Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986)

Excellent but underrated film

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

A-Z Horror Movie of the Day..."Poltergeist 2: The Other Side" (PG-13 - 1986 - US)Sub-Genre: Paranormal/Sequel My Score: 6.6Cast=8 Acting=7 Plot=7 Ending=9 Story=6 Scare=4 Jump=5 F/X=7 Creep=8 Sequel=5The Freeling family have a new house, but their troubles with supernatural forces don't seem to be over. "Alright then! I'll sing you a song...until your mom comes back!" God can stay in his holy temple as I watch this awaited sequel. I still liked this, but the script wasn't as good. Reverend Kane was as creepy as all get out and it had a solid ending. The story had holes in it and the scares were lacking, but it's still worth seeing for the paranormal fan. One thing's for sure...they're gonna have to move again!

After the critical and box office success of the original movie, the screenwriters (this time without Spielberg) developed a sequel to further explore the secrets behind "the other side" and its connection to the Freeling family, especially the younger one, Carol Anne.Back were the original main cast: JoBeth Williams and Craig T. Nelson as the devoted parents; Heather O'Rourke and Oliver Robins as the kids (because Dominique Dunne was murdered after the original movie, the production opted to exclude her character, Dana, who is only briefly mentioned) and Zelda Rubinstein as the eccentric psychic Tangina.English director Brian Gibson (an odd choice for director) was chosen to helm this sequel which is way more darker than the previous film, but at the same time a little more pedestrian directed.The original story was expanded here and it positively links without being too far-fetched and the inclusion of the Reverend Henry Kane, played superbly creepy by the ill-fated Julian Beck, was top notch. Reverend Kane directly entered to the pop culture as one of the most frightening villains that came out from the 80's decade and the "Poltergeist" franchise forever will be associated to his character.Will Sampson, who also died 1 year later (due to the Poltergeist "curse", if you believe in that) is very good playing straight, but with a sense of humor, the benevolent Shaman Taylor and the veteran actress Geraldine Fitzgerald used as a fill-in for the Beatrice Straight's character in the original, leaves her mark as the Motherly figure despite her less than 10 minutes on-screen."Poltergeist II - The Other Side" have its flaws, even if the original story flows well for this sequel, the novelty factor was over and Gibson couldn't reproduce the same eerie atmosphere, the mastering of suspense or the creativity behind the camera-work, and the fact that MGM butchered the movie from the initial length of 130 minutes to just 91, most of the scenes / plot extensions felt incomplete and, most especially, the ending confrontation when the audience can finally have a look on the other side, was too short and the impact was kind of dull.The effects are good and 'au pair' with the original film, even if some of them are considered too cheesy for the nowadays standards and others being too disgusting (the worm scene involving Craig T. Nelson who, strangely, acted his Steve Freeling way more over-the-top / campy here, maybe a deliberated decision between him and the director or he forgot how to play the character right or even, he was just in for the paycheck, not believing in the material).Heather O'Rourke's role is less prominent here (once again, too much Craig T. Nelson...), but the child actor still delivers, her first encounter with Reverend Kane in the Mall is unforgettable as a good piece of thrilling cinema (it helped, that little Heather was in real life scared of Julian Beck, who sported a gaunt look due to his stomach cancer).In short, it's a good follow-up film, not as exceptional or a masterwork of the genre as the first, but way more showy, visually horrifying & visceral. For fans of Horror B-movies with large budgets, this one is worth a watch !!

Well, hadn't she been killed by her real ex-boyfriend, i'm sure that the big sister would have rejoiced this Freeling family again! Strangely, her absence is never explained in this sequel, nor the next one. In all cases, the best thing of this movie is again the incredible cast because the parents and the kids are really the best family ever made for screen. Then, i'm straightforward and i acknowledge that the movie hasn't the quality of « P1 ». The great difference is that « P1 » was about ordinary getting extraordinary while « P2 » is totally extraordinary : with the opening of a native exorcism, you can only expect ghosts afterward! The characters of reverend Kane, very creepy, and Taylor are a bit too Old West for me. Sometimes, i thought i was watching the episode « Showdown at Malibu Beach High » from Baywatch (SE3EP6). And notice that the pair would be the next two victims of the curse (read about the stunning anecdote of Nelson visiting his grave !). However, there are good scenes in the movie, especially when the father becomes infected. At this moment, i thought to « alien » and « Prometheus » and it was a surprise to discover on the credits that the monster was designed by Giger. If it's still difficult to understand the explanation about the light and why they need Carol Ann, what i will remember definitely about the movie is that Carol Ann said that she didn't want to grow up and that her last words to her dying Grandma was « i love you », the same she told her real mother at the end.

"Poltergeist II: The Other Side" is sound and fury signifying nothing, a good-looking special effects show that contains no less than a flying chainsaw, a set of killer braces and a creature excised from the human body through vomiting, yet it can't find a cohesive foothold to string any of those ideas together. Then again perhaps they couldn't. How exactly do you build a narrative that leads to killer braces? It isn't exactly news to report that "Poltergeist II: The Other Side" is a sequel to the hit 1982 thriller, but the surprising news is that this movie does everything wrong that the original film got right. Like "The Exorcist", key to the success of "Poltergeist" was that the characters were so grounded in reality that when the supernatural stuff started to happen, it leant the effects a degree of credibility. This sequel goes the other way around so we feel the effects but the characters are simply there to be knocked around.That's too bad because "Poltergeist" is one of the rare horror films that actually earns the right to a sequel by virtue of ending on a note so melodramatic that we might have been disappointed if someone didn't find a way to get that family out of their funk. That film, you will recall, ended with the Freeling family fleeing their house as dead bodies popped out of the ground before the house was sucked into oblivion. The family, now homeless, checked into the Holiday Inn.As much as "Poltergeist II: The Other Side" is valid enough to continue their story, it does not, however, live up to the original. The story is silly and the characters feel like cardboard cut-outs, with witty little jokey dialogue, when it isn't laced with supernatural hoo-ha. The supernatural stuff in the original was mounted on a semi-plausible idea: their house was mounted on the grounds of a relocated cemetery. Here there's some nonsense about protection from evil forces and the protective force of the family bond. This is filtered through Indian mystical nonsense and something about a 200 year old religious sect that wants Carol Anne's life force back on "the other side". Whatever.The story picks up a year later, which is a problem because the two movies were produced four years apart. That means that the little blonde Carol Anne, who was five years-old in the original is six now and played by Heather O'Rourke, who is actually nine. That gives us the agonizing sight of watching a nine year-old playing a six-year old. Why not just set the movie four years later? Anyway, the story deals once again with the Freeling family, Dad Steve (Craig T. Nelson), Mom Diane (JoBeth Williams), and the kids Robbie (Oliver Robins) and Carol Anne. The teenage daughter Dana is absent here and never mentioned even in dialogue. They have moved in with Grandma (Geraldine Fitzgerald) after their house was sucked into oblivion. Naturally, Dad refuses to buy a TV.The hole where their house once stood is under investigation by the medium Tangina Barrons (Zelda Rubenstein) and a Native American mystic named Taylor (Will Sampson) because "there's a presence." What that "presence" is steps on the premise of the original film. In the earlier film, it was explained that a real estate company made a strange decision to uproot the cemetery without moving the bodies.Now we learn that a 19th century cult sealed itself inside a cave at the urging of an evil minister named Henry Kane. Kane is alive and well and stalking around trying to capture little Carol Anne and take her back to the other side. It is hard to figure out exactly what Kane is, whether he's a spirit or some kind of satanic manifestation. We never know. There's some suggestion that he can manifest himself into a different forms but that is never really explained either. This movie is one long series of loose-ends.The movie is also one long series of special effects for their own sake. Hardly a scene in this movie isn't crafted without one. The back half of the movie is a strange venture into the mystical world that seems to be neither here nor there. Somehow the family does battle with the forces of evil by using their strong family lifeforce - nevermind the fact that one of their numbers, 17 year-old, Dana is missing. Somehow they enter the netherworld through a multi-colored Indian campfire, and I was never completely sure how they got out. I suppose I wasn't supposed to ask. It's a sad day when the only way to enjoy a movie is to stop questioning its overwhelming gaps in logic.The one thing that does work here is the performance of Julian Beck as Henry Kane. Dressed in the vestments of an 19th century minister, his face is skeletal with large teeth bared over curled lips. His voice is slippery and unnerving. There is something about his presence that, in a better movie, could have really come to something. He shows signs of what the movie could have been. More priest and less family bonding might have helped. You know what would have been a great sequel? This family in therapy.