cairn6
I really wanted to like this film as I thoroughly enjoyed the original movie, and despite some shortcomings, liked part 2 as well. The premise and idea of the high rise location and use of mirrors was original and an example of thinking outside of the box. But in the end, at least for me, this film didn't work for several main reasons.
First off....I felt bad watching the movie knowing that despite Heather O'rourke's excellent performance, she was suffering from serious health issues and ultimately would pass away before the film was completed. I feel the same way about the Three Stooges short "Half Wits Holiday" with Curly Howard deeply ill and ultimately not able to complete the short. Just difficult when you can remember her in past films, TV shows, and commercials in perfect health and not obviously sick.
Second....the cast's acting was overblown, cliche, and almost spooflike, giving both O'rourke and Zelda Rubinstein no support whatsoever.(both actresses held over from the previous films still giving 100%)...the writing was truly terrible with cringe-worthy lines....
"Carol Ann!" X 150! I can compare this to an awful baseball team loaded with bad rookies but with one or two veteran all stars still hitting home runs yet the game is still lost.
Third....bad attempts with effects to try to generate scares. This film had so much potential to be a great psychological thriller through its creative use of mirrors and setting. Even with a low budget it could have been pulled off, but this falls flat with use of such gems as melting wax faces, condensed air, and other cliche' 80's slasher tricks. Writing, scoring, proper acting, and timing could have done the trick nicely. Can you just imagine Heather O'rourke acting in a tense manner with nothing but dead silence and slow room sweeps before a jump scene takes place? Could have been great.
Finally.....and to nobody's fault but fate itself...the loss of a beloved young performer. Like I said above, it was difficult to watch a hugely talented young lady perform her heart out despite the shortcomings of the film, and her own looming health crisis and knowing that even before the film hit the theaters she had died. In my opinion, the movie should have been scrapped just on that event alone.
MaximumMadness
I recently have been going through a "ghost kick." I've been watching tons of ghost and haunted-house films. Everything I can get my hands on- from classics like "The Haunting" and "The Changeling", to foreign films like "Ringu" and "Ju-On", to modern films like the "Paranormal Activity" trilogy and "Insidious." So, naturally, when I saw "Poltergeist II" and "III" on Netflix, I started them up, intending to watch them back-to-back. I actually like "Poltergeist II"- it's silly, but is a fun sequel overall. I hadn't seen the third film, however, in years, and I wish it had stayed this way."Poltergeist III" is scary. Not because of effective jumps, a creepy atmosphere, or top-notch writing like the original. But because it is so bad. Just foul, awful. Tedious.This time around, Carol-Anne (Heather O'Rourke) has been sent to live with her relatives in Chicago, supposedly because she's been accepted into a school for gifted youngsters. The real reason is that the actors for the first two films probably read the script and refused to be involved.She is staying with her aunt Pat (Nancy Allen), her uncle Bruce (Tom Skerrit) and her cousin Donna (Laura Flynn Boyle). Bruce owns the high-rise building where they stay, and Pat apparently works in an art gallery in the same building.Carol-Anne has been tormented by memories from the first two films. At her new school, a doctor named Seaton (Richard Fire) believes that she isn't haunted by ghosts, but rather is a manipulator who can cause mass-hallucinations by using hypnosis... uh... yeah, the movie actually goes there. It insults the audience by suggesting that Carol-Anne may be a manipulative hypnotist. Of course, we know it's actually the vengeful spirit of Henry Kane who is haunting her. But the fact that the movie stoops this low by even suggesting this as a possible explanation is just pitiful.Blah, blah, blah- you know the drill. Kane catches up with Carol-Anne, and torments her, nobody believes her at first, and so on. Eventually, the family must come together (with the help of Tangina, again played by Zelda Rubinstein) to stop Kane once and for all.This movie... sucks.The plot is all over the place. The first two films at least had a logic to them. This movie starts up by adding new rules and layers to the "haunting" that make no sense. Kane just sort of hangs around inside of mirrors the whole time. I'm not kidding. Mirrors were never used like this in the first two films. But in literally EVERY SINGLE SCENE, there's a lame scare where Kane will appear in a mirror (mirrors line the halls of the building), and it actually becomes funny within 10 minutes, because you KNOW it's going to continue. They try to change it up later on, by doing other gags where the mirrors don't reflect things properly, but it's still the EXACT SAME "SCARE"... It happens at least 50 times in the movie, I'm not kidding. It gets old really fast. They sort-of try to explain it (I guess the mirrors reflect the spiritual world, or some such nonsense), but it doesn't mean anything.Also, whereas the first two films used special effects effectively, and had all sorts of monsters and creatures and skeletons, this film has none. Remember the giant skull from the first film? The "Vomit Creature" from the second? They are tossed out the window so Kane can randomly appear in a mirror and cackle before vanishing in every single scene. It's so uncreative that it hurts to watch.I also must say, the "rules" for this film have no consistency. Somehow, Kane can now "clone" people in the Mirror/Spirit world, so half the movie, you're not seeing the characters, but rather evil reflections of them that don't do anything in particular, just act evil at random. Like everything else, it makes no sense.The film is a mess. There is also a recurring "scare" where Carol-Anne will hear Kane calling her, but like the mirror gag, it becomes funny when we realize it never, ever stops. I was able to predict when it was coming and say it along with him in the movie, it was so blatant and over-used.The acting was pretty bad. O'Rourke tries, but can't work with the material, and seems more like a brat than an innocent little girl. Nancy Allan starts off nice, but her dialog makes her come off as a nasty, self-centered jerk even though she's one of our "heroes", and Tom Skerritt... he just seems creepy and unsettling, even though he's meant to be a nice guy. The actors simply have no good dialog or development to feed off of, and all suffer for it.The film is abysmal. I'm only giving it a 2 to honor the late Heather O'Rourke. But it's actually, easily a 1 out of 10. Avoid this, please, for your sake!
Paul Celano (chelano)
I admit that this might of not been as good as the others, but it had a certain charm to it. It was a whole movie in itself. It really didn't need the back story that much. It does help to know it though. One small complaint I have is from Heather O'Rourke. In the first and second she was this cute little girl and she was tiny. So it actually made her a bit creepier at parts; even when she talked. For some reason since she is more grown up in their film, they made her talk really smart and snotty. Like she knew the whole world. But also since she was older, they could do a lot more with her in the film. The rest of the cast was pretty good. Tom Skerritt and Nancy Allen were great. Lara Flynn was OK at the time. Some of the side characters were bad actors though. Nathan Davis played an amazing Kane. He was really creepy. Now this film was great until the end. The ending was rushed to bring the film out. That is because they couldn't film the original ending since Heather O'Rourke died in real life. That had to use a double that didn't show her face and change the ending. But other than that, it really was a great film for a horror type season.
