So I re-watched Poltergeist again and HOLY CRAP, what an utterly TERRIFYING film. I don't remember it being anywhere near that scary when I last rewatched it in '15 before seeing the remake. When I was a kid (I started watching horror movies very early, like 5 years old, and this was one of my first introductions to the genre since it was PG), I was always traumatized by the face rip-off scene and the worm scene in part 2, and some of the imagery, tone and environments in part 3. It's a movie I can say I've watched alot, at least 20-30 times, part 2 a lot less (maybe 2-3 times), and part 3 I've oddly seen a lot too, maybe because it was on TV the most and we had it recorded on VHS (10-15 times).
I don't know why this specific last time worked so well on me. Maybe it's because I'm older and I can imagine that family element a bit better, and how exactly that situation could be so scary. For me, this was on the level of The Exorcist, and I think it's been underrated all these years for not being a more prominent fixture in the horror realm. Maybe it's because it has a lot of that Spielberg whimsy with the music, but the scary parts are genuinely unnerving. And the last 15 minutes is absolute chaos, one of the best horror climaxes I've ever seen. I don't know why I neeeevver recognized it, maybe I was just so used to it before. It's something I'd watch on a yearly basis, but I took a 3 year break from it since the time before the remake.
I can now say I am absolutely 10 times more THRILLED for this series to come to HHN. With the event in mind, there's so many things I can see working and I think it'll be a phenomenal maze and hopefully this year's best. Everyone should definitely give it a re-watch sometime soon.