If you've never seen the original 1982 Poltergeist, then this movie may be absolutely freaky for newcomers, but for those who have seen the '82 classic, this remake is both fantastic and awful at the same time. Produced by Sam Raimi and Robert G. Tapert, who gave us The Evil Dead films, this reboot and remake is a lot of the same with a couple new twists. When the Bowen family moves into a new home, they discover that their house is atop a burial ground, and is a sort-of conductor for spirits, and in this case, a poltergeist. From here, they're tormented by evil spirits, and it turns into a devilish battle that Eric (Sam Rockwell), the father, must fight to save his family.
The film is largely saved by Rockwell's touching and incredible performance, but there was so much that went wrong. Many of the scares were overplayed or just wanted to be jump-scares, and moments that replicated the original (the infamous bathroom scene) were extremely tame and unimaginative. The visual effects for the most part were believable, and Marc Streitenfeld's score was incredibly haunting and truly brilliant, especially when living up to the masterpiece that Jerry Goldsmith created. Gil Kenan's direction is solid, but the script blows through the material so fast that his vision just doesn't stick.
Poltergeist is certainly an admirable effort, but it needed to embrace the original's roots, scare tactics and slow build instead of sticking with recent horror movie "tropes" like jump-scares and minimal story-telling. If the film were fifteen-twenty minutes longer and had a script rewrite, it could have lived up to the original. But it didn't. See this for $5 if you want a theater experience, but don't expect something mind-blowing. Certainly worth a watch, though.
The film is largely saved by Rockwell's touching and incredible performance, but there was so much that went wrong. Many of the scares were overplayed or just wanted to be jump-scares, and moments that replicated the original (the infamous bathroom scene) were extremely tame and unimaginative. The visual effects for the most part were believable, and Marc Streitenfeld's score was incredibly haunting and truly brilliant, especially when living up to the masterpiece that Jerry Goldsmith created. Gil Kenan's direction is solid, but the script blows through the material so fast that his vision just doesn't stick.
Poltergeist is certainly an admirable effort, but it needed to embrace the original's roots, scare tactics and slow build instead of sticking with recent horror movie "tropes" like jump-scares and minimal story-telling. If the film were fifteen-twenty minutes longer and had a script rewrite, it could have lived up to the original. But it didn't. See this for $5 if you want a theater experience, but don't expect something mind-blowing. Certainly worth a watch, though.