Poltergeist

Poltergeist is the kind of horror film people reach for when they want a house-haunting story with a clean, high-strung setup. By our assessment, it works best as uneasy genre craft: ordinary rooms, children, TV static, and the sense that the threat has already seeped into the home. The limit is that it leans on familiar haunted-house machinery, so the impact comes more from execution than from surprise. In practice it plays like a steady build of dread rather than a film built on fast shocks alone, which is why it has stayed so visible in horror talk. Compared with later horror that goes more extreme or more self-aware, this one stays closer to a blunt, mainstream scare pattern. It suits viewers who want a classic haunted-house shape and do not mind older effects showing their age, and it leaves less room for anyone looking for modern slickness.