POLTERGEIST
US, 2015, 93 minutes, Colour.
Sam Rockwell, Rosemary De Witt, Jared Harris, Jane Adams, Kyle Catlett, Kennedi Clements, Saxon Sharbino, Nicholas Braun.
Directed by Gill Kenan.
Back in 1982, the original Poltergeist was a very popular film with touches of horror, a house haunted not by ghosts, but by spirited beings who went, often very loudly and violently, bump in the night.
in 2015, it is not all that much different. We have the house. We have a family moving in. We have the mysterious sounds, then the brutal noises, with the bangings and the bangings and the bangings. The little girl, Maddy, is attracted by the television set and sees hands appearing from within. Later, it is suggested that she has a special gift and has detected the spirits trapped behind the television set, telling everyone that they are coming, and then that they are here. And then she’s not. She was driven into the world behind the television screen.
There is speculation that the house was built on an old cemetery – with the bodies transferred. Probably not!
The film spends a lot of time establishing the family so that we can identify with them. Sam Rockwell is the father, out of work, sympathetic (except at the beginning when his petulant teenage daughter is demanding a new mobile phone), loving his children and wanting to the best for them. Rosemary de Witt is the sympathetic mother, trying to cope with the moving and settling in. Aside from the teenage daughter and her mobile phone, and the little girl within the mysterious world behind the television screen, there is a sensitive boy (Kyle Catlett who was so good in The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivett), apprehensive, fearful of storms, worried when his sister disappears and feeling that he should take the blame for not caring for and protecting her.
What is the family to do? They consult an expert on these matters – with audiences wondering how they are so readily available in the US! And not only that, the expert and her team try to cleanse the house but are subject to the poltergeists attacks. They have to call in an even stronger expert who combines kind of exorcisms of houses with a TV reality show. So, the whole effort has to focus on getting the little girl back, at one stage all the family holding onto each other and trying to pull her out of the set.
While the film has a happy ending, there are some sad moments, and the family, gather together safely, move away – obviously leaving the house to a new family to come in and experience the poltergeists if there is a demand for a sequel.
1. The title, expectations, re-make from the perspective of the 1980s?
2. The town, the house, the interiors, the street? The musical score?
3. Ghosts and poltergeists? The sudden attack on the family? The information about the cemetery and its transfer? Not transferred? Images of ghosts and apparitions?
4. The family moving in, their financial situation? The father, unemployed, attitude towards money, his spending in gifts? His relationship with his wife, each of the children, the issue of the mobile phone? His wife, pleasant, dealing with the family?
5. The children? Kendra, petulance about the phone, moody, her experience of the poltergeists, her fear? Griffin, sensitive, the gift of the plane, his trying to get his parents’ attention, the storm and his fears? Maddie, the attraction to the television, the silhouettes of the hands, seeming to have a special gift, telling the family that the others were coming, that they were here? Her disappearance into the television set?
6. The frantic response, the variety of poltergeists and the effects? Bumps in the night, apparitions?
7. The team, the leader, consulting? The young woman, Boyd and his scepticism, the involvement, the drill and the threat to his arm? The leader and her theories, explanations?
8. Calling Carrigan Burke? the TV personality, his experiences, as a person, the injuries to his body and its explanations? The search? The attempts to retrieve Madison? Visuals of Madison with the poltergeists?
9. Maddison’s experience, the ghosts, the light, the ghost wanting to follow the light, the whole family trying to drag her back to reality? The effect on each of the members of the family, coping?
10. The family moving out, the further difficulties, the team, Burke, his going into the house, the fire?
11. The credibility of the story? Effective as low-key horror entertainment?
