Within Hollywood's ongoing remake cycle, the 1982 hit "Poltergeist"
is a choice both obvious and challenging. A touchstone for much in
contemporary horror, with its emphasis on a family in peril, then
cutting-edge effects work and some sly satire, the original
"Poltergeist" was an efficient, intense haunted house story for and
about its times.
Directed
by Gil Kenan — nominated for an Oscar for his 2006 animated film
"Monster House" — the remake is a disconcertingly uneven outing, not
quite connecting in the manner of the original while also never standing
firmly on its own two feet. The new "Poltergeist" is a pleasant enough
diversion, better as a low-simmer suspense story than a full-blown
effects extravaganza.
In
the new film, Amy and Eric Bowen (Rosemarie DeWitt, Sam Rockwell) are
moving into a more downscale house with their three children after Eric
has been out of work for some time. As a series of unexplainable
disturbances escalates, Amy and Eric learn their subdivision was built
on land that was once a cemetery just before their youngest daughter,
Madison (Kennedi Clements), becomes trapped in a supernatural spirit
realm.
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The
Bowens appeal first to a parapsychologist (Jane Adams), who in turn
brings in a medium/reality TV personality (Jared Harris). Together, they
all try to get Madison back.
The
'80s-era original, directed by Tobe Hooper, produced and co-written by
Steven Spielberg, was about what might be lurking and repressed
underneath the façade of a perfect suburban life, with Craig T. Nelson's
dad character even seen reading a book on Ronald Reagan. The talk of
layoffs and foreclosures in the new film shows that dream already broken
from the start, so there is little other left for the otherworldly to
reveal.
David
Lindsay-Abaire, best known for his family trauma drama "Rabbit Hole,"
wrote the screenplay for the new film in which the kids have tablets and
smartphones and young Madison becomes stuck inside a flat-screen. But
nods to modernize the story never meaningfully connect it to the here
and now, apart from the use of a flying toy drone as a tool to first
visualize how things look on the other side of an interdimensional
portal.
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'Poltergeist'
Rating: PG-13, for intense, frightening sequences, brief suggestive material and some language
Running time: 1 hour, 33 minutes
Playing: In general release
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