For those that saw my first Poltergeist review, Do you remember when I said that I would love to see a sequel to venture into the strange and mysterious other world? Well, they didn’t go with that. Instead this sequel isn’t even produced by the same people. This PG-13 film, still without a content listing, seems to center on how the t.v. from the last one is not to blame. The father from the last one also seems to blame the real estate business he use to work for as he turns to a life selling vacuums. There’s also something severely missing from this film. The parent had three children from the first movie, yet the oldest daughter who could actually use some character development past flipping off construction workers is no where to be seen. The adults still seem to hold that open door policy which almost begins to look like a fetish since the almost deal with yet another walk in. Seriously, poor Robbie has probably walked in on those two a number of times already. Throughout this movie you will notice a few reoccurring themes. The first being the crazy sounding grandmother which the family now lives with, and who I also thought they sent the eldest daughter to in the first movie to begin with. The grandmother seems to be a strong believer in her clairvoyant powers and even suggests that Carol Anne could see colors with her hand. No joke. However, it seems that there’s some credit to her abilities since she managed a toy phone call to Carol Anne upon dying. (Not really much of spoiler since it happen before the raising action.) Though there’s also a lot of focus on Diane’s necrophobia which may be a result of being stuck in a swimming pool of skeleton in the last movie. Keep in mind this movie pretty much counts on you seeing the last one. As Tengena makes a reappearance she does give Diane some explanation toward the skeletons being part of an underground cult. However, this segment involves Tengena pushing Diane to use her clairvoyant powers since she no longer trusts her own. Boy, wonder why that might be “this house is clear.” Though the sudden flashes playing off of Diane’s necrophbia provides the Poltergeist some mental advantage on her and is actively exploited for all its worth. The plot of this movie revolves around family and love for one another keeping them together, but this is rated PG-13. How many teen do you think would actually watch this or think about watching it. While the rating might be more accurate referring to the content, but I just don’t think the audience intended for this are of that age group. Too, I bare some question on if this movie is about an elaborate ruse to take the family car. Certain lines used by their so called protector named Taylor follow “car’s still angry, eh?” and “it wants to come with me.” Well, it worked. So you try to tell me that that’s not part of the focus.
The main concepts that could either make or break this movie are The Native American theme, the house, the Poltergeist himself and really a lot of goofiness through Poltergeist II: The other side. That being part of the title. Why wouldn’t be about THE OTHER SIDE! This is what the audience would expect. I’ll go more into that later.
First, lets go over the Native American theme, and which tribe is the focus? That last bit is never really distinguished. My best guest is Navajo, but nothing about the theme is ever made to appear sensible or specified. If you’re going to do a Native American theme, you damn well better do it well. If you want good movies made with a Native American theme than I recommend Last of The Mahicans or The Pathfinder. Poltergeist II even establishes this as the main focus at the very beginning where we are given a blue light fire show, and a guy puffing white smoke into another’s nose. Why? I guess this was all suppose to make sense so much further along the story. No dialogue, no monologue, and absolute no explanation took part. Some guy just walked up to a campfire, started chanting until it turned blue then shoots a puff of white smoke up the other guy’s nose. Thankfully we are at least give the name of the guy who received that white smoke as Taylor who serves as the family’s protector in place of Tengena. Why him? It’s “his kind of job”. Excuse any ignorance here, but I think it’s fair to say that not many people are going to understand why it’s “his kind of job” in place of the psychic who helped them cross the other side for their daughter. I especially do not know much about or some much as which tribe this is suppose to be about. At the moment that Taylor finds himself engulfed in leaf-flies as they make it back to the grandmother’s house, I’m willing to bet that this is the same sort of tribe from Shaman King. I’ll have plenty of time to go over a few things just not quite right about Taylor, but converting Robbie to his tribe’s symbols of a man might not be his best move. As you can imagine, the mother’s not so happy about it, and when you only have a line like “how would you know, you’re not a man” you obviously misunderstood the issue. Though, Taylor still manages to convince the father to go through a writs of initiation. Finally! What the hell that puffing smoke into his nose is brought to light! Well, sorta at least. This scene actually comes pretty damn close to chapters too. Apparently that smoke is how to mark you so that the “entity” can view you. So pretty much it’s to make you more prone to attack than the person you are suppose to be protecting. What ever could go wrong there? (Yea, that’s sarcasm.) Lets start with why would you be sent to protect someone when you’re marked to be attacked by the same thing. That only assures collateral damage toward that person. I can really see why there might not be much use for this ritual.
Now for the house itself. From the first Poltergeist, the house imploded upon itself with bright colorful lights inspiring Ghostbusters special effects a hundred times over. So, of course, where that house disappeared turned into a ground zero. With all the fences and military looking cars the who neighborhood looks like a scene from Indiana Jones. To tack on more of that Indiana Jones theme, the disappears of the house revealed that the an underground utopian cult society actually lived under the house. This aspect actually seemed like a neat turn of events at first, and where it breaks lies more upon story overall. Toward the end, as in the very end of the movie, the family actually returns to this ground zero where their magic Native American friend opens a portal to the other world. WHAT! You call this the other side, but the only time we actually see the other side is not until the LAST CHAPTER! That would be like having Harry Potter and the sorcerer’s stone not even involve the sorcerer’s stone until the very last chapter. You would think I’m over reacting, but they honestly have the haunting almost have absolutely nothing to do with the other side until this point. Too what we got of the awe inspiring other side is lots of clouds and two different suns. Where’s the darkness mention in the first one? Where’s all those monsters? What happened to the Light? Is the light really that weak looking sunlight? Where did all those blinding light giving viewers seizures a thousand times over come from? Granted, I’m happy they decided to show mercy, but they don’t even bother to help us figure out where all those meaty chunks came from.
This sequel still holds itself own merits regardless of the disappointments. However, the merits seem to revolve around the amount of absolute silliness stuffed into this 90 min feature. A special highlight is the face of the antagonist from the first movie finally out in the open. The “beast” as Tengena referred to him, and for a long time “He” was all they called the poltergeist in this movie. Even the cover calls him “He”. Though the true nature of this predator, yea he lives up to that very well, is the preacher to talked the cult into forming an underground society with the fear of end times by the name of Kane. He shows up first by playing with Carol Anne when she got separated from her mother at a market place. Once Diane realizes that a child is missing, (if only she noticed that about the eldest daughter), Diane finds the old man with the widest smile I’ve ever seen. I think Osborne as agent Smith really has some competition there. I would still like to know what mother would not feel weirded out by a line like “she’s such a lo-ovely child” being said by a complete stranger. Thankfully, Diane displayed the appropriate response by making sure to walking away from the guy as quickly as possible. Though, what really boggles my mind is that he didn’t think to attack the house until after the grandmother dying. Did the beast just not dare mess with granny? With that aside, the heavy amount of omen dropped that this guy is freaking evil is so over the top that I dare say it comes off as dramatically ironic. The father’s discussion with him about Taylor thereafter comes off as equally ridiculous. Here’s a few quotes to give you an ideal, “false magic, hallucinations” and “afraid you’re not man enough to protect your family”. What! Are you telling me those CGI flying leafs are simply hallucination? Okay, it sounds about what the father might actually buy, and it’s quite clear that Kane’s a master of manipulation. Just ask the cult that willingly died underground with him. The really silly bit though has to be when he makes his way into the house as a white spectral stating that he’s not dead. That’s a rather hard one to convince people when you look like Caspar in his 60s. Fortunately, Taylor’s there to explain that Kane believes the two worlds are the same and that he is no longer the man he was for a demon has taken his form. Now this begs a really big question from my end. How do you know so much about “He” who Taylor even refers later as the “entity”. Told you I would get back to that. Though seriously, where is Taylor’s information coming from? Is Tengena’s psychic powers really that good even though she no longer trusts them anymore? Or did the cult carry some books stating their beliefs? Where this information comes from is never explained.
The overall theme of this review is it’s plain goofy, the movie Poltergeist II: The Other Side fails to live up to Poltergeist series while holding a serious face. Only this movie could have a supernatural being possess toys with a rain drop. For a movie meaning to hold onto family tied, there’s probably some family elements that could have been done without like when their grandmother possesses a woman at a diner. The whole necrophobia thing is played over and over again to extremes. Too, there’s at least some creativity to how the poltergeist attacks. I forgot to mention this, but Robbie, being the son has braces, and the really jumped at taking those metal wires and stretching them all over the place and even stretching toward an outlet. The tangles over Robbie’s face started to look like the cover of a Skillet’s album. Where was Taylor during all this, protecting the girl who was not under attack at that moment. I really don’t blame Robbie wanting to walk around with a helmet after that. I’m fairly certain that the ruling on this is that it’s comedy, plan and simple. There’s no way that you can take this horror themed movies seriously as a movie, no matter how much you make “He” look like Medusa. In fact, the fact that “He” resembles Medusa from Greek mythology makes it even harder to take seriously. Oh, For my favorite part has to be when the poltergeist manages to possess the father through a tequila worm while he’s suppose to be protecting his family without Taylor. Why did he decide to start drinking knowing that its his job to defend his family on his own? I guess he figured the alcohol would boost his strength. Hey, it works in Fallout. Just watching that Tequila worm turn into an oral baby has to be the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen. It’s like the writers just decided this whole thing was a bad joke and just rolled with. I just love how it winks back at the father and Diane before crawling away as if to say “Wakka Wakka”. The thing’s so hideous and knows it. I would expect something like this to show up in a Godzilla movie. Hell, this thing could probably make The Son of Godzilla actually work. You know what my words cannot even begin to fully describe this thing. I really wish that I could show you an image to see what I’m talking about, but you are always welcome to look them up yourself.
It’s an absolute shit-fest, but I would still recommend watching it if you feel in the mood for a spoof or something over the top crazy to watch that makes absolutely no since. I really don’t feel that the movie is really worth having to pay for, so I would recommend seeing if your local library has a copy. Thank you.
nekothelazygamer 