I first watched the original Poltergeist movie from 1982 for the first time just about two years ago. I had heard about it for years but since it was one that came out six years before I was born it was one of my movie blind spots. I was somewhat hesitant to watch it because I was afraid that it would be too dated and not hold up. To my surprise though it was actually very good and one of the best horror movies I had ever seen. Now here we are in 2015 and of course with Hollywood making tons of family in the haunted house horror movies for the last six years it was only a matter of time before the Poltergeist remake was to come into existence. I tried to stay optimistic about it especially since it had a really good actor in Sam Rockwell playing the dad. Unfortunately this new version of Poltergeist doesn’t even come close to being on the same level as the original.
Poltergeist is about Eric Bowen (Sam Rockwell) and his family moving to a run down town and a cheaper house after he loses his corporate job due to cutbacks. The family isn’t very happy about the situation although they try to work with what they have. Unfortunately weird things start to happen with the youngest daughter Madison (Kennedi Clements) and her older brother Griffin (Kyle Catlett) is the only one that seems to notice at first. One night the parents go out and leave the oldest daughter Kendra (Saxon Sharbino) to babysit and the three kids are attacked separately by random strange occurrences. By the time the parents get home they realize that Madison is missing and they can somehow randomly communicate with her through the blurry TV.
I really don’t want to compare this movie too much to the original, but honestly it is impossible not to. I’m not one of those people who is completely against remakes. I think every now and again a remake is warranted for an older movie especially if it didn’t come off very well the first go around. The problem with this remake though is that it is a remake of a true horror classic. In some ways I felt it tried to be it’s own movie although the only things that make it interesting are aspects that we saw done better in the original. The original is very good at creating tension and taking it’s time to building up to the chaos while this movie is a lot shorter and feels as though they just gloss over a lot of the aspects that made the original great. For example the clown doll scene in the original is one of the most memorable scenes in cinematic history. Here in this movie it seems like they do it way too early in the movie and it just isn’t done nearly as well.
I was mostly okay with the cast. Sam Rockwell is decent although for how good he is it sort of seems like they waste his talent a little bit here. His character comes off as sarcastic and he pulls off the “middle aged gone through the wringer and just lost his job” dad look pretty well, but his performance just seems to be a bit too dry. The rest of the cast’s performance is fine as well and they do pull off a certain chemistry based off sarcastic humor. One of the best things about the movie were the little comedic touches sprinkled throughout. Unfortunately the comedic moments are very few and far between and we are mostly just left with what feels like a lazy remade movie that just goes through the motions. I feel like they tried to make this movie different, but I honestly think they would have been better off if they had just remade it exactly the same scene for scene.
I can’t say I hated this movie or anything, but I sure as hell didn’t like it all that much either. I’ve been getting really tired of these family in a haunted house movies and my hope is that Hollywood cools it with them. I think the original Poltergeist is still the best movie made about a family in a haunted house and I honestly think it was foolish that anyone thought they could remake it. They really should have come out with something that had a lot more soul than what we get in this movie. If the original didn’t exist this movie would be fine for what it is, but it really just feels like a lazy remake that doesn’t feel like it’s trying. Because of that I just can’t really recommend this movie to anyone. I would honestly tell people to skip this one and just watch the original.
Dave’s Rating- ★★½ (2½) out of ★★★★★(5)
