As I’ve mentioned many times in the past, I got into horror pretty late in my life. I remember watching some horror in my early teens, but it didn’t really hook me until my mid-to-late-twenties.
Maybe that is the reason the trend of remaking treasured horror movies doesn’t really bother me. Even if I really like an older horror film, I don’t have the nostalgia for it that a lot of people do. (Then again, I watched Ghostbusters many times as a child and am still hyped for the remake, so maybe nostalgia doesn’t really play into my views on this at all.)
I’ve seen the original Poltergeist many times. It’s a perfectly fine movie, but it’s also quite dated. After the Nightmare on Elm Street remake (which I enjoyed), I remember telling someone that if there was one movie from that era I would really like to see remade, it would be Poltergeist. I believe the response to that statement was a slap in the face.
But someone was listening, because I got my wish. And, to cap it off, this version stars Sam Rockwell. Oh man, I love Sam Rockwell so much.
As it turns out, this movie – like the original – is perfectly fine. The cast is great, it looked good, and there were a couple pretty creepy moments. There were also a handful of completely nonsensical moments, but I enjoyed those as well. It’s 93 minutes long. It gets you in, shows you some scary stuff and gets you out. It’s not a masterpiece, but it’s perfectly serviceable as a piece of starter horror for someone trying to get into the genre. Or even for a normal horror fan looking for something kind of fun to throw on.
Rating: 2.5/5
A couple random moments that made me laugh:
– Griffin (the little boy) was, quite possibly, the most scared child I have ever seen in a movie. So what do they do? Why, put him in the room with the secret clown closet, naturally.
– SPOILER ALERT
Eric (Sam Rockwell’s character) says earlier in the movie how he can’t support the family on a high school baseball coach salary. So what happens at the end? He gets a job as a high school baseball coach and they’re looking at pretty big houses. Because that’s how life works.
END SPOILER