Review #1,387: 'Poltergeist II: The Other Side' (1986)

Back in 1982, Tobe Hooper's Poltergeist terrified audiences with state-of-the-art special effects and a story of unseen supernatural forces at work in suburban USA. It's rather tame if watched back today, but the popular chiller is still a lot of fun, and producer Steven Spielberg's magic can be felt throughout (some would say a bit too much, considering Hooper received the director credit). Poltergeist's success meant that a sequel was always on the cards, and when it came in 1986, Poltergeist II: The Other Side had no qualms about going down the familiar follow-up route of taking everything good about the first and doubling down on it. The result is an over-stuffed extravaganza of flying chainsaws, monster tequila worms and possessed braces, complete with dated computer effects that may have been charming if the story unfolding before us wasn't so utterly preposterous.

It's been a year since the Freeling family's house was sucked into another dimension, and with the insurance company refusing to pay out on a property that simply disappeared, the gang have moved to Phoenix, Arizona to live with 'Gramma' Jess (Geraldine Fitzgerald). While the insurance company isn't interested in investigating the paranormal goings-on, physic Tangina Barrons (Zelda Rubinstein) has discovered a secret tunnel beneath where the house once stood, alerting Native American shaman Taylor (Will Sampson) to her findings. It turns out that a maniacal preacher named Henry Kane (Julian Beck) had perished there along with many of his followers, who had all huddled together in preparation for an apocalypse incorrectly foreseen by the reverend. Having failed last time around, Kane wants to take young Carol Anne (Heather O'Rourke) back to 'the other side', but mother Diane (JoBeth Williams) and father Steve (Craig T. Nelson) enlist the powerful and knowledgeable Taylor as their ally.

Poltergeist II has its fans and I can certainly understand why, although I found it a silly and rather tedious experience. Director Brian Gibson is keen to deliver a shock or set-piece in every other scene, and while this certainly moves the action along at a brisk pace, the attempted scares are far too soft to have any impact, and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the events playing out. By the time Steve has downed a bottle of tequila and swallowed a Kane-possessed worm, you'll be wondering what the writers were smoking when they were brainstorming. The film's one true bright spark is the performance of Beck - who was battling stomach cancer at the time - as the creepy Southern preacher with a high-pitched voice and a set of yellow gnashers. He slithers his way into the Freeling's lives looking like a predatory sex offender from the Old West, but the character's compelling back story is only glimpsed in a couple of brief flashback scenes, and is left frustratingly unexplored. Beck's death before the film's release fits into 'theory' of a curse surrounding the Poltergeist films (O'Rourke tragically died aged 12 and Dominique Dunne, who played Freeling daughter Dana, was murdered in 1982), but when the trivia is more intriguing than the film itself, you know you're in trouble.


Directed by: Brian Gibson
Starring: JoBeth Williams, Craig T. Nelson, Heather O'Rourke, Oliver Robins, Zelda Rubinstein, Will Sampson, Julian Beck, Geraldine Fitzgerald
Country: USA

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie