Thursday, March 31, 2016

Horror Film Wiki: Poltergeist III

[Category:MGM]]
Poltergeist III (otherwise known as Poltergeist 3 or Poltergeist 3: We're Back) is a 1988 American horror film. It is the third and final film of the Poltergeist film series. Writers Michael Grais and Mark Victor, who wrote the screenplay for the first two films, did not return for this second sequel; it was co-written, executive produced and directed by Gary Sherman, and was released on June 10,1988 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures. The film was panned by critics, and was a box office disappointment.
Heather O'Rourke and Zelda Rubinstein were the only original cast members to return. However, O'Rourke died suddenly and unexpectedly four months before the film was released and before post-production could be completed. The movie was dedicated to her memory...



PlotEdit

The Freeling family has sent Carol Anne (Heather O'Rourke) to live with Diane's sister Pat (Nancy Allen) and her husband Bruce Gardner (Tom Skerritt). Carol Anne has been told, she is in Chicago temporarily to attend a unique school for gifted children with emotional problems, though Pat thinks it is because Steve and Diane just wanted Carol Anne out of their house. Pat seems to have no knowledge of the events from the first two films, just noting that Steven was involved in a bad land deal. Along with Donna (Lara Flynn Boyle), Bruce's daughter from a previous marriage, they live in the luxury skyscraper (Chicago's 100-story John Hancock Center) of which Bruce is the manager.
Carol Anne has been made by her teacher/psychiatrist, Dr. Seaton (Richard Fire), to discuss her experiences from the first and second films. Seaton believes her to be delusional, however the constant discussion has enabled Henry Kane/The Beast (Nathan Davis) to locate Carol Anne and bring him back from the limbo he was sent into at the end of the second film. Dr. Seaton, having never experienced the supernatural, believes that Carol Anne is simply a manipulative child who has created something of a mass hysteria within her family, falsely making them believe they were attacked by ghosts. Also during this period, Tangina Barrons (Zelda Rubinstein) realizes that Kane has found Carol Anne and travels cross-country to protect her.
That night, Kane drains the high rise of heat and takes possession of reflections in mirrors, causing the reflections of people to act independently of their physical counterparts. When Carol Anne is left alone that night, Kane attempts to use the mirrors in her room to capture her, but she escapes with the help of Tangina. Donna and her boyfriend, Scott, see a frightened Carol Anne running through the high rise's parking lot, and move to rescue her. However, before they can, all three are taken to the Other Side by Kane. By this point, Tangina and Dr. Seaton are both at the high rise, along with Pat and Bruce. Dr. Seaton stubbornly assumes that Carol Anne has staged the entire thing, while Tangina tries to get her back....
Scott is seemingly released from the Other Side through a pool in the high rise, and Donna reappears after Tangina is taken by Kane disguised as Carol Anne. Scott is left at his home with his parents. Nobody notices that the symbols on Donna's clothing are reversed from what they were before she was taken. As Dr. Seaton attempts to calm Donna, Bruce sees Carol Anne's reflection in the mirror and chases her while Pat follows. Dr. Seaton is not far behind, and he believes he sees Carol Anne in the elevator. However, after Dr. Seaton approaches the elevator doors, Donna appears behind him and pushes him to his death down the empty elevator shaft. At this point it is revealed that Donna did not actually come back, but rather the person who came back was a reflection of Donna, under the control of Kane, who then vanishes back into the mirror, with a reflection of Scott at her side.
Pat and Bruce struggle to find Carol Anne, but Bruce is captured and eventually Pat is forced to prove her love for Carol Anne in a final face-off against Kane. The ending is somewhat unclear, but apparently Tangina somehow manages to convince Kane to go into the Light with her. Donna, Bruce and Carol Anne are returned to Pat, whereas it is never revealed, if Scott returned or is still trapped on the Other Side.. The final scene shows lightning flashing over the building and Kane's laughter is heard.

CastEdit

GalleryEdit

ProductionEdit

Director Gary Sherman thought the idea having the setting in the city was just as scary as isolated suburbia. His feeling was, that there are people on the other side of the wall, and no one cares, that you are in trouble.[1]
Unlike the previous films, nearly all of the special effects were live and were performed on stage. The only visual effect added in post-production was the lightning casting over the John Hancock Center in the very final shot of the picture. Sherman himself designed the special visual effects.
Corey Burton provided the voice work for Kane, although he was uncredited for this effort.Template:Citation needed

Heather O'Rourke's death and a revised endingEdit

By the time Poltergeist 3 started production in the spring of 1987, Heather O'Rourke had been ill for several months, with what was misdiagnosed as Crohn's disease, and subsequently underwent medical treatment during parts of the filming, which took place in Chicago. Principal photography for the movie began on Monday April 13, 1987 and lasted for 11 weeks, ending on Friday June 19, 1987, with June 10, 1988 as its scheduled release date. After Heather completed filming, she returned home to California, with her illness apparently in remission. However in late January 1988, Heather suddenly became ill again, her condition rapidly deteriorated, and she died on Monday February 1, 1988, during Poltergeist 3's post-production period, just 5 weeks after her 12th birthday.
Shortly before Heather O'Rourke's death, the studio had requested that the ending of the film be reshot.Template:Citation needed However, with her death, this made filming a new ending very difficult, given how central her character was to the film. Rather than cancel the project with so much of the film already completed, the ending was written in a way that a body double could be used in Heather's place. This is why Carol Anne's face is never seen when she comes back from the Other Side during the finale of the movie. The new ending for the film was filmed in March 1988. Poltergeist 3 was dedicated to the memory of Heather O'Rourke (1975-1988).

Critical receptionEdit

The film received extremely negative reviews from critics, resulting in a 15% rating on RottenTomatoes.com. Meanwhile, Zelda Rubinstein's performance was given generally mixed reviews, causing to grant both nominations for a Saturn Award and a Razzie Award (which she also received previously for the first sequel) at the same time. However, despite the generally unforgiving reviews for the film overall, a substantial amount of the film's miniscule amount of praise was directed primarily towards Heather O'Rourke's performance.

Box officeEdit

While Poltergeist III made back its $9.5 million budget, it wound up being the lowest grossing and least attended film in the Poltergeist trilogy. The film opened at #5, making $4,344,308 on its opening weekend, averaging about $2,953 from 1,471 theaters. The bottom fell out from then on, as the film then fell out of the top 10 in only its second weekend, dropping 52 percent to only $2,093,783 (1,467 theaters, $1,427 average) ranking at #11, and bringing the 10-day cume to $8,165,286. Poltergeist 3 ended up with a domestic box office total of $14,114, 488. The film sold 3.434 million tickets at 1988's ticket price of $4.11, compared with 25.410 million tickets for the first film, and 11.050 million tickets for the second film.[2]

See also Edit

ReferencesEdit

  1. E: True Hollywood Story: Curse of Poltergeist
  2. Poltergeist III (1988)

External linksEdit

Template:Portal








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20 Greatest Ever Horror Movie Icons

18. Reverend Henry Kane – Poltergeist 2 (1986)

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Julian Beck, the actor who played the Reverend Henry Kane in Poltergeist 2, died during the making of the film, but he managed to leave behind a seminal horror icon.
Kane is a deceased, insane spirit who is found in an underground cave. He is after Carol Anne in order to poach her soul. In a chilling scene, he tries to get to the little girl through her toy phone. The family flee the home but are approached by a Shaman called Taylor who tells them that Preacher Kane will find them wherever they go. And indeed he shows up in human form and tries unsuccessfully to get into the home.
Kane was a preacher and he had millennial beliefs about the world ending. He led his followers into the cave. The time of the apocalypse came and went, and Kane left his followers to die in the cave. Due to his villainy, Kane became an evil spirit in death. He attacks the family as a giant worm like creature with tentacles.
Henry Kane is a fascinating character, a man of God who turned into pure evil. His physical appearance is demonic and creepy. Because Julian Beck died during filming, the producers of Poltergeist 2 approached H. R. Giger to create the ‘Beast’ to replace the mortal form of Preacher Kane. It is a disgusting monster to be sure, but not as evil or scary as Preacher Kane in human form.

Villains Wikia: Kane's People

Villains Wikia

Kane's People

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Reverend Kane's People
Kane's People

The researchers don't know who these people were. There are no marked graves. There however, records of a religious sect that mysteriously... Their spiritual leader was a medium who led his followers out to California in the early 1800s to start an utopian society. They disappeared near Cuesta Verde. They were believed (to be) massacred by the Indians.
~ Tagina Barrons about Rev. Henry Kane's cult.
Kane's People (credited from the end credits of Poltergeist II: The Otherside) is the name of a forgotten, Satanic 19th century utopian cult whose spirits alongside the different souls of the dead are supporting antagonists of the Poltergeist film series, and their primary member and leader is Reverend Henry Kane.

History

Reverend Kane on a horse
The preacher Kane rides on his horse while leading his cult.
In the early 1800s, there exists a religious sect in the American Midwest whose spiritual leader named Reverend Henry Kane was a medium, a psychic who can see into the future and communicate with the spiritual realm. During that time, he led his followers out to California to began a Utopian society. They disappeared near an area in the valley within California under mysterious circumstances. Many people thought they were murdered by Native Americans.
But in reality, Kane led his 'people' on their trek to an underground cave system and sealed themselves because he told them that the apocalypse was coming. The mad preacher predicted the date of the end of the world came and went, but he wouldn't let them leave. They all believed him and worshipped him as a prophet of God. They all soon died of starvation and their decaying bodies remained within the tomb of their own making.
Soon a century later, their subterranean mass grave would be built over by a cemetery whose buried cadavers would be left as it moved a decade later to a different, yet near location in the same valley that is forever named Cuesta Verde. The souls of this forgotten cult and the modern people they came across would be disturbed and unleash their fury.

Return of Kane's People

The souls of these forgotten cultists and the ghosts they are with, came before a little girl named Carol Anne Freeling that night they appeared on a television in her family's house. They later reappeared with the ghosts that other night and destroyed the Freelings' home and cause havoc upon the frightened neighbors Cuesta Verde after they put Carol Anne and her family through this entire ordeal.
Spirits of Kane's People
The souls of Kane's cult members moving towards Grandma Jess' house.
The cultists returned to hunt down Carol Anne and her family who were later helped by Tangina and her friend Taylor. It happened not long after their remains were discovered by Taylor and Tangina in a cavern below the old cemetery that later became the neighborhood of Cuesta Verde. While pursuing the Freeling family, the souls of Kane's cult members soon later merged with the mad preacher's spirit into a twisted transformation of the namesake manifestion of his wickedness ("The Beast") and attacked the family again. They were banished to Limbo when Steven hit the Beast with an enchanted lance ebued with shamanic powers given to him by Taylor before he can steal Carol Anne's soul forever. Kane and his cult became lost and adrift within the depths of Limbo after the Freeling family escaped the spirit world together.

End of Kane's People

Kane and his cultists found their way back from Limbo to the world of the living when the ignorant Dr. Seaton made Carol Anne remember the events that happened at her old home after she was moved to Chicago to lived with her aunt Pat and uncle .

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Then & Now Movie Locations: Poltergeist II: The Other Side

12/27/11

Poltergeist II: The Other Side

 
Poltergeist II was released on May 23rd, 1986.
Filming locations include Altadena, CA.
Chatsworth, CA. and Chinle, AZ.
Spider Rock - Route 7, Chinle, Az. 86503
(Canyon De Chelly National Monument)
Gramma Jess's house - 1589 Homewood Dr. Altadena, Ca. 91001
 
Former site of Freeling house - Celtic St. and Variel Ave. Chatsworth, Ca. 91311
 
 
First encounter with Kane - 17200 Ventura Blvd. Encino, Ca. 91316
(Encino Town Center)
 
 
 
 

THE GREATEST HORROR MOVIE MOMENTS!

Poltergeist II: The Other Side
Now I'm sure some of you will say I'm crazy for not putting the original Poltergeist on this list. While that's a great movie for sure, with scenes such as the pool filled with corpses and the clown in the kid's room, there's one scene from Poltergeist II which beats anything from the first movie if you ask me.
YOU'RE ALL GONNA DIE IN THERE, ALL OF YA!
The main attraction of Poltergeist II: The Other Side was the insanely creepy old man named Kane (Julian Beck) who was stalking the Freeling family this time. The guy literally looked like a skeleton. His giant teeth and bony face always creeped the hell out of me, which is why I think he's easily one of the best horror characters ever. "Are you lost, sweetheart? Are you 'fraid, honey? Well then, why don't you come with me?" Hearing him say lines like that were eerie enough, but then he'd sing that damned "God is in His Holy Temple! Earthly thoughts be silent now!" song, and it would be stuck in my head all day long. Sadly, Julian Beck died while filming Poltergeist II - another victim of the infamous "Poltergeist curse" perhaps?
tequila - the drink that's like a meal!
Well anyway, the problems that Kane has been causing for the Freeling family have drove papa Freeling to hit the bottle. And he's hitting the bottle hard. He's so drunk that he drinks an entire bottle of tequila, and even chugs down the worm inside it!
Drinking Rule #1: never swallow the tequila worm. Here's why...
naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasty!
Sorry lady, he didn't like the meatloaf.
After becoming possessed and scaring the crap out of his family, Steve Freeling finally yacks up the problem. But it's no small tequila worm by that point, this thing has grown into a massive, nasty, blobby mess of goo. Seeing Steve puke it up is one of the most simultaneously nauseating and awesome horror movies scenes ever. And then it gets even better...
SUNDAY, MONDAY, HAPPY DAYS! TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, HAPPY DAYS!
The tequila worm thing that was puked up, crawls under the bed and starts to squirm around some more and mutate. Then it finally crawls out from under the bed and look who it is! Yep, it's good ol' Kane! Actually, he looks less scary as a worm than he does in real life. By the way, all of the wicked worm effects were a creation of H.R. Giger. So now you can impress all of your art 'n film school friends and say "Screw those 'Alien' movies, Giger's best work was in Poltergeist II man!" since Giger is the only modern artist that any of you uncultured fuckwads have probably ever heard of.
If you have a friend who's having trouble with alcohol abuse, forget about rehab, just show them Poltergeist II and they won't wanna go near a bottle ever again. Hell, I don't drink, and I'm sure that it's somehow related to this scene. As an amusing side note, the guy who played the creature in the movie is even listed as "Vomit Creature" in the credits. If that's not something that he'll be able to brag about to his friends until the day he dies, I don't know what is.



a horrible night indeed! :o