Go Google Ghostbusters! The Freeman family has a full-fledged poltergeist in their flat screen TV, and the video is going viral on YouTube!

You’ll find more treats than tricks in Stark Turn Players’ annual Halloween horror movie parody, which opened Thursday for a small crowd of 24 at Dog Story Theater in Grand Rapids. Continuing through Sunday, this year’s production propels Stephen Spielberg’s 1982 “Poltergeist” into the gender-bending, high-tech world of the new millennium.

Adapted by Jacqueline Frid, the parody follows a similar plot. Slimey slick real estate guru Stanly Freeman (Eric Orive) moves his video-game-addicted wife Dina (Beth Schaub) and squealing kids Carly Anne (Julia Steudle) and Dobby (Kassandra Dill) into a brand spanking new subdivision built on an old graveyard. Spirits are soon talking to Carly from the television and making pots and pans dance in the kitchen, which mom thinks makes great video for posting to Facebook until the spirits turn sinister and kidnap Carly.

The two-hour, two-act show opens with a snappy song, “The Setting,” with original music and lyrics by Julia Yob. While they sing, the ensemble moves in the set pieces to transform the open space into a living room. As the tempo builds, the song asks “How bad can it get?”

Unfortunately, the remaining musical numbers, though fun and entertaining, never quite reach the promise of that strong opening number. There are a couple of  small original songs early in Act I, but the second act borrows music, including a sexy dance to “The Stripper” by David Rose, and a sassy song to introduce the exorcist, Leslie Barrows, that’s a slightly revised version of the “Damn Yankees” hit “Whatever Lola Wants.”

Nevertheless, accompanist Mark Moran keeps the cinematic feel to the action with plenty of bluesy underscoring.

All of the performances are strong, especially the adults who portray the children. Julia Stueudle, wearing footie flannel jammies and a bow in her hair, is easily believable as a wide-eyed, innocent child, even though she’s closer to six foot than she is to 6-years-old. It’s especially funny when she jumps into her mother’s arms.

Kassandra Dill also has no trouble taking on the boyish mannerisms of the paranoid Dobby, whose “Trust No One” T-shirt sums up his personality. Although Dill is convincingly a boy, the script uses her gender shift as part of the humor when inquisitive Dobby questions whether the exorcist is male or female.

In the second act, Anessa Johnson and Ian Brown provide polished portrayals of Dr. Letch and Leslie Barrows respectively, but their work in the first act as the masked and swaying tree outside the children’s window was especially intriguing.

The masks by Jacqueling Frid and projections by Steven Schwall are well done and add to the storytelling. For the most part, however, stagecraft in “Poltergeist” is pretty basic, including a dancing spoon still dangling on a wire from the ceiling long after the tea table had been removed and the show was into the next scene.

The pace is too slow to ever be scary. The ending exorcism isn’t suspenseful or surprising. But then that’s part of the fun of parody. It never takes itself too seriously.