{"id":7013,"date":"2024-10-25T11:49:45","date_gmt":"2024-10-25T15:49:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=7013"},"modified":"2024-10-25T11:49:45","modified_gmt":"2024-10-25T15:49:45","slug":"poltergeist-ii-the-other-side","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/25\/poltergeist-ii-the-other-side\/","title":{"rendered":"Poltergeist II: The Other Side"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Poltergeist II: The Other Side<\/strong> (1986)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 MGM\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 91 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (mild profanity, some violence, alcohol abuse, intense scenes of terror)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Brian Gibson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Michael Grais and Mark Victor\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jerry Goldsmith\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Cinematography: Andrew Laszlo\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 23, 1986 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: JoBeth Williams, Craig T. Nelson, Heather O’Rourke, Oliver Robbins, Will Sampson, Julian Beck, Zelda Rubinstein, Geraldine Fitzgerald, John P. Whitecloud, Noble Craig.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $40.9M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: * \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0Remember how some people criticized 2010, the sequel to the sci-fi classic 2001: A Space Odyssey? They said explaining the mysteries of the original movie took away the magic and wonder of Arthur C. Clarke\u2019s existential space journey. The same theory can be applied to Poltergeist II: The Other Side<\/strong>, a ridiculous, unnecessary sequel to Tobe Hooper\u2019s terrifying ghost story. You know it\u2019s in trouble right from the start when Native American mumbo jumbo is introduced into the story.<\/p>\n

\u00a0After participating in some sort of religious ritual, Taylor (Sampson, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) is summoned to the remains of the old Freeling house in Cuesta Verde by his friend, diminutive psychic Tangina (Rubinstein, Anguish). A huge underground cavern has been found underneath the cemetery the house was built over. It contains the remains of an early 19th<\/sup> century religious cult led by insane Reverend Kane (Beck, The Cotton Club) who convinced his followers the end of the world was at hand. They all followed him into the cavern, but his prediction did not come true. He forced his followers to stay in the cavern anyway and they all died. Kane was so evil that he became \u201cThe Beast\u201d, an entity that absorbs spirits to increase his strength. This is who took Carol Anne (O\u2019Rourke) in the first movie and why. Now that I know this, it takes away a good part of the mystique of Poltergeist. That’s not even the worst part of this terribly misconceived sequel.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It’s been a year since the events of the first movie. The Freeling family now lives with Grandma Jess (Fitzgerald, Easy Money) in Phoenix. They\u2019re struggling financially because they lost all their money after the paranormal incident in their previous home. The insurance company keeps denying their claims, asserting the house was not destroyed but “misplaced”. Shortly after Grandma dies in her sleep, strange things start to happen…. again. Since father Steve (Nelson, All the Right Moves) won\u2019t allow a TV in their home (for good reason!), the evil gets in through Carol Anne\u2019s toy telephone. This time, she gets to say, \u201cThey\u2019re back!\u201d Not long after, Kane starts showing up. When they try to flee, Taylor shows up to warn them running away is pointless because the evil spirits will follow them wherever they go. They have no choice but to stand up and fight Kane on his own terms. This entails, among other things, the whole family taking a trip to \u201cthe other side\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Director Brian Gibson (What\u2019s Love Got to Do with It) throws a lot of stupid stuff at the audience in Poltergeist II: The Other Side<\/strong>. For example, Grandma Jess is clairvoyant, a gift that keeps on giving, genetically speaking. Mother Diane (Williams, The Big Chill) and daughter Carol Anne have it too. Is this what enables them to see Kane when nobody else can? If that\u2019s the case, why can Steve see him too? He\u2019s not psychic. He can see them before his trip to the desert with Taylor where he\u2019s gifted with the \u201cPower of Smoke\u201d.\u00a0 What\u2019s that, you ask? It\u2019s more Native American mumbo jumbo, but it\u2019ll help Steve fight off the evil. There\u2019s a lot of mumbo jumbo once Taylor hits the scene, yet none of it has anything to do with the main story. Oh yeah, one other thing. What about the Freelings\u2019 oldest daughter Dana? In real life, actress Dominique Dunn was murdered by her boyfriend shortly after the first Poltergeist came out. In the movie, her absence is never explained. In fact, everybody acts as though she never existed. Could it be she\u2019s in the same void as the similarly mysteriously departed Chuck Cunningham? Actually, a scene explaining her absence was written (away at university), but never filmed.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The most disappointing aspect of Poltergeist II: The Other Side<\/strong> is in the title. I\u2019m talking, of course, about the \u201cother side\u201d or as most folks call it, Limbo. Something wonderful and awesome could have happened here, but instead we find the big OS is nothing more than a dull light show. It looks cooler in the imagination than it does on the big screen. As for the big fight, it involves little more than Steve fighting the Beast with a magic Indian spear.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Most of Poltergeist II: The Other Side<\/strong> is ludicrous, but the biggest indicator of Spielberg\u2019s non-involvement with the sequel is the depiction of the Freelings. In the original, they were a satirical version of the modern American nuclear family. They were believable people in an unbelievable situation. In the sequel, they\u2019re like a goofy sitcom family. They\u2019re unbelievable people in an unbelievably dumb situation.<\/p>\n

\u00a0There are a few good scenes in Poltergeist II: The Other Side<\/strong> like when son Robbie’s (Robbins) braces envelop him in the bathroom and the family tries to rescue him from a mass of twisted metal. I couldn\u2019t help but think of Tetsuo the Iron Man. Although the effect is sickening, I have to admit I liked the Vomit Monster even though it\u2019s born of a silly idea. Steve gets drunk on tequila and swallows the worm at the bottom of the bottle. He is then temporarily possessed by Kane. When he realizes what’s going on, he vomits up the worm which has become a monster. If nothing else, Poltergeist II: The Other Side <\/strong>has decent special effects work. Too bad it isn\u2019t as scary as its predecessor.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 Poltergeist II: The Other Side<\/strong> stops short of not being scary at all because of Julian Beck. His character is creepy as hell! This can likely be contributed to a combination of effective makeup artistry and the fact the actor was terminally ill with stomach cancer during filming. He died in September \u201985 shortly after filming completed. Fitzgerald is good despite having only about five minutes of screen time. O’Rourke is still good as Carol Anne; I can\u2019t say the same for the rest of her on-screen family.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Sampson is a caricature of a Native American rather than a Native American character. I honestly don\u2019t understand how Native American culture fits into Poltergeist II: The Other Side<\/strong>. I\u2019m thinking the makers ran out of good usable ideas and went with something not many non-Native Americans know about. In any event, his character becomes superfluous after the scene in the desert.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I’m afraid that there’s very little that makes sense in Poltergeist II: The Other Side<\/strong>. It\u2019s choppy and incomprehensible. This, however, isn\u2019t necessarily the fault of the writers. The studio cut it down by 40 minutes in order to rush it into theaters by Memorial Day weekend. Crucial scenes, like a second encounter with Kane at the Freelings\u2019 home, are gone. Ultimately, we\u2019re left with a disappointing sequel that bears only the barest resemblance to the original. Aw hell, why am I mincing words? It\u2019s bad!\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 MGM\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 91 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (mild profanity, some violence, alcohol abuse, intense scenes of terror)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Brian Gibson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Michael Grais and Mark Victor\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jerry Goldsmith\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Cinematography: Andrew Laszlo\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 23, 1986 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: JoBeth Williams, Craig T. Nelson, Heather O’Rourke, Oliver Robbins, Will Sampson, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7348,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-horror","category-sequels-remakes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Poltergeist-II-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7013"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7350,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7013\/revisions\/7350"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}