'Poltergeist' Film Review: A Solid Remake

Sam Rockwell and Rosemarie DeWitt co-star in Fox's reboot of the ‘80s haunted-house classic.

By Justin Lowe

It’s infrequent and particularly satisfying when the remake of an especially memorable film equals or exceeds the experience of the original. In 1982, Poltergeist saw the brilliant pairing of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s low-budget horror director Tobe Hooper with far more mainstream screenwriter and producer Steven Spielberg for an effects-laden event movie that earned its place as a contemporary benchmark among supernatural thrillers.

Leaving behind the youth-skewing perspectives of Monster House and City of Ember, director Gil Kenan not only delivers on the promise of Hooper’s Poltergeist, but significantly raises the stakes for similar PG-13 fare. With strong brand identity and two generations of moviegoers to cultivate, Fox’s Memorial Day weekend release should help boost the summer box office to a promising start with a solid opening weekend, although prospects for franchise building (the original was followed by two sequels) look somewhat mixed.

In setting the scene, Kenan and the filmmakers take their cue from the first film in the trilogy, as Eric (Sam Rockwell) and Amy (Rosemarie DeWitt) Bowen, crippled by the financial impacts of the Great Recession, look to downsize so that they can continue adequately providing for their three kids. They find what they’re looking for in a distressed but affordable home for sale that’s located in a nondescript development full of vacant properties on the outskirts of an Illinois town where Amy attended university. Youngest daughter Maddy (Kennedi Clements) is excited to move in following the initial tour after conversing with some new invisible friends who speak to her from a mysterious bedroom closet. Anxiety-prone middle child Griffin (Kyle Catlett) isn’t thrilled to be settling into an attic bedroom, however, where an ominous willow tree looms over the house through a rooftop skylight. Teenage Kendra (Saxon Sharbino) displays visible disaffection with her new situation, preferring to remain in touch with her old life and friends via phone, text and video chat.

On the first night in their new home while everyone else is asleep, Griffin discovers Maddy talking to the big-screen living room TV as it flashes and emits strange noises. “They’re here,” she says, referring to her friends, “the lost people.” Now Griffin has some solid reasons to feel worried, especially after noticing objects moving around the house of their own accord and discovering a box full of scary clown dolls stashed in a storage space. His parents just attribute these trepidations to his chronic anxiety and it isn’t until the next night when they’re out to dinner at a neighbor’s house that they discover some disturbing information regarding their new home that sends them rushing back to check on the kids.

See more: 30 of 2015’s Most Anticipated Movies: ‘Star Wars’, 'Tomorrowland’, 'Furious 7’, 'Joy’ and More (Photos)

By the time they arrive, Griffin and Kendra have suffered supernatural attacks and Maddy has vanished completely. At their wit’s end, Amy and Eric decide to seek guidance from Dr. Claire Powell (Jane Adams) from the Department of Paranormal Research at Amy’s former university. Powell agrees to assist, bringing in her staff to wire the Bowen’s home with video cameras and monitoring equipment in their search for the missing child. They soon determine that Maddy is able to speak to them through the TV set, but can’t provide any clues to her whereabouts. Powell concludes that the house is under the influence of a malevolent poltergeist that has abducted Maddy, holding her in a shadowy, in-between realm that they will have to access in order to rescue her before she disappears completely.

As the film reaches its midpoint, all of the essential elements of the original are in place and in part this satisfying continuity is attributable to a screen story again written by Spielberg. In scripting the remake, David Lindsay-Abaire hews closely to the earlier template, replicating some key scenes with more contemporary flair while ratcheting up the pacing by cutting 20 minutes off the running time. Updating the spiritual medium character with hardbitten reality TV host Carrigan Burke (Jared Harris), an Indiana Jones-style ghostbuster, provides a recognizable pop-culture reference, blowing away the musty cobwebs of stereotypically aloof psychics.

Read more: 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Named Fandango’s Most Anticipated Movie of 2015

Although Rockwell appears capable of holding the Bowens together in the face of financial and personal peril, it’s a rather under-written part that lacks the frequent character tics he’s exploited more memorably in smaller-scale films. DeWitt is the predictably supportive emotional core of the family, eventually driven to extremes by her daughter’s predicament. In a substantial role for a young actor, Catlett favorably impresses with his comprehensive grasp of Griffin’s neuroses and his determination to face them head-on in several pivotal scenes.

The integration of notably naturalistic visual effects with the digital filmmaking is frequently almost seamless, until the plot shifts into an entirely supernatural realm during the final attempt to retrieve Maddy. Kenan’s overall improvements to the movie’s visual style aren’t only attributable to advances in technology and a 3D update, however. While Hooper favored shock value and jump scares, Kenan and cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe construct far more fluid sequences as the camera glides and hovers over its subjects, reserving the most impactful shots for the climactic scenes, particularly a concluding sequence that’s particularly thrilling.

Poltergeist, rated PG-13, opens this Friday. 

Watch the trailer for the original ‘Poltergeist’:

‘Poltergeist’ Review: Sam Rockwell Leads a Talented Cast Busted by Retread Ghosts

This remake pales next to the 1982 original, of course, but also in comparison to movies like “The Conjuring” and “Paranormal Activity,” which already stripped the Tobe Hooper classic for parts

The TVs are bigger than they were in 1982, but the scares in the new “Poltergeist” don’t match the ones offered by director Tobe Hooper and producer Steven Spielberg the first time around.
This new spooky-house chiller never escapes the shadow of its predecessor, but it also pales next to the scores of subsequent movies — “The Conjuring,” “Insidious,” and “Paranormal Activity,” to name just a few — that have already stripped the original “Poltergeist” for parts.
Even if the results are forgettable, producer Sam Raimi has, if nothing else, assembled an impressive team. Director Gil Kenan made his directorial debut with the effective (and genre-adjacent) animated film “Monster House,” playwright David Lindsay-Abaire (“Rabbit Hole”) handles script duty, and casting directors Scot Boland and Victoria Burrows have put together a capable ensemble, from established players like Rosemarie DeWitt and Sam Rockwell as the put-upon homeowners to young Kyle Catlett as their son. (Catlett not only registers genuine fear and anxiety throughout, but he also looks like he could really be DeWitt’s child.)

See Video: 'They're Heeeeere' In Sam Raimi's Newest 'Poltergeist' Trailer (Video)

Unfortunately, the wrong moves outnumber the right ones, and the attempts that this “Poltergeist” makes to stand on its own merely underscore what the original film did so brilliantly. Whereas the first movie, for example, shocked audiences by setting a haunted-house movie in an otherwise ordinary and normal-seeming suburb, this one lets us know right away that something’s amiss, from the giant power lines nearby to the bones barely buried in the yard to the box of clown dolls in the attic.
Yes. A box of clown dolls. As though a discovery like that wouldn’t make a new tenant immediately run screaming.

Also Read: 'Ash Vs. Evil Dead' Poster and Teaser Trailer Released by Starz (Video)

Anyway, it’s just the second night that Eric (Rockwell) and Amy Bowen (DeWitt) spend in their new house before youngest daughter Madison (Kennedi Clements) gets snatched up by the restless souls in the closet, and it’s only with the help of paranormal expert Claire (Jane Adams) and basic-cable ghostbuster Carrigan Burke (Jared Harris) that the Bowens can get their little girl back.

The film’s most effective scene is also the one that shows us the least: Claire’s skeptical assistant Boyd (Nicholas Braun, “Date and Switch”) has a creepy encounter involving an electric drill and an unseen entity on the other side of the wall. This is one of the few moments that Kenan and Lindsay-Abaire let us use our imagination; taking us into the parallel dimension of the ghostly departed isn’t nearly as terrifying as the suggestion of same that the original movie offered, and since we’re operating in the realm of PG-13 horror here, the gore is mild and the jolts are almost all of the jump-scare variety.Given how little they have to work with, DeWitt and Rockwell — and even Adams and Harris, to a lesser extent — do what they can to inject recognizability into the sketchiest of stock characters, and Catlett, Clements, and Saxon Sharbino (“Touch”) as the three Bowen children create a significant amount of empathy; their reactions to the horrors taking place around them are often more effectively portrayed than the horrors themselves.

Also Read: Lucy Lawless Joins Cast of Starz 'Evil Dead' TV Adaption

“Poltergeist” ultimately plays like the most perfunctory of remakes, one born of rights ownership and title marketability rather than a burning desire on anyone’s part to do something interesting or provocative with a classic. The 1982 original remains unassailable, all the more so when stood side by side with its pipsqueak descendant.

Poltergeist Review for remake out in theaters in 2 days (May 22,2015)

The 2015 remake of Poltergeist is an enigma. It is everything wrong with Hollywood today, but yet it gets so much right. 

The remake of the classic 1982 horror film about a family in a house of hell, is what every remake should be: an homage to a great original yet still fresh, clever and necessary. 

In a time where Hollywood seems to be lacking new ideas, with sequel after sequel and remake after remake, somehow Director Gil Kenan’s film is a breath of fresh air. Kenan (Monster House, City of Ember) brings nothing but respect and creativity to the newly penned script by Pultizer prize winning playwright/screenwriter David Lindsey-Abaire.

The film honors the original with many of the classic lines such as “They’re Here” and “This house is clean,” but it’s how these lines are delivered along with many other events in the film that separate it from lacklustre remakes of other horrors from recent years. 

Sam Rockwell and Rosemarie DeWitt play the parents of the extremely unfortunate family and are truly wonderful. The actors, known for indie films and complex character work, made an interesting career choice to take on this film, and we all benefit from their foray. 

Perhaps the biggest reason the original works is the exceptional performances of the child actors. Poltergeist achieved classic status based widely on the creepiness and effectiveness of the youngest daughter, played by the late Heather O’Rourke. So to follow that performance was a huge task, but the children actors Kenan received are outstanding. Saxon Sharbino, Kyle Catlett and Kennedi Clements are wonderful and believable as the kids at the heart of the 2015 film. 

It’s important to note that the film is not a carbon copy of the original, there are several moments when the film takes liberties and throws in a curveball. These are not distracting or upsetting, but instead welcoming. We can see the vision Kenan wanted in honoring the original, while making something which feels current. The use of technology in 2015 makes this remake feel acceptable and adds in a whole new toy chest of horrors.

The original is perhaps one of the most terrifying films of all time and this film doesn’t disappoint in the amount of times it will make you jump or bury your head in your hands. 

Poltergeist works so wonderfully because it plays on basic human emotions. It doesn’t use gore or over the top special effects to rattle you. It plays on inherent human fears: Is something under your bed? What’s hiding in your closet? Am I actually alone? Gil Kenan had the greatest of source material to work with when given this project and luckily for all of us, he knocks it out of the park.

Release of remake one week from tonight

Well,this is it,just one week from tonight the remake of our beloved 1982 original will be released to the nation and hopefully a whole new generation of Poltergeist fans will be born out of this.

Remake out in 2 weeks; get ready!

Well,just 2 weeks from today the remake to our beloved 1982 original will hit theaters nation-wide.To get ready,I plan on having my own trilogy marathon next weekend and then on May 21,I plan to watch the 1982 original to get ready for the remake's release the next day.

Countdown to remake release

Just 17 more days until the May 22 release of the remake of the 1982 classic original.Can't wait!

19 days until release of the remake of the 1982 original

Yep,just 19 days until the release of the May 22 remake of the 1982 original.In this one,the names have been changed and some scenes from the original have,from the looks of things,from the trailer, been rearranged and new scenes added,so I'm looking forward to seeing this and see how it stacks up to the 1982 original.This remake stars Sam Rockwell,Rosemary Dewitt and little Kennedi Clement in the Heather O'Rourke/Carol Anne Freeling role as Madison Bowen.