It still knows what scares us
POLTERGEIST ★★★★ out of 5 Starring: Sam Rockwell, Rosemarie DeWitt, Kennedi Clements Directed by: Gil Kenan Running time: 93 minutes
LOS ANGELES — It’s infrequent and particularly satisfying when the remake of an especially memorable film equals or exceeds the experience of the original. In 1982, Poltergeist saw the brilliant pairing of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s low-budget horror director Tobe Hooper, with more mainstream screenwriter and producer Steven Spielberg, for an effects-laden event movie that earned its place as a contemporary benchmark among supernatural thrillers.
Leaving behind the youth-skewing perspectives of Monster House and City of Ember, director Gil Kenan not only delivers on the promise of Hooper’s Poltergeist, but significantly raises the stakes for similar fare.
In setting the scene, Kenan and the filmmakers take their cue from the first film in the trilogy, as Eric (Sam Rockwell), and Amy Bowen (Rosemarie DeWitt), crippled by the financial impacts of the Great Recession, look to downsize so that they can continue adequately providing for their three kids. They find what they’re looking for in a distressed but affordable home for sale that’s located in a nondescript development full of vacant properties on the outskirts of an Illinois town where Amy attended university.
Youngest daughter Maddy (Kennedi Clements), is excited to move in following the initial tour after conversing with some new invisible friends who speak to her from a mysterious bedroom closet. Anxiety-prone middle child Griffin (Kyle Catlett), isn’t thrilled to be settling into an attic bedroom, however, where an ominous willow tree looms over the house through a rooftop skylight. Teenage Kendra (Saxon Sharbino), displays visible disaffection with her new situation, preferring to remain in touch with her old life and friends via phone, text and video chat.
On the first night in their new house while everyone else is asleep, Griffin discovers Maddy talking to the bigscreen living room TV as it flashes and emits strange noises. “They’re here,” she says, referring to her friends, “the lost people.”
Now Griffin has some solid reasons to feel worried, especially after noticing objects moving around the house of their own accord and discovering a box full of scary clown dolls stashed in a storage space. His parents just attribute these trepidations to his chronic anxiety and it isn’t until the next night when they’re out to dinner at a neighbour’s house that they discover some disturbing information regarding their new home that sends them rushing back to check on the kids.
By the time they arrive, Griffin and Kendra have suffered supernatural attacks and Maddy has vanished completely. At their wit’s end, Amy and Eric decide to seek guidance from Dr. Brooke Powell (Jane Adams), a paranormal researcher from Amy’s former university. Powell agrees to assist, bringing in her staff to wire the Bowen’s house with video cameras and monitoring equipment in their search for the missing child.
Kenan and cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe construct far more fluid sequences as the camera glides and hovers over its subjects, reserving the most impactful shots for the climactic scenes, particularly a concluding sequence that’s especially thrilling.