The Video Graveyard: Poltergeist II: The Other..

"They're baa-aackk!" Four years after the success of the Steven Spielberg produced Poltergeist this inevitable sequel arrived and, though it doesn't nearly hit the highs of the original, it's actually a lot better than I remembered and its reputation would have you believe.

It's a year after the events of the original and the Freeling family find themselves homeless (having your house just disappear into another dimension will do that) and living with wife Diane's (JoBeth Williams) mother. They're struggling to get back on their feet with Steve (Craig T. Nelson) resigned to selling vacuums door-to-door while the kids have actually adjusted pretty good considering all that happened to them. Even little Carol Anne (Heather O'Rourke) is back to her normal little girl self.
Little do they know there's been an ancient cave uncovered on the lot of their former house that tells us the malicious spirits just might not be done with the Freeling's. The supernatural goings-on start anew as Carol Anne starts getting phone calls on her pink toy phone, they're stalked by strange old preacher Kane (Julian Beck) who obviously isn't human as Carol Anne sees people walk right through him, and Diane starts having dreams where zombies attack her. Into the picture comes Taylor (Will Sampson), a mystical Native American, who's been tasked to protect them as the script by Mark Victor and Michael Grais (who penned the first flick also) tries to throw in a bit too much back story and religious angles in between various decently staged set pieces on the way to a finale that feels way too rushed and contains a whole lot of cheesiness when the family is pulled into another dimension filled with strobe lights and bad effects. They've also seen fit to bring back Zelda Rubinstein as half-pint psychic Tangina but have given her nothing to do but deliver a spooky speech and stand around looking concerned in the last five minutes.
Going into Poltergeist II: The Other Side the only things I remembered were a scene where the son is attacked by his possessed braces and the imposing image of Beck as the not-so-good reverend. Both of these things still hold up quite decently all these years later but they've also peppered in some decently staged scare shock scenes involving an evil, mutated tequila worm (that's something you don't see every day), a chainsaw with a mind of its own, and a whole lot of creature mayhem in the last third. Sure, none of them can match the swimming pool moment of the first but they're handled steadily by director Brian Gibson and sport above average old school effects to boot. There's still a good chunk of what made the original successful on hand here and it's a nice surprise to see that the chemistry between Williams, Nelson, and the rest of the clan still holds up almost as well as it did before. If it wasn't for this fact, this probably wouldn't have worked as well. We actually care for this family and their well-being. This makes it too bad that the script struggles by over-explaining things and everything is wrapped up poorly. However, I have to remember that the original cut ran 130 minutes and was cut down to a mere 91 - there had to have been a lot of plot points clipped that would've made the flow much better.
In the leads Williams and Nelson are as steady as ever and they're quite convincing as a loving married couple. O'Rourke is still button cute and not as cloying as a lot of child actors are making it unfortunate that she'd pass away at such a young age. As a new addition to the cast, Sampson is likeable and even gets to have a few comedic moments sparring with Nelson about his car. Rubinstein, as mentioned, is sadly wasted but the movie truly belongs to Beck. He's just so damn creepy in his role with a big smile plastered to his face and a foreboding sense of sinister surrounding him - this would prove to be his last role as he'd die of stomach cancer before this was released. Which leads me into mentioning the so-called "curse" surrounding this series as Dominique Dunne (who played the teenage daughter in the first) would be murdered by her boyfriend months after it came out and O'Rourke would suffer from septic shock during the making of the third entry.
As far as sequels go, Poltergeist II manages to be a watchable and entertaining time. It benefits greatly from having the same writers as it stays true to the tone of the first but it does have its issues and I'd really be interested in seeing the longer cut being released to see if it would help matters. Things would be changed up quite a bit in the next entry and they'd also spin the series off into a forgettable Canadian shot television series entitled "Poltergeist: The Legacy". (Chris Hartley, 6/11/13)
Directed By: Brian Gibson.
Written By: Mark Victor, Michael Grais.
Starring: JoBeth Williams, Craig T. Nelson, Heather O'Rourke, Oliver Robins.