High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Poltergeist movies are a trilogy of American horror films distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer during the 1980s. The films revolve around the members of the Freeling family, who are stalked and terrorized by a group of ancient ghosts that are attracted to the youngest daughter, Carol Anne. The original film was co-directed and co-written by Steven Spielberg. The Poltergeist films collected a total of approximately $132 million in the United States box office.