The followups to Poltergeist were underwhelming - but their production histories are fascinating
By
Brian Collins Jan. 24,2017
I've mentioned before in previous Crypts that
Poltergeist II: The Other Side was
the first horror movie I ever saw in theaters (and that the original
film was likely the very first horror movie I ever saw), so you might
think it's odd that I never owned a copy of it as a kid. I didn't buy it
on VHS or tape it off of HBO or anything like that - it wasn't until
2008, when I bought the double feature DVD of the two sequels, that I
think I ever even watched the whole film again from start to finish.
Perhaps that's why my nostalgia blinders - which should be very strong
considering its "historic" significance in my life as a horror fan -
don't cloud my judgment of the film: it's "fine", but a big step down
from the original. And
Poltergeist III isn't
even as good as that, though it at least improves in the FX department,
with in-camera (and often very hard to spot) tricks replacing the
previous film's woefully sub-par optical work.
But what the films occasionally lack in their on-screen quality
(though both are masterpieces compared to the 2015 remake), they more
than make up for in fascinating production histories, which apart from
Heather O'Rourke and Zelda Rubinstein are the only things that stuck
around for all three films. Any horror fan knows about the so-called
Poltergeist "curse",
which was drummed up by superstitious types to explain the high number
of deaths from the series, and it will come up again whenever another
actor dies even if it's from old age. That a number of the deaths are
tenuous at best (Julian "Reverend Kane" Beck died of the cancer he had
before he even got the role, for example) doesn't really seem to matter
to anyone who likes to spice up a slow news day by bringing up the
"curse", but I won't deny it certainly encouraged more interest in the
behind the scenes drama for all three films. Until now, we never really
got much detail about them - the first film's "special edition" release
has a documentary about real life ghost hunters and nothing else, and
the two sequels got even less on their joint release (trailers,
basically).
Naturally, Scream Factory has come to the rescue, at least for the
sequels (which are controlled by MGM; Warner Bros still retains rights
to the first film, and they're notoriously "eh" about releasing special
editions for their library titles). Each film has been released with two
commentaries, additional interviews, and for
Poltergeist III,
footage of the film's original ending, which has been a subject of
controversy since the film was released in 1988. Anyone with half a
brain would be able to spot that Heather O'Rourke's face is never shown
in the film's closing minutes, and that's due to the fact that she
tragically passed away after the film's original production, but before
reshoots/pickups, necessitating the use of a double. And while
The Other Side
didn't have to deal with that ungodly situation, it too went through
its share of obvious reworking, with a goofy/abrupt ending and some
reshuffling of key scenes, resulting in glaring continuity errors (keep
an eye on Tangina in the final scene - she completely vanishes at one
point). For the first time, we're able to hear someone's side of the
story at length on these matters, and for me (and presumably some of
you), allowed me to finally get some legitimate enjoyment out of my time
with these films.
Don't go looking for truly eye-opening dirt, however - these discs
had to go through MGM legal, after all, so while there's plenty of nitty
gritty you'd certainly never find on an EPK, everything is cordial and
people only blame themselves for the films' lapses - rarely will they
badmouth another person from the production. The commentaries have
noticeable silent gaps on occasion, often whenever the conversation
turns to original endings or other reshoots*, but plenty of good stuff
makes it through. It's been 30 years, so there's a "water under the
bridge" tone to the stories of rushed timeframes (screenwriter Brian
Taggert apparently only had about ten days to write the third film) and
miffed actors (Rubinstein was upset about a cut scene from
Poltergeist II). Of course, backstage drama is a
Poltergeist tradition
- we will be debating about who really directed the first film until
the end of time, and there was that unfortunate business with the real
skeletons (they were cheaper than plastic ones, apparently), but the
original film was seemingly released as envisioned and clearly didn't
suffer from whatever issues might have come up between Hooper and
Spielberg. The sequels, however, are a much different story.
Now, by nature, any sequel is subject to some overthinking and "too
many cooks", but at least a good number of them have the major creative
forces returning, and that may be why the
Poltergeist sequels
dropped so far in quality. Spielberg, Hooper, producers Frank Marshall
and Kathleen Kennedy, and others all either declined or weren't asked to
return for the sequel, and so the only major contributors to the first
film (besides composer Jerry Goldsmith) that came back were Michael
Grais and Mark Victor. However, that wasn't exactly something to point
out in the marketing; they were the team who wrote the original
screenplay (based on Spielberg's idea), though it was rewritten by
Spielberg after that, and they didn't have much of a role in its
production after turning in their draft. So while
The Other Side
is technically from the same writers, it's about the loosest possible
example of the idea, and - nothing against the men - something WITH
Spielberg is kind of always going to be better than something WITHOUT
him. But hey, it was something, and they were able to get the core
family of actors back minus Dominique Dunne, who was murdered in 1982
and thus her character (Dana, the oldest sister) was written out without
any explanation in the final cut (there was a scene explaining that she
was off at college, but it's not in the released version of the film -
she is simply retconned out of existence, like Chuck Cunningham).
It's possible that the scene would have been left in had there not
been so much tinkering, but what was once a 130-minute movie was
released at a lean 90 - nearly a third of the film had been excised,
though some material (including the references to Dana) were retained
for the novelization. As for the aforementioned re-ordering of scenes,
it's unclear if they would improve the film or not had they been shown
in their intended order, but such things aren't done unless there's a
panic of some sort. Fansite guru David Furtney (who provides commentary
for both films) helpfully points out how the scenes were originally
ordered, so any fans with a lot of time on their hands can recut the
film as it was intended and find out - though they can't restore the
original finale, as the footage isn't there, so we'll forever be stuck
with the lame one we got. New director Brian Gibson wasn't around for
the reshot ending (John Bruno directed it, thirteen years before boring
us to death with
Virus), which suffers from
poor FX and a generally dull confrontation, allowing the audience to
spend their final few minutes with the film (and, as it'd turn out, the
Freeling family) alternating between laughing and being bored. It's a
shame, too, because before the ending is a pair of terrific sequences
that are every bit as good as the original: a sequence where Steven
(Craig T. Nelson) is possessed by and then pukes up a giant worm,
followed by a garage-set escape attempt with a flying chainsaw (an
effect that looks better on Scream's Blu-ray than it did on DVD,
shockingly enough - usually high def makes bad FX look even worse). Had
the movie more or less ended there, it might have a better overall
reputation, but instead we get this weirdo trip to the subtitular "Other
Side" that seemingly no one likes (certainly not Grais, who expresses
his dismay on his commentary track - his partner Mark Victor is MIA for
whatever reason).
HR Giger is also less than thrilled with the finished product, as he
designed some of the film's creatures but was not on hand to supervise
their construction/execution as he was for
Alien.
Making matters worse, Gibson didn't quite understand the complexities
of working with these kinds of effects, and so they'd be designed for
certain angles/lighting which he would apparently change on the spot,
necessitating quick (read: not ideal) adjustments and underwhelming
"performances" from the creatures. Some of the accidents turned out well
- the Kane-worm's creepy snarl when he looks at Steven and Diane was
apparently not intentional but a misbehaving servo in the facial
apparatus, for example - but this obviously created friction on the set,
and was probably part of the reason Gibson wasn't involved when the
studio decided the film needed more scary stuff. Luckily, their thinking
seemed to be correct - the reviews weren't great, but audiences
(including a very excited six-year-old BC!) flocked to the film in the
summer of 1986, ultimately making it the year's highest grossing horror
film, though it failed to generate as much box office at the original.
This fact was not lost on MGM, who wanted to continue the series but cut costs.
Poltergeist III's budget was only around half of what
The Other Side
had, though they clearly got to save on cast costs: of the Freelings,
only O'Rourke returned (with Rubinstein popping up for good measure).
But they didn't recast (weird how MGM, who changes out James Bonds every
decade, was seemingly unwilling to ever let anyone else play these
roles besides the original actors), so the plot had O'Rourke sent to
Chicago to attend a special school for gifted children, and living with
her aunt (Nancy Allen as Patricia, a previously unmentioned sister to
Diane Freeling) and uncle (Tom Skerritt). It's not the worst idea, as
sequels go - the change of scenery was a big plus, and there's only so
much they can do with the same characters going through the same
situation - it'd be like if Holly got held hostage once again in
Die Hard 3.
Unfortunately, Grais and Victor (and Goldsmith) all moved on as well,
making the two actors the only ones to have any previous connection to
the series. The Freeling family is mentioned a few times (not Dana, of
course), but even when Carol Anne disappears no one thinks to call her
parents - it's the kind of sequel where you just have to accept that no
one will behave logically because they can't include pre-existing
characters who should have gotten involved.
One major change was actually for the better - the FX. Not wanting to
deal with opticals, new director Gary Sherman (a bit of a horror guru
thanks to the awesome
Death Line and underrated
Dead & Buried)
wanted to do every effect in camera, using doubles and fake mirrors to
pull off some truly impressive shots (this is one case where the
Blu-ray's quality DOES hurt a bit - it's easier to spot the slight
differences between Allen, Skerritt, etc. and their doubles, who are
miming their movements). These shots are pretty much all the movie has
going for it, but they were not that easy to pull off, and consumed a
lot of the production's time (it went at least a week over schedule),
which - along with the reduced budget - left them unable to complete
major sequences as originally intended. On the commentary, Sherman
points out several scenes (like the ones involving the group of teens
that seemingly stepped out of a particularly bland slasher film) that
are only in the movie because it'd be too short otherwise, and would
have been trimmed or cut entirely if they had anything else they could
use. If you ever wondered why the film was paced so awkwardly (the first
20 minutes are actually quite good, for what it's worth, then things
start falling apart), that's the reason, or at least, the given one -
the film runs 97 minutes, so they could have chucked some of this stuff
and still been OK on the runtime. Listening to the commentary, I suspect
Sherman (who has said repeatedly that this is his least favorite of his
films) didn't care too much about the plot or even the pacing, and just
focused all his energy on the trick shots. With the script being so
wonky, I can't say I blame him - I'm still trying to understand why
Allen's character is so much more loving and caring to her newly
acquired stepdaughter (Lara Flynn Boyle, playing Skerritt's daughter
from a previous marriage) than Carol Anne, who is her blood relative.
But at least it seems like it was a much more relaxed set than the
previous film; they were working under the gun, but Sherman knew what he
was doing and there were no major clashes among the actors (and Sherman
is the only director! A
Poltergeist first!).
The real drama began after the film was shot, when O'Rourke's tragic and
awful death (she was misdiagnosed with Crohn's disease, the medication
caused a bowel obstruction, and she died during surgery to repair it)
put them in a major bind that couldn't have been foreseen. Not only was
the ending that they shot unsatisfying, it also had Carol Anne appear
dead (frozen) at one point, which would have been far too ghastly for a
film that was already going to have an unfortunate icky air to it (how
do you market a movie about a little girl being terrorized when nearly
all of the intended audience will know she died in real life?). So they
had to reshoot it without her, resulting in an even less satisfying
ending as it reduces the series' star to a mute who buries her face
inside the arms of another character (another character, Donna's
boyfriend Scott, disappears from the film entirely, as the actor wasn't
involved with the reshoot and thus his character's fate is left
unknown). And, not for nothing, but the story wasn't so great to begin
with, and it wasn't helped by the fact that a new actor obviously had to
stand in as Kane - the one time in this cast-ravaged series that they
deemed it OK to hire a new actor to play an existing character. Nothing
against this actor (Nathan Davis), but he's no Julian Beck, and as a
result Kane, so terrifying in the previous film, has kind of a stiff,
oft-muted presence here, like they were trying to keep the audience from
realizing it was a different actor. Insult to injury, Davis was dubbed
by the same guy who did some of Kane's voice on
P2
(as Beck had passed away before doing his ADR), so he is made up to
look like one actor while being voiced by another - the most thankless
gig in history, I assume. Carol Anne's asshole teacher/therapist from
the school, Dr. Seaton, is actually a better protagonist in the movie -
but he unfortunately gets killed off with 30 minutes to go.
Basically, who the hell knows what kind of insanity they'd have to put up with if they ever made a proper
Poltergeist IV,
though we can be almost 100% sure it wouldn't be a very good movie.
While all of the early deaths related to the series are tragic, the real
curse of the series is that they could never even come close to
matching the magic that Hooper and Spielberg created together with the
original, but inexplicably kept trying. After the third film tanked hard
(its total gross was barely more than
Poltergeist II's
opening weekend), the film series died for a while, but the brand name
lived on with an entirely unrelated cable series in the '90s, followed
by the 2015 remake which couldn't even clear the low bar set by the
other sequels (though, to be fair, put together a good cast at least).
And yet, if you recall
my review of that film's Blu-ray features,
I was disappointed that there was no real behind the scenes information
on its production - as if they hadn't yet caught on that a
Poltergeist follow-up
is at its most entertaining when the movie itself isn't a factor. These
films have their fans, I'm sure, but I'd be far more excited about an
oral history/tell-all documentary in the vein of
Crystal Lake Memories
about this series than I would be about ever watching anything besides
the original again. The real "curse" is that no one can manage to make
another good
Poltergeist movie - but the stories of trying will entertain us forever.
*Or just benign observations - Furtney has posted a list of things
from his tracks that were cut, which ranged from salary information to
merely pointing out that one of Kane's followers was the kid from
Nightmare on Elm Street 5. We really need a Wikileaks but for commentary tracks.
