Terrifying ‘cursed’ 80s horror film arrives on Amazon Prime Video

An iconic 80s horror film dubbed ‘devastating’ and ‘frightening’ has finally arrived on Amazon Prime Video.

Poltergeist, released in 1982, follows the story of a suburban family whose lives are turned upside down when a malevolent spirit kidnaps their daughter.

The Freeling family—made up of Steve (Craig T. Nelson), Diane (JoBeth Williams), teenaged Dana (Dominique Dunne), eight-year-old Robbie (Oliver Robins), and five-year-old Carol Ann (Heather O’Rourke)—seemingly have the perfect life: a happy family, successful careers, and a bright future.

But one night, Carol Ann begins communicating with a ghost through their TV set, which initially seems playful and friendly, but things take a sinister turn when the youngster goes missing.

Based on a screenplay by Steven Spielberg and directed by Tobe Hooper, Poltergeist was a massive hit at the box office and was nominated for three Academy Awards.

The film was followed by Poltergeist II: The Other Side in 1986, Poltergeist III in 1988, and a 2015 remake.

It has long been branded a cursed film due to the sheer amount of unusual phenomena that occurred on set, as well as the death of Heather O’Rourke in 1988.

O’Rourke was just 12 years old when she died of congenital stenosis of the intestine complicated by septic shock on February 1, before filming of the third film wrapped.

Poltergeist currently holds an 88% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the critics’ consensus reading: ‘Smartly filmed, tightly scripted, and—most importantly—consistently frightening, Poltergeist is a modern horror classic.’

The Times hailed the film as ‘a masterclass in creeping suburban horror’, while ChrisStuckmann.com said it is ‘One of the most fun haunted house movies ever made.’

Boston Globe wrote: ‘[It] raises interesting psychological issues in the context of a baroque ghost story.

‘It’s a devastating commentary on the tv-oriented suburban lifestyle. Finally, it demonstrates the power and efficacy of the story told from the child’s point of view.’

Looking back at the film in 2007, Slant Magazine added: ‘After a quarter-century, Poltergeist remains one of the most popular movies whose reputation rests almost exclusively on behind-the-scenes diversions.’

Meanwhile, The New York Times said: ‘Poltergeist is like a thoroughly enjoyable nightmare, one that you know that you can always wake up from, and one in which, at the end, no one has permanently been damaged. It’s also witty in a fashion that Alfred Hitchcock might have appreciated.’

Speaking about the making of the film in 2010, Hooper explained more about the strange happenings on set that have made Poltergeist so legendary.

‘Almost everyone got injured. I used a cane through, like, half of the picture,’ he began.

‘I woke up one night with a leg cramp. I don’t know if you’ve ever had a cramp in your leg when you wake up, and you start beating on the cramp. And after an hour, it didn’t go away. And the cramp was so bad it pulled all the ligaments; it pulled the tendons away from the bone. So I had to walk with.

‘But that was a minor injury compared to some of the injuries. No one was killed in the making of the film, but something happened to everyone.’

Poltergeist is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.

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