Twentieth Century Fox
I’ve been looking forward to the remake of Poltergeist because the trailer and the TV spots had given me hope that the familiar bits from the original would be there, especially that spooky clown, and they’d amp up the scares with some new stuff as well.
In this version, the Bowen family (the names have been changed from the original) are looking for a new home after losing their previous abode. Dad Eric (Sam Rockwell) has recently lost his job, so the family needs to downsize to something more affordable. They end up in a neighborhood that was hit hard by foreclosures, so the house may not be in the best condition but it is in their price range. The family moves in and before they even get settled, strange things begin to happen culminating with the disappearance of youngest daughter Maddie (Kennedi Clements). The family calls in a team of parapsychologists who then call in a TV ghost hunter to bring Maddie back, but can they tackle the forces of evil?
Poltergeist wastes no time in letting us get to know the family before the activities begin. We just get character sketches. Dad has to be the bread-winner so he refuses to let his wife Amy (Rosemarie DeWitt) get a job. Oldest daughter is a bratty, entitled teenager, middle son is afraid of his own shadow, youngest girl has imaginary friends and talks to the closet doors. We never really get to know the Bowens long enough to fear or care for them when the spirits start to attack. What’s worse is that some of the adult actors, especially Rockwell, seem like they would rather be anywhere else than on that set.
A lot of the humor from the original film is gone too. Amy doesn’t really get to spend any time with the leader of the parapsychology team (Jane Adams), so there’s no funny business of chairs stacking themselves while mom nonchalantly goes about with her chores. Instead there’s just a little throwaway bit about how everyone gets a shock when they touch the wooden banister. Another of the key scenes from the original also involving the mother — the hallway that seems to stretch itself — is also gone. There’s not even a fake out moment when you think the movie is over but there’s a lot more to come. This time, it ends and you feel like everything happened so quickly that there must be more. But there isn’t. End credits.
There is one moment in the film that seems to scream “there is a whole lot missing here” when Eric, who we have just seen trying to buy squirrel traps with over-the-limit credit cards, comes home with armloads of gifts including a new iPhone for the oldest daughter, a quad-copter with video camera for the boy, and expensive earrings for his wife. There is absolutely no explanation for how Eric managed to acquire all of these item, but for the fact that the phone and the copter are necessary plot devices for the movie.
Poltergeist isn’t bad, just disappointing. tweet
That’s not to say that the movie is bad, it’s just disappointing for pretty much anyone who is familiar with the original. Little Kennedi Clements probably give the best performance, and if you squint a little she even resembles the original Carol Ann a bit, but with brown hair. The special effects and the 3D are also quite good, but overall it just felt like it was missing half the movie. If you’ve never seen the original, then you just may like this one, and if you have you might find it lacking something as well.
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