Steve Freeling

"We just want you to find our little girl."

- Steve Freeling

Steve Freeling is the main protagonist of the first two Poltergeist movies. He is played by Craig T. Nelson.

Poltergeist
Steven and Diane Freeling live a quiet life in a California planned community called Cuesta Verde, where Steven is a successful real estate developer and Diane is a housewife who cares for their children Dana, Robbie, and Carol Anne. Carol Anne awakens one night and begins conversing with the family's television set, which is transmitting static following a sign-off. The following night, while the Freelings sleep, Carol Anne fixates on the television set as it transmits static again. Suddenly, an apparition blasts from the television screen and vanishes into the wall, triggering a violent earthquake in the process. As the shaking subsides, Carol Anne announces "They're here."

Bizarre events occur the following day: a drinking glass spontaneously breaks; silverware bends; and furniture moves of its own accord. The phenomena seem benign at first, but quickly begin to intensify. That night, a gnarled backyard tree comes alive and grabs Robbie through the bedroom window. While Diane and Steven rescue Robbie before the demon tree swallows him, Carol Anne is sucked through a portal in her closet. The Freelings realize she has been taken when they hear her voice emanating from a television set.

A group of parapsychologists from UC Irvine — Dr. Lesh, Ryan, and Marty — come to the Freeling house to investigate and determine that the Freelings are experiencing a poltergeist intrusion. They discover that the disturbances involve more than just one ghost. Steven also finds out in an exchange with his boss, Lewis Teague, that Cuesta Verde is built where a cemetery was once located.

After Dana and Robbie are sent away for their safety, Dr. Lesh and Ryan call in Tangina Barrons, a spiritual medium. Tangina states that the spirits inhabiting the house are lingering in a different "sphere of consciousness" and are not at rest. Attracted to Carol Anne's life force, these spirits are distracted from the real "light" that has come for them. Tangina then adds that among these ghosts, there is also a demon known as the "Beast", who has Carol Anne under restraint in an effort to manipulate the other spirits.

The assembled group discovers that the entrance to the other dimension is through the children's bedroom closet, while the exit is through the living room ceiling. As the group attempts to rescue Carol Anne, Diane passes through the entrance tied by a rope that has been threaded through both portals. Diane manages to retrieve Carol Anne, and they both drop to the floor from the ceiling, unconscious and covered in prenatal-like fluids. As they recover, Tangina proclaims afterward that the house is now "clean".

Shortly thereafter, the Freelings begin the process of moving elsewhere by packing up their belongings. During their last night in the house, Steven attends a meeting with Teague, while Dana goes on a date, leaving Diane, Robbie, and Carol Anne alone in the house. The "Beast" then ambushes Diane and the children, attempting a second kidnapping. Though at first trapped in the house, Diane and the children eventually escape to the outside only to discover coffins and rotting corpses erupting out from the ground in their yard and throughout the neighborhood. As Steven and Dana return home to the mayhem, Steven realizes that rather than relocating the cemetery for the development of Cuesta Verde, Teague merely had the headstones moved and the bodies left behind, desecrating the burial grounds. The Freelings flee Cuesta Verde while the house itself implodes into another dimension, to the astonishment of onlookers. The family checks into a hotel for the night, and Steven shoves the room's television outside onto the balcony.

Poltergeist II: The Other Side
Four years after the events of Poltergeist, Cuesta Verde, the Freelings' neighborhood from the first film, is being evacuated and turned into an archeological paranormal dig, centered around the spot where the Freelings' home stood before it imploded. The excavation leads to the discovery of an underground cave by a ground crew. Its existence is revealed to psychic Tangina Barrons (Zelda Rubinstein), who tells a friend of hers, Taylor (Will Sampson), a Native American shaman. After investigating the cave for himself, Taylor realizes that Kane (Julian Beck), a deceased, insane preacher, has located Carol Anne and goes to defend her.

The Freeling family, Steven (Craig T. Nelson), Diane (JoBeth Williams), Robbie (Oliver Robins), and Carol Anne (Heather O'Rourke), has relocated to Phoenix, Arizona and now live in a house with Diane's mother, Jessica "Grandma Jess" Wilson (Geraldine Fitzgerald). Having lost his real estate license, Steve is reduced to selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door while filing repeated insurance claims to cover the missing home. Grandma Jess is highly clairvoyant, and says that Diane and Carol Anne are clairvoyant as well. Grandma Jess later dies from natural causes, but not before telling Diane one last time that she'll always "be there" if she needs her.

Taylor shows up as Kane begins his first assault on the home. Unable to get in through the television as the family has removed all television sets from the home, Kane's minions are forced to find another way in, this time through Carol Anne's toy phone. The attack fails, and the family gets out of the house quickly. Taylor introduces himself and convinces them that running would be a waste of time since Kane would only find them again, and they return to the house, which Taylor has made safe for the time being.

Kane himself shows up at the home one day in human form, and demands to be let in, but Steven stands up to him and refuses. Taylor congratulates him for resisting Kane, and then takes Steve out to the desert and gives him the Power of Smoke, a Native spirit that can repel Kane. Tangina shows up at the house and helps Diane to understand the history of Kane and how he became the Beast that is now stalking the family: he was once a man, the Reverend Henry Kane, who led his followers into the cave because he believed the end of the world was coming, then leaving to die after the date he predicted came and went. Because he was so evil, Kane became a monster after death. Taylor warns the family that Kane is extremely clever, and will try to tear them apart.

One night, Steven lets his guard down and gets drunk, swallowing a Mezcal worm that is possessed by Kane, who temporarily possesses him. He attacks and tries to rape Diane, who cries out that she loves him. Steven then vomits up the worm possessed by Kane, which grows into a huge, tentacled monstrosity. In this form Kane attacks Steven from the ceiling, but Steven uses the smoke spirit to send him away. The Beast then decides on another assault, and this time, the family decides to confront the Beast on his own turf, the Other Side.

The Freelings return to Cuesta Verde and enter the cavern below their former home, where Kane pulls Diane and Carol Anne over into the Other Side. Steven and Robbie jump in after them through a fire started by Taylor. On the Other Side, Steven, Diane, Robbie, and Carol Anne unite, but Kane (now an horrifying, gigantic monster) grabs Carol Anne. Taylor gets a charmed Indian lance into Steven's hands, and Steven stabs Kane with it, defeating the monster and causing him to fall into the afterlife. Carol Anne nearly crosses over into the afterlife as well, but Grandma Jess' spirit appears and returns her to the family. The Freelings then return safely to The World of the Living, and thank Taylor and Tangina.