POLTERGEIST

First, I'll stick with the original. It's not like this a bad film. It's just a good one but it's acceptable with the type of horror films we are given today. As a remake this lacks the emotion and true scares that were provided in the original film. They did not spend any time setting up the first initial aspects of the encounter with the poltergeist like in the first with the sequence involving the moving chair in the kitchen. It really speeds through any interaction like that. As far as the girl who was probably the most important person to cast, I thought she did okay. She has very emotive eyes but I think she should have been blonde. I did not care for the wife or Sam Rockwell as the husband. That's surprising considering how good of an actor he is. I thought the boy gave a nice performance and I liked the twist of him rescuing the daughter instead of the mother. I also was waiting for the film to really build to a crescendo like in the first film but it didn't really give us that. Overall, it was just okay.

Grade - C

It's honestly maybe the most unnecessary remake ever. It's the definition of a "meh" movie and will be forgotten quickly. The performances from Rosemarie DeWitt and Sam Rockwell were actually really good and the little girl was charming - the other two kids were horrible though. It's well-shot and I liked a couple of the major sequences, but this is such a paint-by-numbers remake that it becomes quite dull by the end. I also thought that the Jane Adams/Jared Harris characters didn't work at all and Nicholas Braun was terrible. Definitely disappointing considering the director could have definitely done something more imaginative with it. C

I would rather watch this a million times than one of the Inshitious movies though.

The last sentence negates your entire opinion.

A dull, uninspired update of the Poltergeist brand. I enjoy the original 1982 film, but I do not hold it sacred in any profound way. It could be improved upon or envisaged anew. This film, directed without much discernible personality or verve by Monster House's Gil Kenan, falls well short. The storyline, thin as it is, is confused from the start: the central family's financial woe is fixated upon (every credit card is charged to the max, and neither parent has a job), but the action is set in motion when they purchase a spacious single-family home in a California subdivision. The subsequent bumps in the night are instantly recognizable: an evil clown figurine, a menacing presence emanating from television interference, etc. There are a few proficient-if-predictable jolts during the first 30 minutes, including a handsome variation on the famous scene in which an imposing, knotted tree comes to life and tries to devour one of the children. The enterprise rapidly runs out of steam afterward, though. The pacing and structure are downright strange. There is, for example, no genuine, quantifiable second act. The film simply stalls and expounds for around 10 minutes as it segues from the setup of the first half to the finale, which is a snooze and overly reliant on unconvincing computer-generated imagery. And the characters often seem too flip, too calm, considering the gravity of their supernatural predicament. It is as if everyone is conscious of the fact their film is simply not very involving or scary, so why fret? And the original's poignant (Spielberg-influenced?) sense of a dysfunctional nuclear family becoming closer than ever in order to overcome evil is sorely absent.

C

Sure, the house is on top of a graveyard, but why did the previous owner leave his or her cache of antique clown dolls behind?

Lol

Given the string of unnecessary horror remake of late (The Thing, Carrie, Poltergeist), does anyone think they'll touch The Exorcist any time soon? I'm guessing it's not a matter of if but when. I sure hope it's PG-13!

Hey, The Thing '11 is a prequel!

I could see Warner Bros. trying to reboot the Exorcist franchise, although perhaps the costly, high-profile shenanigans swirling around the dual prequels a decade ago cooled them on the brand.

The exorcist is really not a brand anymore outside the first. The rest all did bad (3 is underrated though) plus there are so many exorcism films now, the original updated wouldn't be too excited. Maybe another Jaws film or Rosemary's baby could work.

God though, leave Carpenters movies alone. Halloween, the fog, the thing have all been dreadful. All that's really left is escape from New York and Christine. But if someone could for escape like they did for Mad Max I'd be down.

IMO it would be extremely difficult to make any of those movies again. Jaws and Exorcist would have to be sig. diff. than the originals, as they have ripped off so many times since that a remake would not feel special. RB would no doubt be too boring. All 3 are essentially perfect films and int hat regard I wouldn't touch a remake.

I believe the Exorcist is a brand name, which is different than saying it is a franchise comprised of several well-regarded installments.

The Exorcist is most definitely a brand name. Not sure, how big. Of the big-ish brand names, Hellraiser is still the one left to be remade.

They should still remake Pet Sematary (Even though I think the first is great a remake could potentially be really good with a solid filmmaker behind it) and Cujo. They should just re-release the original Exorcist again rather than remake it. Introduce it to a whole new generation.

I don't think re-releases work anymore nowadays.

I enjoyed some of the beginning but once things start going it got incredibly stupid. The ghost hunter couple were obnoxious, the children were annoying, the direction was bad and there was almost zero tension.

D

I actually thought this was pretty entertaining. I think I probably prefer it to the original, which I find mostly overrated. Sam Rockwell and Rosemarie DeWitt are really good as usual, as were the two youngest kids. It was a little on the short side though. Could have had more build-up. But I guess this way it didn't have a chance to get boring.

Certainly much better than recent supernatural chillers like Annabelle and Ouija.

7/10 ( B )

Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwww

I'm gonna start getting gifs.

This is polished, mediocre, crap and it's sad to say because the first half of this movie is actually pretty decent, but it goes downhill fast in that boring second half. Once the kid is gone the tension is aswell and I found it hilarious how the whole family didn't seem that upset that their daughter was kidnapped by angry ghosts. It was like the equivalent of the family dog missing or something which was weird and those actors who played the ghost hunters sucked. Such a bunch of lifeless/obnoxious characters who never really cared that much to rescue the little girl. The guy was the biggest douchebag/idiot of them all and just when I was hoping Jared Harris would inject some kind of life into this movie with his usually gravitating onscreen presence he gets reduced to being the generic, self-sacrificial priest that we have seen countless times in these type of films.

It was just a HUGE waste of time and money.