Poltergeist III

Starring: Tom Skerritt, Nancy Allen, Heather O'Rourke, Laura Flynn Boyle, Zelda Rubinstein
Directed by Gary Sherman
Rating: PG
Genre: Horror, Thriller
1988

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Carol Anne (Heather O'Rourke) is staying with her aunt (Nancy Allen) and Uncle (Tom Skerritt), but the same supernatural forces have followed her, and begin their attack once again.

Review:

Tim: The third Poltergeist film is certainly the worst in the trilogy, but it's not a terrible film. I loved the original movie, and while I admit the next two films were pretty bad, I probably liked them more than many people did. The whole idea of these supernatural entities coming after Carol Anne is interesting, and I always enjoy watching a little supernatural horror. While this film is ultimately disappointing, it's not all bad.

I really liked that this film once again featured Heather O'Rourke as Carol Anne. O'Rourke died shortly after filming this movie, which is a horrible tragedy. Her look and demeanor was just perfect for these movies- you identified with her and cared about her, although she had a slightly creepy vibe to her as well. She was just perfect as the haunted Carol Anne. I loved that this film continued her story, rather than continuing with an all new cast. Zelda Rubinstein once again reprises her role, which is great, giving the film some continuity. The rest of the cast is new, easily explained by having Carole Anne live with her uncle and aunt. While this certainly makes sense, it would have been nice to see the original family in this film. Still, Tom Skerritt and Nancy Allen are good actors, and I somewhat enjoyed getting new characters into the film. Laura Flynn Boyle was also a welcome addition. While the new cast works well enough, I have to admit I missed Craig T. Nelson and the others.

It was somewhat interesting to see this movie change the setting. Here, Carol Anne is haunted in a skyscraper. There certainly aren't a lot of horror movies that take place in skyscrapers, so that brings a new element to the film. While the movie has a few good scenes depicting the disorienting quality of these setting, they really didn't do a good job of creating that claustrophobic, trapped feeling that you'd expect to pervade this kind of story. That was a missed opportunity. There are a few good moments that utilize the setting well, but these are few and far between.

Poltergeist III isn't a terrible movie, but it just feels disappointing. The original film was so incredible- it's one of my favorite horror movies of all time. The second film was significantly worse, but it was at least decent. This movie takes the film down another notch in quality. Again, this isn't a bad movie- there's far worse third installments in horror franchises out there. However, the movie pretty much made it official- the Poltergeist movies are just another horror trilogy. When two of the three films aren't very good, that is a bad sign. It's not a surprise to me that this was the last film in the budding franchise- tragically, the leading lady died, and this movie feels long, long way away from the awesomeness of the first film. This film is fine, but this franchise needed to be better than fine. This movie clearly ends the trilogy on a low point.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Poltergeist, Poltergeist II: The Other Side, The Exorcist, E.T.: The Extra-terrestrial, The Sixth Sense