Poltergeist II: The Other Side

Really, things only really fell apart at the end. As a franchise Poltergeist has always been messy. But in a LOT of ways this was less messy than the first movie until the ending fucked everything up.

This is again another horror movie in which nobody dies (except Grandma of natural causes). Which has to be a record for ANY horror franchise.

I think the reason I was willing to give this a bit of the benefit of the doubt early on is because of the villain Kane. His teeth are SO frightening you just KNOW Joss Whedon entirely cribbed those dentures for the Gentlemen in Buffy The Vampire Slayer. And that's not even a question. And it's not even super heavy monster make-up. It's just a dude who happens to look that frightening. Honestly, I don't believe ANYONE but Julian Beck could have played the role. And there aren't too many actors of fictional characters I think that about. Beck's real life history is creepy enough.

Craig T. Nelson also deserves credit for his frightening performance under Kane's possession. The attempted rape is appalling, but there is no denying Nelson performs Stephen as a man entirely outside of himself as the moment is occurring. Besides Kane, the most memorable thing about the movie is the giant worm Stephen pukes out. These specific elements suggest a tighter narrative structure than the kitchen sink version of horror the first film engaged in. But as the movie goes on it loses momentum to a ridiculously false empowering climax with Carol Ann as almost a divine being, and them defeating the evil using The Power Of Family. I mean, I know Dom Toretto says THAT'S his secret weapon too, but he also has like guns and cars and stuff. It's just so hokey. And the special effects at the end look absolutely shoddy and terrible. Maybe they didn't when the movie was made, but I have a hard time believing that, especially since nobody likes the movie. Those shitty effects at the end cannot just have rubbed ME the wrong way.

Another huge problem is that Kane is SUCH a great villain, the family needed their final confrontation to be with HIM. I know Beck died during post-production, but it seems to me they should have beefed his role up before he did.

And there are a bunch of little things in the movie that bother me.

The r word, and an especially offensive derivative of it.

Diane slams the bedroom door on the worm monster, leaving Stephen trapped in the hall. Real quality wifing there, Diane.

Diana shares a bath with Carol Ann. What is this, Ren and Stimpy? Gross.

In their first escape from the house they forgot the damn dog! What the fuck kind of family is this?

I get Dominique Dunne was murdered and couldn't appear in the film. But the original plan was for Dana to be away at college. Instead Dana isn't even mentioned. It doesn't feel respectful to Dunne's memory. It feels like memory-holing her instead, and majorly DISRESPECTFUL.

I found out both this and the first film were written by the guys who wrote the screenplay to Cool World. Now neither films' screenplay is WORSE than Cool World's. But neither's is better either.

This had potential to be MUCH better than the first movie, but was too busy painting Carol Ann as some sort of angelic saint, for having the power of being a cute white girl. It's frustrating, and Kane deserved a better movie to menace than this. 2 stars.