The origin of Poltergeist can be traced to Night Skies, which Spielberg conceived as a horror sequel to his 1977 film Close Encounters of the Third Kind; Hooper was less interested in the sci-fi elements and suggested they collaborate on a ghost story.

[3] Accounts differ as to the level of Spielberg's involvement, but it is clear that he was frequently on set during filming and exerted significant creative control.

Steven is a successful real estate agent, and Diane looks after their three children: sixteen-year-old Dana, eight-year-old Robbie, and five-year-old Carol Anne.

The following day is filled with bizarre events: a glass of milk spontaneously breaks, silverware bends, and furniture moves on its own.

A large limb crashes through the children's bedroom window, grabs Robbie, pulls him outside into the pouring rain and attempts to devour him.

After saving Robbie from the tree, which got sucked into a tornado, the family frantically search for Carol Anne, only for her voice to call out from the television.

Meanwhile, Steven learns from his boss Lewis Teague that the Cuesta Verde development was built on a former cemetery and the graves were moved to a nearby location.

Tangina also detects a dark presence she calls the "Beast", who is restraining Carol Anne and manipulating her life force in order to prevent the other spirits from crossing over.

Accompanied by Teague, Steven arrives home to the mayhem and realizes that only the gravestones were relocated; the development was built over the abandoned graves.

Michael Grais and Mark Victor had written an unproduced comedy called Turn Left And Die and the action film Death Hunt, when Steven Spielberg decided to invite them to possibly work with him.

After screening A Guy Named Joe for them and saying he wanted to remake that film—which he would in 1989's Always—Spielberg also mentioned a ghost story idea he intended to turn into a script.

[12] According to Tobe Hooper, the core concept of the film was an idea he pitched to Spielberg after turning down the offer to direct Night Skies.

This view was bolstered by various statements Spielberg made about his involvement, including a Los Angeles Times quote on May 24, 1982: "Tobe isn't ... a take-charge sort of guy.

"[14] That same article noted that the Directors Guild of America had opened an investigation into the "question of whether or not Hooper's official credit was being denigrated by statements Spielberg has made, apparently claiming authorship.

"[12] The week of the film's release, The Hollywood Reporter printed an open letter from Spielberg to Hooper: Regrettably, some of the press has misunderstood the rather unique, creative relationship which you and I shared throughout the making of Poltergeist.

I enjoyed your openness in allowing me, as a writer and a producer, a wide berth for creative involvement, just as I know you were happy with the freedom you had to direct Poltergeist so wonderfully.

"[19] In a 2012 Rue Morgue article commemorating Poltergeist's 30th anniversary, interviews were conducted with several cast and crew members.

The Poltergeist franchise is believed by some to be cursed due to the premature deaths of several people associated with the film (including Heather O'Rourke and Dominique Dunne),[36] a notion that was the focus of an E!

On April 8, 1997, MGM Home Entertainment released Poltergeist on DVD in a snap case, and the only special feature was a trailer.

The re-release was billed as having digitally remastered picture and sound, and a two-part documentary: They Are Here: The Real World of Poltergeists, which makes extensive use of clips from the film.

"[50] Vincent Canby of The New York Times called it "a marvelously spooky ghost story" with "extraordinary technical effects" that were "often eerie and beautiful but also occasionally vividly gruesome.

"[51] Andrew Sarris, in The Village Voice, wrote that when Carol Anne is lost, the parents and the two older children "come together in blood-kin empathy to form a larger-than-life family that will reach down to the gates of hell to save its loved ones.

"[52] In the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, Peter Rainer wrote: Buried within the plot of Poltergeist is a basic, splendid fairy tale scheme: the story of a little girl who puts her parents through the most outrageous tribulation to prove their love for her.

Gene Siskel gave the film one-and-a-half stars out of four, writing that Poltergeist "is very good at getting the details of suburban life right—in other words, it sets its stage beautifully—but when it comes time for the terror to begin, the whole thing is very, very silly.

"[54] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post observed that the film "looks and feels decidedly patchy, as if it had been assembled by different hands frequently working at cross purposes.

"[55] Sheila Benson of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "In terms of simple, flat-out, roof-rattling fright, Poltergeist gives full value.

[60] In 1986, Poltergeist II: The Other Side retained the family but introduced a new motive for the Beast's behavior, tying him to an evil cult leader named Henry Kane, who led his religious sect to their doom in the 1820s.

Poltergeist III, released in 1988, finds Carol Anne as the sole original family member living in an elaborate Chicago skyscraper owned and inhabited by her aunt, uncle and cousin.

In the 2006 Family Guy episode "Petergeist", Peter Griffin discovers an Indian burial ground when he attempts to build a multiplex in a backyard.

[74] Poltergeist was the subject of walk through attractions at both Universal Studios Orlando and Hollywood's annual Halloween Horror Nights event.