Poltergeist
Starring: Sam Rockwell, Rosemarie DeWitt
Directed By: Gil Kenan
Reviewed by Brendan Dousi
[ Rating: 2.5/5]
It’s happening again, it has become the most common thing in today’s film industry. Remakes. Reboots. Re-imaginings. Re-re-re-re-re’s. It’s a kind of sad reality that today original content and ideas are being shafted for the brand recognition that comes with nostalgia. So, this week’s entry into the ever growing remake library is cult classic horror film Poltergeist. Though, with a somewhat promising trailer and fantastic cast could this be one of those rare remakes that stand apart from the original and shines in it’s own right?
The Bowens have hit a bit of a rough patch. The father, Eric (Sam Rockwell), has recently been laid off from a high paying job forcing the family to relocate to a new neighbourhood. The mother, Amy (Rosemarie DeWitt), is suffering from writer’s block and is starting to feel the pressures of needing to get a job now that her husband is out of one. And then there’s the kids, Kendra (Saxon Sharbino), Griffin (Kyle Catlett) and Madison (Kennedi Clements) who are all having growing pains trying to readjust to a change of house and neighbourhood. Oh, and there’s an entire graveyard of pissed-off entities tormenting the family in a desperate attempt to free themselves of their enternal torment. Just your average middle-class white people problems, you know?
Poltergeist is one of those films that you know has a lot of problems with it, but you still can’t help liking it. For one thing, it is completely unnecessary. This remake adds almost nothing new to the equation, nothing of importance at least. They add in an older daughter who doesn’t do all that much except use social media and watch ghost-hunting shows and also try and shoe-horn in modern technology to make things seem different. All of the technology they add just feels mostly unnecessary and for the sake of it. Hover-drone with a camera so we can see into the extradimensional portal? Sure. I mean, it’s not like you could just show us what’s inside the portal using the magic of cinema instead of making it gimmicky. On top of this, the movie has one other major problem. It isn’t scary. There’s maybe a couple of cheap jump scares and there’s quite a bit of creepy atmosphere involved but you never truly feel that heart-thumping danger for the characters that goes along with the best horror films.
Fortunately, as I said, the movie has a great sense of fun to it. Despite it not being all that scary, there’s an innate humour and entertainment value here largely thanks to an immensely talented cast. Sam Rockwell is such a delight in everything he does and here is no different, it’s actually refreshing seeing him play the ‘regular joe’ for once and he does it with flair. It’s not just the Sam Rockwell show, however, as he’s backed up with extremely solid performances from Rosemarie DeWitt as his wife, Jared Harris and Jane Adams as a pair of kooky paranormal investigators/ex-lovers and some of the best child acting I’ve seen since Super 8 in the form of the adorable Kennedi Clements as the Bowen’s youngest daughter/psychic prodigy.
It’s not original and doesn’t bring anything fresh enough to warrant it’s existence as a remake but that doesn’t negate it’s entertainment value. It’s a fun, pleasant little film with some charismatic performances and a few mild scares here and there. It’s no match for the original, but if you are up for an unchallenging and fun night at the cinemas you can do a lot worse than Poltergeist (2015).
