After my glowing review for the original film from yesterday, I feel a bit bad about following up on the sequel with a much more negative review - especially since (spoilers!) tomorrow's review of the third and final Poltergeist film will be more positive than this one. What can you do, though? Sometimes a great film is followed by a not-so-great sequel. Especially in horror.
Poltergeist 2 (I am not using Roman numerals for the entirety of this review - I like the patience or the energy) follows the Freeling family as the try to recover from the events of the first Poltergeist. The eldest daughter is no longer present or mentioned (for depressing real life reasons I will not go into), but the other four are living with Diane Freeling's mother (Geraldine Fitzgerald, giving this movie its best performance in what amounts to a cameo role). They are in dire financial straights, as insurance refuses to pay for the loss of their house and Steve (Craig T. Nelson) is no longer selling real estate.
Neither director Tobe Hooper or producer Steven Spielberg return for this sequel, which almost certainly is what damned it to mediocrity. Despite some well-done special effects (the Tequila Monster is easily best-in-show), most of the film feels cheap - looking older and less well done despite coming four years later and with almost double the budget. The returning cast all tries their best, but the magic is gone. Nelson gives a sweaty, effortful performance that only works occasionally, and despite large amounts of the expanded 'lore' of the movie focusing on Diane's side of the family, JoBeth Williams isn't given much outside a single scene involving a picture and the returning Tangina (Zelda Rubinstein).
New villain Henry Kane (Julian Beck), the reverend leader of a cult of people who also died in Cuesta Verde under the Freeling house, is well cast and menacing enough, but the final confrontation feels rushed and almost anticlimactic. Other than the above mentioned monster, the final moments against Kane are probably some of the best visual effects of the movie.
Other than that though, the movie is mostly a retread of the original, to much less effect. Other than Kane and Gramma Jess, the only other new character is Taylor (Will Sampson, tasked to play a variation of the Magical Indian trope) - and none of them have arcs within the movie, so much as they are human props to push the story forward. Even then, almost nothing new is given to the Freeling family, and what little there is doesn't get enough attention to really merit mentioning.
The movie is watchable, at least. Nothing great happens, but at the very least it moves at a good pace and keeps your interest. But it's very much the one that I would skip when rewatching the trilogy.
5 out of 10... maybe 6 if I am feeling generous.
No comments:
Post a Comment