Review: Poltergeist (2015)

Recently unemployed Eric (Sam Rockwell) moves into a new home with his wife Amy (Rosemarie DeWitt), sullen teen daughter Kendra (Saxon Sharbino), timid son Griffin (Kyle Catlett), and youngest daughter Madison (Kennedi Clements). Almost as soon as they’ve moved in to the only house they could afford, Griffin thinks there’s something sinister in the house, and Madison seems to be talking to something or someone unseen inside the television screen. Although they at first dismiss all of this as child’s play, Eric and Amy are forced to admit that something isn’t right as things take a decidedly sinister turn and young Madison mysteriously disappears during a hellacious storm. And then they hear Madison’s voice coming from the TV screen! Time to call in the paranormal research geeks, headed by parapsychologist Dr. Powell (Jane Adams). However, when they uncover that there is a poltergeist behind all of this, Adams decides they need the help of TV occult/paranormal specialist Carrigan Burke (Jared Harris), AKA Dr. Powell’s ex-husband.

 

I’ve never been a huge fan of Steven Spielberg…er…Tobe Hooper’s “Poltergeist”, feeling that it was a sanitised, commercialised McMovie more indicative of Mr. Spielberg (“E.T.”, “Jurassic Park”), the producer and co-writer, than the usually more horrific Hooper (“Texas Chainsaw Massacre”), who supposedly directed it. I still have my nagging doubts on that one, but even if Spielberg did have his hand up Hooper’s butt or directed it entirely himself, it’s hardly one of Spielberg’s best films, either. If you want sheer terrifying paranormal horror, I’d suggest the original “The Haunting”, 1979’s “The Changeling”, and the sorely underrated (if slightly silly towards the end) “The Entity”. I’m not hugely impressed with this 2015 remake from director Gil Kenan (“Monster House”, “City of Ember”) and screenwriter David Lindsay-Abaire (“Robots”, “Oz: The Great and Powerful”), either. Both are OK-to-good films (and not terribly worlds apart in story, the remake is fairly faithful), but if I were to give one the edge, I’d say that this remake is closer to the good than the OK, whereas the original was definitely closer to OK. Credibility be damned, I actually liked the remake (a bit) better. So sue me!

 

As much as I loved JoBeth Williams in the original, Rosemarie DeWitt won me over almost instantly. I don’t know what it is (the sexy underwear shot might’ve played a part, not gonna lie), I just plain like her. Sam Rockwell takes an interestingly snarky and almost depressed approach to the husband character and although it doesn’t take much to be better than Craig T. Nelson in the original, he is nonetheless far more interesting it needs to be said. Rockwell’s actually a bit of a dick here, but not so much that it makes his character unlikeable. He’s actually terrific. Meanwhile, young Kennedi Clements is a little oddball in the role formerly known as Carol Ann, but now renamed Madison, perhaps as a way to avoid…well, y’know. The curse. Clements delivers that immortal line differently to the late Heather O’Rourke, and indeed she and the film are all the better for Clements being her own brand of weird and eerie. The casting of young Kyle Catlett is absolutely spot-on. Not only is he convincing in the role, but he actually looks a bit like DeWitt. He’s also scared of clowns and thunderstorms, both perfectly rational fears as far as I’m concerned. No I don’t sleep with the light on thank you very much. I’m 35 years old, why do you ask? Oh who asked you anyway? Um…moving on. The majority of the casting in this is interesting and better than the original for sure. Instead of the mediocre Beatrice Straight, we get the lovely and quirky Jane Adams who yes, does her usual mousy/neurotic/cutesy thing, but she’s so damn good at it. For the most part she does well by taking this silly stuff pretty seriously. That is until Jared Harris’ character is properly introduced into the narrative. Playing a pompous, cheesy ‘ghost hunter’ TV host, he is instantly hilarious in a role that although somewhat based on the Zelda Rubenstein character in the first film, is closer to Roddy McDowall in “Fright Night”. He doesn’t need to take things seriously for the most part because his role is silly by design. However, when the film does require him to do so (the climax), he’s more than capable of it. He and Adams are a hoot together as ex-partners in more sense than one.

 

The one casting flaw, and it’s the biggest flaw in the whole film (the other flaw being some slightly silly CG imagery), is the wonderfully named Saxon Sharbino as the teen daughter. However, it’s probably more the role than the actress to be honest. The role is a horribly written teen-bot girl whose only dialogue consists of whining about wanting to go to the mall, or trying to get her phone back. She’s borderline Malibu Stacy for fuck’s sake and a constant annoyance, probably the most irritating horror movie character of the year. Sharbino’s performance suggests she’s rather embarrassed to be playing the part, too, she almost seems to be taking the piss to be honest. However, I really don’t think it’s a performance that really fits the character, it comes off very weird and distracting.

 

I liked the design of the house in this one, simply because it looks so normal…aside from that ominous tree that freaks you out because you’re predicting it’s gonna go through the poor boy’s window at some point. It was the only scary scene in the original, but this time out I think they go the extra step further and make the scene genuinely terrifying, instead of an effective shock. Not “Babadook” terrifying (few films are as terrifying as that one, of recent decades. I’m still recovering!) but it’s much more than just a moment of effective startling like in the original. In fact, here it is folks, the one thing more than anything that puts this one over the original: It’s genuinely scary…well, a little bit. I don’t like ‘boo!’ scares because they are startling moments, not really ‘scares’, but the ones in this film are all pretty good, some even replays of the original (only done better here). However, aside from being startling on occasion, the whole film is scarier this time out because I think it actually better conveys an evil presence in the house, particularly with the rather insidious, creeping camerawork by Javier Aguirresarobe (“The Road”, “Warm Bodies”, “Blue Jasmine”). I said earlier that the house looked mostly ‘normal’, and that’s true, except when Aguirresarobe is employing orange lighting to make it look rather demonic, very cool. I’ll admit that the comic book stack is probably one of the weaker attempts at one-upmanship here (the chair stacking from the original was much better), but this one does have an amusing/scary bit involving a drill, and some really nice sound FX throughout. As for the visual FX, like I said, a couple of the CG images are overdone and a bit corny, but the portal thingy looks much as it did in 1982, only upgraded technologically. It looks more ‘realistic’. There’s a genuinely creepy-looking visualisation of the inside of that portal thingy to whatever ‘other side’ the girl is on. It’s freaking amazing. The house was on a former burial ground…that may not be quite as former as the real estate agent suggested it was. Real estate agents lie? Shocking revelation. Still, I like the idea, it’s basically the same idea as the original, just without the Native-American aspect, for obvious (PC) reasons. I also think the emphasis on all the electrical/white noise in this one I think is superior to the original.

 

So, credibility be damned, I think this is a slight upgrade on the rather sanitised original. Plot-wise it’s fairly similar, but the characters are mostly far more interesting, and it’s even a little scary. Having said that, I enjoyed the first two “Insidious” films and “An American Haunting”, so your taste in horror may differ wildly from mine. I liked this. I was shocked by this realisation, and maybe you too will be pleasantly surprised.

 

Rating: B-