in the part (and, in this regard, Jobeth Williams he said he had nightmares for months after finishing filming, both the first and the subsequent ending of the second film);
• the presence, albeit momentary, of Zelda Rubenstein is extraordinary and steals everyone's show when she is present .

The film will prove to be a great success (121 million dollars in total takings) which will lead to a sequel "Poltergeist II" shot in 4 years later and directed by Brian Gibson, always with the same actors where you will have access to the other dimension, that of ghosts.

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“Poltergeist” is a seminal film, without ifs or buts, having inspired many other productions, both cinematographic and television, and therefore has a role of primary importance in the horror sector.

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There are many iconic sequences in the film, thanks to a really great Toobe Hopper.