The TV People
Poltergeist tells the story of a family, the Freelings, whose home is invaded by spirits that seem to come from the TV set. Initially, it isn’t clear what exactly they want, or what exactly they are. But the youngest Freeling child, Carol Anne, is fascinated by them.
As the Freeling family settles into their new home, they begin to experience strange and frightening paranormal phenomena. These events escalate, causing chaos and terror within the household. The once tranquil and happy suburban environment of Cuesta Verde becomes the epicenter of unexplainable and malevolent forces. The ghosts are just mischievous at first, rearranging furniture and bending forks.
They used the TV as their portal. A portal is a door in that it grants access to something or some place. The spirits could not gain access into the home unless someone opened the door for them. When she is literally spirited away—into the TV—to be with them, the family turns to a university team of parapsychologists for help.
After a particularly unsettling session with the spirits, the team brings in a psychic, Tangina. Under Tangina’s direction, the family mom, Diane, crosses over to the other side and retrieves her daughter. The house is now supposedly clean of supernatural forces, but the family still thinks it would be best to resettle. The night they pack up to move, the spirits return with a vengeance, not through the TV this time, but from the ground below the house.
It turns out the Freelings’ subdivision was built on a cemetery. The company that developed the subdivision told the Freelings that the cemetery had been moved, but really that was just a cosmetic gesture. The tombstones were moved, but the bodies were left behind. And they are not at rest. At the end of the film, the family flees as the house implodes.
