POLTERGEIST… The word conjures a singular experience from many of our childhoods, teenage years or perhaps a dorm room in college or night cuddled up under the covers with someone you love being scared aggressively. The Steven Spielberg produced, Tobe Hooper directed original POLTERGEIST is one of the perfect films from our past, but it would probably surprise you just how many folks know the PARANORMAL ACTIVITY films instead.
This is the conundrum of modern society. There’s whole groups of folks out there that have zero interest in seeing “an old movie.” Just like there’s folks out there that think movies are a bunch of programming that clouds the mind from the important things in life. They’d prefer to read a book, work out, see the real world, interact with the one’s they love.
That’s not me.
I love film. I believe the medium teaches us, if we allow it, to have empathy for our fellow human beings, to see actions gone wrong that we do not have to repeat - because we saw them go wrong and we’re not stupid enough to do that, right? They show us places in the world we never knew about, they can show us visions of the future or the distant past or even similar tales to movies we’ve seen before.
But POLTERGEIST… it’s one of those Amblin films that took hold. From the imagination of Steven Spielberg… when he was still actively imagining whole scenarios we’d never seen before. It made us not have clown dolls in our homes. It taught us not to stare at static on a Television. Not to play with ghosts. And for some of us, if our sisters got taken by the closet monsters - we would petition our families to just fucking move. Count her as gone, cuz I just… man, scary scary stuff. The family unit in that movie felt like mine, the parents smoked pot, the boy had Star Wars toys and posters in his room, the older sister was pretty much out with friends all the time… It was great. Nothing not to like. At every turn of the film it is a superior movie.
Why remake it?
Well, because it is going to happen. Think about it. All of our favorite movies are controlled by companies that have been shown over and over again, that if a movie of theres is being remade, not only do they profit from the new film, but it reintroduces their old product to the masses and raises its sales. People that love the first film will often check out the new movie and the folks that had never seen it will see the new one and then wonder if the old one was better - and they’ll give it a shot. This is just the way of things.
So here we are, at the doorstep of a remake of POLTERGEIST. They showed me the film a good while back and I really enjoyed it. Is it a better movie? No, it is a different movie. Does it share similarities, absolutely, but it isn’t slavishly devoted to the original, but it also doesn’t do a bunch of just stupid shit that craps on your memory of the original.
This version is produced by Sam Raimi (helluva guy!) and directed by Gil Kenan (also a helluva guy!). Just like the producer and director of the original. Only, I’ve never met Spielberg, but I’ve known Tobe Hooper for most of my life.
As the film begins we find the young man playing an iPad Zombie game in the backseat of the car. This is a family moving into a new home.
Stop. Right there, huge difference. Sure, the family dynamic of mom, dad, older daughter, younger son and the youngest daughter are still there… but in the original, the family seemed very well entrenched into their home. They had neighborhood friends, and that television gladiator living next door. The dad worked in reality and had sold most of the homes in the area.
This family, the father is seeking a new job, the mother is a writer - but saddled with the kids, just hasn’t had the time, energy and focus to write what is in her mind. They need to begin again. We’re not sure entirely what drove them from their old home, but it was certainly nothing supernatural.
The movie begins with the reality agent showing them the house. No warnings.
This isn’t the Freeling family from the original, you don’t have to worry about hearing CAROL ANNE being screamed about. This is the Bowen family. Let’s introduce them.
Sam Rockwell is playing Eric Bowen, the father/husband. Frankly, he’s a bit of a mess. He’s out of a job, he seems inwardly depressed. Their finances are in a dire situation. But he’s a Dad that still wants everyone to look up for him, and to make himself feel better he’ll put more debt on to the family to be able to come in with presents. He puts a good face on for the family, but he seems to be treating his own inner doubts with alcohol. Actually…
Rosemarie DeWitt is playing the mother/wife, they drink, like JoBeth and Craig lit up. She is concerned about her husband, the finances and their families reality and trying to help. She wants to get a job, but her hubby likes to think of her as a writer, even if being the housewife doesn’t afford her the clarity of thought she needs. She NEEDS to have a job, to get out of the house - to just reestablish her own sense of things.
Saxon Sharbino plays Kendra Bowen, the older daughter. She’s angry about the move. She misses her friends and Skypes with them, while watching a GHOST ADVENTURES style show starring JARED HARRIS, who will proclaim, “This House is Clean!” - it is a giggle worthy thing. Of course, I live with a woman addicted to GHOST ADVENTURERS and trash talking them or getting incredibly into their shenanigans, so this works for me. She’s the kind of teenage daughter that can only see her own perspective.
Kyle Catlett plays Griffin Bowen, the brother in the middle. He’s an anxious boy, who gets spooked easily. The parents wonder if they need to get him counseling, but it isn’t like they can afford that right now. He gets the Attic room, because his parents probably HATE him. My god, that attic room would’ve given me a heart attack at that age. It has a skylight style window with the big tree visible through it. Bet that’s gonna haunt the boy. He’ll find a box of clowns that are obviously there to swallow his soul - and he knows it, because he’s a bright boy that knows that something is wrong with the house… and he’s the only one that thinks his younger sister is doing spooky things like…
Kennedi Clements plays Madison Bowen - and everyone knows evil spirits love little sisters! She’s sweet. But I don’t trust her, because this movie is called POLTERGEIST - and this little girl is going to talk and court the undead because she wasn’t fucking raised better. I always showed my little sister POLTERGEIST from the youngest age, because it was important to not talk to the people in the static of the TV, it was important to never trust an unseen voice and if something is scary… DON’T DO IT! These are essential life lessons that POLTERGEIST taught me and you better believe my sis learned them all. This girl is sweet and innocent, but more than happy to engage with the unknown of the house.
At this point - let’s discuss - is this a REMAKE or a SEQUEL. Well, frankly… that’s something that’s left to you. Gil Kenan’s version of POLTERGEIST does do some similar actions, but it will also take different turns. The things that happen to characters are sometimes similar and sometimes the things that happened to other characters before or that will be new altogether.
If you, as the viewer, allows yourself to just be introduced to a new family, that’s moving into a suburban community, that probably has a few hundred bodies buried underneath it. Another lesson that this movie taught me, was to never buy property to live upon without going to the County Courthouse and researching the abstract for the land your property is sitting upon to see what it was before you purchased it. It isn’t hard to do. But if the original POLTERGEIST scared you, surely you do this too. This film will reiterate that feeling.
Once the family member is taken, the film starts hitting its stride by bringing in the researchers… Headed by Jane Adams (HAPPINESS) as Dr. Brooke Powell. Her assistants are Susan Hayward (POWERS) and Nicholas Braun (SKY HIGH). This group is going to have some new equipment from the first film and some of the same stuff. My fave new scene through this involves Nicholas Braun’s Boyd trying to hang a sensor in the little sister’s closet. Yeah, fuck that right in the ass. NO WAY.
As I was saying, before I got distracted - if you just allow yourself to discover this new family, living in a brand new home for them, in a completely different community and place from the original film, 33 years in the other film’s future… and you know… because this is POLTERGEIST that shit is going to happen.
I went to this movie hoping, I could like it. I did. I don’t root to hate things. It’s sad. To focus and gather negative emotions, I believe that’s how bad things happen. BUT, I was concerned. Mainly because while I like Gil Kenan… he was attempting to make a movie called POLTERGEIST that was going to be somewhat adapted from the first film. A first film that I consider metaphysically perfect.
But as the end credit music played a cover of The Cramps’ “TV SET” by SPOON - I looked over at Dad and said… Ya know… the only thing I would really like right now is to hear those creepy kids singing that “La la la laaaaa LA” song from the end of POLTERGEIST. Which now that I think about it would be a weird request. As the movie does do its own thing. The Quadcopter into the closet was the reason in my mind beyond all others for seeing this in 3D, beyond the fact that I just honestly love 3D.
So - if you like scary movies, but you can forgive the very notion of daring to remake POLTERGEIST… you could have a whole lot of fun with this movie. My favorite two performers from the movie are young Kyle Catlett and Sam Rockwell. The two of them, I just believe through and through.
If they continue with POLTERGEIST as a series beyond this, frankly, I wouldn’t follow the family characters, but that of Jared Harris’ Carrigan Burke. I think he’s a character that needed more fleshing out, who I was genuinely curious about. Seems he’s seen shit like this before and wasn’t particularly out of his league here. I like that. Also - I would love if they avoided the suburbs - and instead focused on something like an Apartment complex built on something. Structure the film more after something like REAR WINDOW - but with POLTERGEIST activity.
And I really do hope this film does alright. Gil Kenan is a director that I fell in love with after MONSTER HOUSE owned me, I really liked his CITY OF EMBERS and he’s made a film, that for me, plays a bit like 2010.
2010 wasn’t a movie the world was clamoring for. It was essentially just a remake of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, but really - it had different characters, a similar scenario of finding out what happened out there - and a lot of folks will just never give it a fair treatment because… well… Fucking KUBRICK man. But I enjoyed Peter Hyams’ 2010 all the same. It made me think about why I love Space, science fiction and films about them.
POLTERGEIST may make you want to watch the original again, but hey, that’s a good thing. It’s always a fine time to watch the original POLTERGEIST, but this remake/relaunch/readaptation of a Spielberg Story… it’s a scary fun film. I mean, don’t you want to see how Sam Rockwell reacts to the shit that is going to go down in this film?
All I know is that right now, this is the Horror film choice in the marketplace - and I’m definitely taking my wife to see it on Sunday, because it will play her awesomely! And really, isn’t that what a horror film is for, to scare the one you love?
Oh... and fuck CLOWN toys. Seriously. They should never be made!
Scary Clown Dolls CHECK! Scary family abduction CHECK! Paranormal Experts CHECK! Weird other dimensional unexplainable what the fucks CHECK!
