It's been a "full year" since the events of the first film and now the Freeling family (minus the oldest daughter) are living with the wife's mother. Unfortunately, that's not enough to get rid of the ghosts, because they (the ghosts) want the youngest daughter, Carol Anne, to lead them to the other side or something. Anyway, the Freelings also find out that not only was their old house built on a old burial ground, but beneath that was a cave holding the remains of a 1800's death cult lead by some ultra creepy dude named Kane. Holy shit, talk about being double-fucked.
So now Kane is walking around looking sinister as fook (The best scenes of the movie feature him, since actor Julian Beck was dying of stomach cancer at the time and looked absolutely terrifying. His dialogue delivery was also unnerving.) and trying to get inside the house. At one point, he transforms himself into a tequila worm that the dad swallows. This scene scared the living poop out of me when I was a kid, but nowadays it seems pretty tame. Moving forward some, Carol Anne is once again kidnapped and the family once again gets some help from some paranormal investigators.
POLTERGEIST II is watchable (and enjoyable), but there's just not enough freshness to the story to make you want to visit it often. It moves the story forward some, but mostly it just seems like a rehash of the first film. Good acting, nice pace, unsatisfying Boss Fight at the end, a reference to ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST(?), Julian Beck as maybe the creepiest doomsday preacher in movie history, Craig T. Nelson topless again. Half-hearted recommendation.
Part 1 - Poltergeist (1982)
Part 3 - Poltergeist III (1988)
Remake - Poltergeist (2015)
They're talking about Will Sampson's character so this is probably a
reference to ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST (1975).
