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Synopsis:
The Bowen family, comprised of Father Eric, Mother Amy and the children Kendra, Griffin and youngest Daughter Maddy, are in the aftermath of Eric losing his job and the family losing their last home, move into a new home.
At first the kids, especially Griffin, aren’t too happy with the move and before they can settle in properly, strange things start happening upstairs, mainly in Maddy’s bedroom.
Review:
I was soooo against this movie when I heard about its production. I rated the 1982 original at 90%... it isn’t perfect, but is a classic horror adventure with charm and charisma in bucketloads.
Well, the finished product here with this remake, is something of a hit and miss affair tbh.
Poltergeist is yet another product of its time. Lots of effects, hollow plot/script writing and shallow characters, not enough running time for explanations or build-ups and relies on quick-fire, generic shocks to make its impression on the audience.
The film contains many nods to the original though. An electrified bannister rail, strange things that move around on their own while the camera wasn’t looking (ala-dining chairs but in this case it’s comic books), the kid wanting a night-light, a lightning storm and a scary tree… however, blankets of CGI are no substitute for the time, effort and pure skill of the original movie’s effects wizards who made that scene with the dining chairs possible (along with other scenes of course).
The thing I said above about the running time, is that the original movie had a build-up. It starts small with the occasional big hit of shocks or scares and then got larger as it went on.
In this film, the ghosties are all-powerful from the immediate get-go but appear to be hiding their true strength unless it suits the moment.
It’s as though the filmmakers wanted to get straight into the big stuff as quickly as possible, and sadly it destroys any credibility and atmosphere that the movie could have had, and, even sadder is that it destroys what was potentially a pretty atmospheric and spooky movie.
What I mean is, sure there are a couple successful scenes that try to build up atmosphere and spookiness… for instance the brilliantly scary hide-behind-a-pillow clowns scene... but the next scene afterward, or the scene leading up to it, are so shallow that anything these decent scenes have just becomes, well, a trailer moment and nothing more.
The film also seems to have small pieces of dialogue lifted from all 3 of the original movies too. There’s just well, no charm with this remake.
The acting… well… let’s start with Rockwell as the Dad Eric.
What. A. Let. Down.
This is by far one of the worst turns I’ve ever seen from possibly my most favourite actor of the past few years with exception to Tom Hardy.
Rockwell is wooden, plays it by the numbers, and actually has an air about him as if he doesn’t believe in the production. It’s like he doesn’t want to be there.
Rosemary DeWitt as Mother Amy, well, let’s just say she’s no JoBeth Williams. Bland, uninteresting, wooden at times and also has that air of not-wanting-to-be-there.
Kyle Catlett is best on show as Son Griffin… and by a long, long, long way. He’s charismatic (though with a couple wooden deliveries of lines)… but Kyle makes this film believable in certain stages when some of the spooky shenanigans are kicking off.
Jared Harris is our psychic expert on the spooky happenings… and seems more of a gimmick than anything else as a battle-scarred Irishman. Harris plays it straight though to try and be as believable as he can be, which is a nice touch… but the poor writing of his character simply knowing immediately what to do and what’s going on, (without the sheer magnetism that Zelda Rubinstein brought to the original role), makes for yet another shallow and unbelievable character for the audience to not care about.
The rest of the cast, including Saxon Sharbino and Kennedi Clements are really just backup roles tbh and have little to no impact on the story, plot, atmosphere or viewer really.
Clements, who is our rewritten Carol Anne is also, sadly, underused massively.
The effects and action… well, as I said there’s very little atmosphere with one or two scenes that are successful, but the photography and general choreography are pretty good and certainly up to modern standards.
The bad writing lets it all down though and, like I said before, buckets of CGI is no match for practical effects.
All in all, it’ll be a good film if you haven’t seen the original… lacking any kind of charisma, badly written character-wise and hollow in the plot and zero to no build-up at the start.
If you have seen the original, you’ll enjoy the occasional nod to the 1982 movie but overall, when it comes to remaking Poltergeist and having this as the finished product… you will inevitably wonder why they did it.
I will say though, if you can, watch the Extended Cut. It has a couple extra scenes that make some of the lacklustre scenes a little more, well, interesting.
My Rating: 37%
Review #246, Movie #317
Year Of Release
2015
Director/s
Gil Kenan
Producer/s
Roy Lee, Sam Raimi, Robert G Tapert
Writer/s
David Lindsay-Abaire, Steven Spielberg
Music
Marc Streitenfeld
Cast
Sam Rockwell, Rosemarie DeWitt, Jared Harris, Jane Adams, Saxon Sharbino, Kyle Catlett, Kennedi Clements, Nicholas Braun
Year Of Release
2015
Director/s
Gil Kenan
Producer/s
Roy Lee, Sam Raimi, Robert G Tapert
Writer/s
David Lindsay-Abaire, Steven Spielberg
Music
Marc Streitenfeld
Cast
Sam Rockwell, Rosemarie DeWitt, Jared Harris, Jane Adams, Saxon Sharbino, Kyle Catlett, Kennedi Clements, Nicholas Braun
The Bowen family, comprised of Father Eric, Mother Amy and the children Kendra, Griffin and youngest Daughter Maddy, are in the aftermath of Eric losing his job and the family losing their last home, move into a new home.
At first the kids, especially Griffin, aren’t too happy with the move and before they can settle in properly, strange things start happening upstairs, mainly in Maddy’s bedroom.
Review:
I was soooo against this movie when I heard about its production. I rated the 1982 original at 90%... it isn’t perfect, but is a classic horror adventure with charm and charisma in bucketloads.
Well, the finished product here with this remake, is something of a hit and miss affair tbh.
Poltergeist is yet another product of its time. Lots of effects, hollow plot/script writing and shallow characters, not enough running time for explanations or build-ups and relies on quick-fire, generic shocks to make its impression on the audience.
The film contains many nods to the original though. An electrified bannister rail, strange things that move around on their own while the camera wasn’t looking (ala-dining chairs but in this case it’s comic books), the kid wanting a night-light, a lightning storm and a scary tree… however, blankets of CGI are no substitute for the time, effort and pure skill of the original movie’s effects wizards who made that scene with the dining chairs possible (along with other scenes of course).
The thing I said above about the running time, is that the original movie had a build-up. It starts small with the occasional big hit of shocks or scares and then got larger as it went on.
In this film, the ghosties are all-powerful from the immediate get-go but appear to be hiding their true strength unless it suits the moment.
It’s as though the filmmakers wanted to get straight into the big stuff as quickly as possible, and sadly it destroys any credibility and atmosphere that the movie could have had, and, even sadder is that it destroys what was potentially a pretty atmospheric and spooky movie.
What I mean is, sure there are a couple successful scenes that try to build up atmosphere and spookiness… for instance the brilliantly scary hide-behind-a-pillow clowns scene... but the next scene afterward, or the scene leading up to it, are so shallow that anything these decent scenes have just becomes, well, a trailer moment and nothing more.
The film also seems to have small pieces of dialogue lifted from all 3 of the original movies too. There’s just well, no charm with this remake.
The acting… well… let’s start with Rockwell as the Dad Eric.
What. A. Let. Down.
This is by far one of the worst turns I’ve ever seen from possibly my most favourite actor of the past few years with exception to Tom Hardy.
Rockwell is wooden, plays it by the numbers, and actually has an air about him as if he doesn’t believe in the production. It’s like he doesn’t want to be there.
Rosemary DeWitt as Mother Amy, well, let’s just say she’s no JoBeth Williams. Bland, uninteresting, wooden at times and also has that air of not-wanting-to-be-there.
Kyle Catlett is best on show as Son Griffin… and by a long, long, long way. He’s charismatic (though with a couple wooden deliveries of lines)… but Kyle makes this film believable in certain stages when some of the spooky shenanigans are kicking off.
Jared Harris is our psychic expert on the spooky happenings… and seems more of a gimmick than anything else as a battle-scarred Irishman. Harris plays it straight though to try and be as believable as he can be, which is a nice touch… but the poor writing of his character simply knowing immediately what to do and what’s going on, (without the sheer magnetism that Zelda Rubinstein brought to the original role), makes for yet another shallow and unbelievable character for the audience to not care about.
The rest of the cast, including Saxon Sharbino and Kennedi Clements are really just backup roles tbh and have little to no impact on the story, plot, atmosphere or viewer really.
Clements, who is our rewritten Carol Anne is also, sadly, underused massively.
The effects and action… well, as I said there’s very little atmosphere with one or two scenes that are successful, but the photography and general choreography are pretty good and certainly up to modern standards.
The bad writing lets it all down though and, like I said before, buckets of CGI is no match for practical effects.
All in all, it’ll be a good film if you haven’t seen the original… lacking any kind of charisma, badly written character-wise and hollow in the plot and zero to no build-up at the start.
If you have seen the original, you’ll enjoy the occasional nod to the 1982 movie but overall, when it comes to remaking Poltergeist and having this as the finished product… you will inevitably wonder why they did it.
I will say though, if you can, watch the Extended Cut. It has a couple extra scenes that make some of the lacklustre scenes a little more, well, interesting.
My Rating: 37%
