Is Poltergeist Scary? The Verdict and the Whole Plot
Somewhat, 4 out of 10. It's a haunted-house movie with jump scares and a television that will not behave.
🐱THE SCARE SIGNAL
SCARE SCORE
4 /10
🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱
DREAD LEVEL
Low
It fades by morning, though you may look at your television a little longer than usual.
DOG
Dog: fine
fine, no dog dies.
Ruling: Fine for a group movie night, as long as nobody is planning to buy a house with a closet.
Poltergeist runs 93 minutes, and a family buys a house because it fits their price range. Nobody asks what the house was built on.
The premise, briefly
A family moves into a house built over an old cemetery, and the spirits in the walls take an interest in their youngest daughter and the television.
How much do you want to know?
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The verdict above is spoiler-free. Everything below, including the ending, stays hidden until you pick a depth.
🐱CUT TO THE CHASE
How it ends
The family gets Maddy back from the other side, and Carrigan enters the vortex to guide the spirits toward the light. The Bowens run while the house is wrecked. At the end they tour another house with a big closet and an old tree, and drive away.
The scene you're dreading
The second night, early in the movie. While the parents are at dinner, a corpse's hand grabs Kendra's ankle, a doll attacks Griffin, a tree pulls him through a window, and Maddy is drawn into her closet and taken.
The dog
No dog dies in Poltergeist.
It is a jumpy haunted-house story with a rescue plot, and once you know the family gets Maddy back, the fear loses most of its grip.
THE SHORT VERSION IS HIDDEN
How it ends, the scene you're dreading, what happens to the dog, and the bottom line. About twenty seconds to read.
What actually happens
A house with a bargain price and a box of clowns
The Bowen family finds a house that fits their price range and buys it. It turns out the house sits on an old cemetery, and the developer was meant to move the bodies and apparently did not finish the job. On the first night there are noises in the walls, and nine-year-old Griffin finds a box of clown dolls that someone left at the house. Later the lights and gadgets start switching on and off by themselves, as if something is passing through the house. Griffin gets up and finds Maddy, his six-year-old sister, in the living room chatting with the static on the television. She tells him someone is coming. When he pulls the plug, the lights go haywire, and Maddy touches the screen and announces that they are here.
This is the scene people dread most, and it comes early. Eric and Amy go out to dinner and leave their three children at home. Kendra, the sixteen-year-old, hears a sound in the laundry room, the floor cracks, and a corpse's hand grabs her ankle before she pulls free. The clown dolls start moving, and one attacks Griffin, who destroys it and runs. He tells Maddy to stay put while he looks for Kendra. Maddy is drawn into her closet by the light of her lamp and a stuffed toy, and she ends up in a black void while ghosts pull her away. Branches from a willow outside grab Griffin through a window and haul him out, and they let go when his parents come near. Maddy is gone.
The ghost hunters bring a toy drone
Maddy's voice comes out of the television, and when Amy touches the screen, Maddy's static hand meets hers. Amy and Griffin visit the paranormal research department, where staff set up equipment and put GPS trackers on everyone. An installer named Boyd gets a scare from the spirits while he drills into Maddy's closet wall. Eric breaks the closet wall, and a broken piece of table he throws into the void drops back into the living room, which shows there is a way through. The lead investigator phones Carrigan Burke, her ex-husband, who is an occult specialist with his own television show. He says Maddy may be a psychic and that the angry ghosts want to use her to leave purgatory, because only the headstones were moved. They send a rope into the vortex, try a toy drone, and Griffin finally goes in himself.
A flipped car and a house that goes up as a beam of light
Griffin finds Maddy in the void, and the two get back out through the portal even though the ghosts try to cut the rope. The family piles into the car to leave, but the ghosts pull them back and flip the car, and they try once more to take Maddy. The family stops it. Carrigan decides that he has to enter the vortex himself and walk the spirits toward the light. The Bowens run from the neighborhood while the spirits wreck the house and shoot upward in a pillar of light. Dr. Powell and her team later find Burke's GPS tracker in the ruins. The Bowens go house hunting, and a realtor shows them one with generous closets and an old tree out back. They drive off.
The ending, explained
The Bowens escape the neighborhood with Maddy while the spirits wreck the house and shoot upward in a pillar of light. Carrigan went into the vortex to guide the spirits out, and his GPS tracker is found afterward in the wreckage. Later he is shown hosting his ghost program again with Dr. Powell. As the Bowens search for a new home, a realtor shows them a house with lots of closet space and an old tree out back. They look at it and drive away. The family is out of the house for good.
The post-credits ruling
Nobody has confirmed whether there is a scene after the credits, so staying is a gamble.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: fine, no dog dies.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is Poltergeist scary?
Poltergeist is a 4 out of 10, with low dread. It has jump scares, a hand in the floor and a closet that leads somewhere bad.
How does Poltergeist end?
The Bowens rescue Maddy and escape as the spirits destroy the house and rise as a beacon of light. Carrigan goes into the vortex to guide the ghosts, and the family later turns down another house with a big closet.
Does the dog die in Poltergeist?
No dog dies in Poltergeist.
Is there a post-credits scene in Poltergeist?
Nobody has confirmed whether Poltergeist has a scene after the credits, so you can stay or leave.
Why are the ghosts after Maddy in Poltergeist?
Carrigan explains that Maddy may be a psychic who can speak to spirits. The ghosts are angry because only the headstones from the old cemetery were moved, and they want to use her to escape purgatory.
BLURRED FOR YOUR PROTECTION
The whole plot of Poltergeist is hidden, ending included. It stays that way until you ask.
You don't have to sit through 93 minutes of Poltergeist to know what happens. Install Scaredy Cat and it will blur the rest of the internet's horror for you.
