Hey guys! Horrorella here...
POLTERGEIST is one of my very favorite horror movies. It is fascinating, terrifying, and engaging, particularly because of how much you grow to love the Freelings over the course of the film. As scary as the images onscreen get, they are amplified by the fact that you care so deeply for the characters that you are incredibly emotionally invested in them getting through this horrific event.
In a recent interview with Collider, Sam Rockwell, who will be starring in the film, let loose a little info on what we can expect from the tone of the reboot.
“It’s not like Conjuring type of scary. You know, it’s a different kind of movie. It’s more of an adventure. It’s essentially a child abduction film when you come down to it. I mean, the original Poltergeist is too.”
This time around though, the audience will be seeing the events of the story more through the perspective of one of the children living in the house, rather than through the parents, which could be and interesting change.
“The 10-year-old boy is really the protagonist this time. JoBeth Williams was the protagonist for the most part in the first one and now the kid, it’s really through his point-of-view. So it’s more of a kids’ movie so I don’t know if it’s gonna be like rated-R scary.”
This fits with PG-13 rating that the film would be receiving. And that doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing. We have seen plenty of horror films that built their scares on dread, rather than on gore and disturbing imagery, and it's possible that this could go the same way. Again, if you can draw your audience in and get them invested, you don't necessarily have to cover the screen with demonic images for the duration of the story (though, that can certainly help too).
If they choose to take the premise out of the horror genre completely, and make it more of a straight-up family adventure, that's a different story. Everyone knows POLTERGEIST is a ghost story, and changing that up would be doing everyone a disservice. So, fingers crossed that doesn't happen.
We'll know for certain when the film hits theaters later this summer. In the meantime, what do you guys think?
