| “ | YOU SON OF A BITCH! YOU MOVED THE CEMETARY BUT YOU LEFT THE BODIES, DIDN'T YOU!? YOU SON OF A BITCH, YOU LEFT THE BODIES AND YOU ONLY MOVED THE HEADSTONES! YOU ONLY MOVED THE HEADSTONES! WHY!? WHYYY!? | „ |
| ~ Steve Freeling angrily berating Lewis Teague for disturbing the dead. |
The Poltergeists are the titular secondary antagonists of the 1982 horror film Poltergeist and its 2015 remake. Angry and confused, these souls latch onto the life force of a young girl known as Carol Anne after having their original gravesite violated by the careless actions of Lewis Teague and are further controlled by "the Beast" (an alias of Reverend Henry Kane) into causing havoc on the mortal plane: they are based on the evil spirits of legend.
History[]
Original[]
The ghosts never show themselves in person but manifest in many frightening ways, most notably with poltergeist-activity (hence the name of the film). They also begin to employ increasingly dangerous and diversionary tactic including actual kidnapping while isolating other members of Freeling family. What began as a seemingly innocuous paranormal activity from ghosts soon turns into outright hostility when ghosts abduct Carol Anne Freeling into their dimension, inflicting lots of griefs to Freeling family in the process. The ghosts also create several "minions" to do their bidding - such as the Clown Doll and the Tree, though Reverend Henry Kane likely had some input in these events due to his exceptional power as a demon.
Desperate to reclaim their youngest daughter, Freeling family calls parapsychologist trio named Lesh, Ryan and Marty from University of California, Irvine for help. When the three parapsychologists arrive to Freelings residence, the poltergeists have taken a great toll on the family. After series of paranormal episodes and more hostile acts from ghosts, remaining Freeling children are sent away for their safety. Lesh informs Freeling family, that she is leaving with Ryan to bring a reinforcement but Marty, who are petrified after being the most victimized of the trio by ghosts' abuses, would not be returning. Later that day, Steve Freeling is approached by his boss, Lewis Teague, about a promotion. The new project will involve selling lots on a newly acquired hilltop parcel of land that currently houses a cemetery. When Mr. Freeling balks at the idea of relocating the graveyard, his boss simply shrugs it off, explaining that the company had done it before, in the very neighborhood where Freeling family now resides.
Lesh returns with a renowned spiritual medium named Tangina Barrons, a diminutive person who immediacy Steve is doubtful about her ability, and is rather quickly proven that he's wrong. Tangina informs Freelings, Lesh, and Ryan that Carol Anne is alive and in the house, much to everyone's relief. And Caroline's life force is very powerful, but that life-force of hers is keeping the ghosts from passing on. The souls for whatever reason are not at rest. They look to Carol's living presence as a way of remembrance of their lives, and the joy it gave them.
Tangina then explains about the entity behind the darker deeds taken place in the Freeling house. While ghosts have been mostly not bad, the sinister deeds (the skeletal hand, the growling wind, the possession of the tree, and Marty's attacks etc.) have been orchestrated by what Tangina calls 'The Beast': a powerful spiritual entity which has been corrupting other ghosts to use their spiritual skills for power, enticing them with the promise of the presence of Carol Anne.
The reassembled group discovers that while the entrance to the other dimension is through the children's bedroom closet, the exit is through the living room ceiling. After hatching a childish but very feasible plan the group sends Mrs. Freeling to bring back Carol Anne. It was an incredibly risky procedure that almost killed Carol and her mother, but while Carol is being taken away from the clutches of ghosts Tangina coaxes ghosts away from Carol Anne and convinces them to pass on to the afterlife. Carol Anne is once again at the hands of Freelings. Tangina announces that the spirits are gone.
However, although most ghosts moved on to the afterlife, the Beast did not. Wanting to exact vengeance after losing the life force of both the ghosts and Carol Anne, on the family's final night (when children returned) in the house the Beast ambushes Freeling family once more. Locking the children in their room, attacking Robbie with the thing he fears most, The Beast then isolates Mrs. Freeling. After breaking free she makes her way to the children's room. But the Beast blocks the door to the room. In a panic, Mrs. Freeling tumbles down the stairs while The Beast manages to electrify the railings to prevent her from coming back up. Mrs. Freeling runs to her neighbors screaming for help, only to slip and fall into the unfinished swimming pool, from which coffins and rotting corpses erupt: these corpses are the original bodies of ghosts in the movie. The neighbors, terrified by the unnatural and ghostly energy emitting from Freeling house, refuse to help. Meanwhile, in the children's room, the closet has imploded and turned into a monstrous structure that threatens to suck in Carol Anne, attempting a second shot of kidnapping at Carol. Mrs. Freeling nonetheless manages to pull her children including Carol Anne out from the imploding house. Returning to witness the chaos, Mr. Freeling furiously berates Teague, realising that his boss had only moved the graveyard's headstones and had left the bodies buried in their graves in order to save money on the community's development, which resulted in the ghosts manifesting to exact vengeance for the desecration of their resting place. The Freeling family flee from Cuesta Verde in haste without looking back.
Angry at everything that has happened to them, the ghosts take it upon themselves to finally put an end to the torment by literally spewing forth the contents of the gravesite while also causing the Freeling's home to implode and thus purify their sacred site again: destroying a significant portion of the nearby community in the process. These spirits achieved their own retribution in the end.
But lately, another group of spirits among the ghosts who are completely and they simply followed the will of the Beast. In fact, these spirits are the losts of a Satanic, 19th century utopian cult who will be still after Carol Anne.
Remake[]
Eric and Amy Bowen are a married couple looking to buy a house for themselves and their three children: 16-year-old daughter Kendra, 9-year-old son Griffin and 6-year-old daughter Madison. Eric was recently laid off, but when they are shown a house that has recently come on the market that fits their price range, they purchase it and move in.
The first night, they hear strange noises in the walls and Griffin finds a box containing clown dolls that were left at the house. In the middle of the night, lights and electronic devices start turning on and off, as an unseen force appears to move through the home. The commotion wakes Griffin, and he goes downstairs and finds Maddie talking to an unknown presence inside the television. She tells Griffin someone is coming, and he attempts to unplug the TV, causing the lights to go out of control. Maddie then tells the family "They're here" while touching their TV screen.
The following evening, Eric and Amy go to dinner with their friends, leaving the three children at home. They learn that their house was built on an old cemetery, although the property developer was supposed to have relocated the human remains. Kendra wakes up to a strange sound in the laundry room. While investigating the noise, the floor cracks and a corpse's hand emerges. It begins pulling at her foot, but she manages to pull herself up. Meanwhile, Griffin notices the clown dolls seem to be moving by themselves. One clown doll attacks him, but he destroys it with his foot and runs from his bedroom. He finds Maddie in her room, scared, crouching in a corner, and tells her to stay while he goes to find Kendra. Maddie is then lured by the light from her lamp and her favorite toy into her closet, becoming lost in an unending void. As she turns to see her bedroom drifting away further, she is dragged into the darkness by ghosts. Griffin is grabbed through a window by the branches of the old tree outside their house, which pulls him outside. Amy and Eric arrive home to see Griffin being tossed around in the tree branches, which releases its grip when they come close, while Kendra hysterically tells them she cannot find Maddie.
The family hears Maddie's voice emanating from the television. Amy places her hand on the television screen while Maddie's static hand is seen to be touching Amy's hand from the other side of the screen. Amy and Griffin visit the Paranormal Research department for help. The staff set up equipment in the house and install GPS devices on everyone in the house. During the setup, Boyd has a near-death experience in drilling a hole in the wall, yanked in by spirits by his arm. While trying to contact Maddie, Eric is ambushed in the closet by a ghost resembling her. Angered, he breaks down the closet wall, throwing a section of a broken table into the darkness inside the closet; the table segment falls back into the living room (nearly crushing Griffin), revealing a potential portal for Maddie to escape through. The investigators deduce and confirm that the haunting is caused by a poltergeist. The lead investigator, Dr. Brooke Powell, decides to call occult specialist and television personality Carrigan Burke (revealed, much later, to be Powell's ex).
Carrigan explains that Maddie is a possible psychic, able to communicate with spirits. He reveals that the ghosts are trapped and are angry because only the headstones were moved to the new cemetery, but the bodies remain; they plan on using Maddie "to free them from their purgatory". Carrigan comes up with a plan to get Maddie back. He anchors a rope in Maddie's room and tosses it into the vortex. They attempt to use Griffin's toy drone to guide Maddie out, but it is immediately destroyed by the ghosts when inside the portal. Griffin, guilt-ridden over leaving Maddie alone in the first place, goes through the portal himself. When he finds Maddie, the ghosts attempt to destroy the rope to trap them, but Griffin and Maddie grab onto the rope and fall back through the portal into the house. Both children are unconscious and covered in grey matter, to which Carrigan instructs for them to be washed and they awake.
The family get in their car and begin to leave the house, but the ghosts drag them back into the house and attempt to abduct Maddie again, flipping the car in the process. Maddie is seen being abducted up the stairs. The family saves her from being sucked into the portal, and Carrigan decides that as the only other psychic, he must go into the vortex and lead the spirits into the light. Kendra stamps and destroys the television screen as ghosts' hands are seen, trying to communicate with Maddie. The Bowens flee the neighbourhood as the house is destroyed by the spirits soaring into the sky as a beacon of light. The investigative team run to their equipment, looking for a sign that Carrigan managed to get back.
As the Bowens look for a new house, the realtor shows them a house with much closet space and an old tree in the backyard, but the Bowens drive away laughing. During the end credits, it is revealed that Carrigan survived the incident and is back filming his ghost program, now hosting the show with Dr. Powell.
Gallery[]
1982 film[]
2015 Remake[]
