Description
In Poltergeist, Jeremy Dennis stages an eerie domestic encounter: a man in a mirror, unaware of the Native American figure standing silently behind him. Like a spectral presence, the figure is both haunting and present, conjuring the unsettling realization that one’s home may not be entirely theirs. Referencing the horror genre’s classic haunted house trope — where the past refuses to rest — Dennis infuses the image with layered symbolism about the American home, ownership, and the uneasy foundation of stolen land.
The mirror becomes a threshold between what is seen and what is repressed. The man’s inability to notice the figure behind him speaks to the cultural invisibility imposed on Native people, even as their presence remains inescapable. *Poltergeist* suggests that the conflict over land is never truly resolved; it lingers in the architecture of place, in memory, and in the stories we tell ourselves about belonging. Through this subtle horror, Dennis reminds viewers that you are never alone in your home — especially when that home is built on displacement.
