Poltergeist (1982 film)/Nightmare Fuel


 * If you're a kid, the scenes with the evil clown puppet and the carnivorous tree are straight out of Hell. If you're a parent, the mother's struggles to reach her endangered children, as corpses pop up out of the pool and floors all around her, are even worse. And the bit where the researcher  gets to everyone.
 * What about when the giant flaming skull pops out of the portal in the closet?
 * And the simple fact that it all unfolds in somebody's home, not out in the woods or whatever, is pretty creepy. How many people who watch this for the first time can avoid looking suspiciously at their closet doors for several nights?
 * The iconic scene where one of the paranormal crew members dreams of ripping his own face off.
 * Critics initially blew off this movie as "not scary enough" because nobody gets killed messily. But seriously - ask any parent how they would feel to see their five-year-old dragged off by malevolent spirits, unable to reach them or stop it. I'll see your chopped-up corpse and raise you parental love for a child.


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