POLTERGEIST III (1988)

"Carol Anne! Carol Anne! Carol Anne!"

When this film starts out in a new location and with Carol Anne living with relatives, I was pretty stoked. The second film was okay but it seemed too much like the original to be truly enjoyable. "A new location and fresh blood would probably do the series well." I thought inside my incredibly handsome brain.  I was wrong.

Carol Anne is now living with her aunt's family (Tom Skerritt, Nancy Allen and Lara Flynn Boyle) in the John Hancock Center in Chicago.  She seems to be pretty happy and the beginning of the film was enjoyable (especially that smart ass girl in the car pool van), but then Rev. Kane shows back up and things return to their normal haunting bullshit: cold temperatures, disappearing reflections in windows, creepy faces, reflections in mirrors not matching, blinking lights, smoke, loud noises, blah, blah, blah.

POLTERGEIST III definitely had the opportunity to be awesome.  It had a respectable budget and the idea of ghosts haunting a skyscraper is very cool, but, unfortunately, instead of centering on teenagers partying and skinny dipping in the swimming pool, the filmmakers dedicated nearly 66.6% of the film to Carol Anne running up and down hallways and stairwells while the rest of the cast yells her name non-stop.  It was extremely tiresome.  The runtime was only 98 minutes, but if felt like 150.

Worth a watch if you are wanting to finish the series, but if you are looking for an entertaining horror movie then skip it.  The most interesting thing about this film is the 80's fashions.

[Pointless fun fact that isn't part of the review: I saw this in the theater on opening weekend in Dallas, TX and there were only three people in the theater. My friend, myself and some lone nerd up front.]

Part 1 - Poltergeist (1982)
Part 2 - Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986)
Remake - Poltergeist (2015)

POLTERGEIST II: THE OTHER SIDE (1986)

"They're back."

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).