Movie Review: POLTERGEIST (2015)

Remakes are a mixed bag with horror fans. Generally, most fans of the genre have a negative reaction. Hopefully, there are a few like myself that don’t mind a remake if new ideas are being injected into it or if the the new incarnation can improve on some weak spots. Since Sam Raimi is a producer on this new remake of Poltergeist, we’ll take the Evil Dead remake under consideration. I’ll be the first to admit that while I love the original Evil Dead, it has some issues – mainly pacing. I thought the remake did a great job by keeping the viciousness of the original, if not amping it up a bit more, as well as improving the story a bit as well as updating it for modern audiences. The reason why most genre fans hate remakes is that they feel it is a cash grab for an already established brand. And, for the most part, they are right. It’s way cheaper to make a film on an established brand that has built in marketing rather than create something new. For every horror fan, 1982’s Poltergeist is a film that is pretty beloved. From Jerry Goldsmith’s score to the odd Speilbergian mashup with Tobe Hooper’s sensibilities (I’m of the frame of mind that it is mainly Spielberg’s film), some may say that Poltergeist is a pretty flawless film that didn’t really need any updating. Besides, didn’t Insidious already give us a feeling of a updated Poltergeist film (Other Side = The Further)?

Director Gil Kenan (Monster House, City of Ember) takes the reigns on this retelling of a family that moves into a house that is built on a cemetery. While the names have changed in this version, for the most part, the story remains the same. Where 1982’s Poltergeist felt like a horror film that got housed in a family Amblin film VHS clamshell, Kenan’s Poltergeist is a little more light-hearted with more of a grounded reality when it comes to the children. In the original film, the family adapts to suburbia to fit in, to be the idyllic family. In Kenan’s interpretation, the Bowen family (I told you, the names changed) are a family that is trying to survive as one cohesive unit. The Freeling family from the original film just bought a house in the wrong spot where as the Bowen family had no choice, the parents are out of work and take advantage of a suburb facing a plague of foreclosure. Kenan strikes a chord here because it is something every person who was such a fan of the previous film can identify with.

While the film feels closer to the children in this version, we still don’t get emotionally attached to them – especially as much as you may have in the original film. The poltergeist activity in this film doesn’t feel as vicious as it did in the 1982 film and, for that, is where this film falters. While Sam Rockwells Eric and Rosemarie DeWitt‘s Amy Bowen feel genuine and often provide some comic relief, these actors cannot help this empty feeling that resides in the film. The scares are far and few between as well as cheap. The strength in Kenan’s film is definitely a kid-like nature to everything. While the film juggles between the parents point of view to the children’s, the scenes that deal with the Bowen’s only son, Griffin, are strong.

The film pretty much stands on its own while throwing a few surprises and tributes to those familiar to the original film. However, it feels like a pointless remake. Honestly, this could be because we saw a film like Insidious and Insidious: Chapter 2 play in theaters within the past 5 years so it could leave us feeling that 2015’s Poltergeist feels a bit more stale because of it. Trust me, there are things that work in this film but for the most part, it just feel pretty plain and average. You can feel that there is more that was meant to be told but it   all feels restrained in order to hit all the checkpoints of a traditional remake. Plus, it is missing a lot of the magic that held the original film together. While I’m not the biggest fan of comparing a new interpretation to its original, this remake feels pretty pedestrian that it is hard not to compare.