So it’s time for another episode of Original vs. Remake,
because Hollywood is obsessed with retelling successful stories from the past in
a bland, less intense fashion. I’m beginning to notice a trend on my ‘Original
vs. Remake’ articles, the old ones always win! I’m not biased, I always give
remakes a chance, because there’s always the odd chance we might get a good one.
Unfortunately, 99.9% of the time remakes are shit, or as is the case with this
new Poltergeist remake, a lesser version of the original. The original Poltergeist
trilogy started with one fantastic film: Poltergeist (1982), a Tobe Hooper
film. Tobe Hooper as some of you may know is one of the masters of horror. He
was the guy behind the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and Salem’s Lot
(1979) amongst a slew of other horror films. Hooper’s Poltergeist was a film
that captured the imagination and frightened audiences back in 1982, why?
Because it was a spectacle, it was made to wow us and frighten us. It wanted to
make us squirm in our seats. The filmmakers didn’t just want to tell a spooky
story, something they did splendidly well anyways, no, the idea behind the
original Poltergeist was to razzle dazzle us as well, give us a magic show. And
that they did, the supernatural shenanigans were an awesome spectacle to behold.
When ghosts appeared, you knew you were in for something special. That’s one of the elements I loved the most about
Poltergeist (1982), the effects. The guys at Industrial Lights and Magic really
went the extra mile to do something awesome.
I mean, back then they’d actually
have to build the ghosts from the ground up, which of course gave the visuals a
tangibility that is sourly lacking in the new version. Those slimy tentacles
that caught little Carol Anne looked freaking real, not so with the computer
generated ghosts on this new version. I will admit that the visual effects on
the new one are slick looking, but they are simply put not better than the
original. Those days of cool effects seem to be gone forever, replaced by
computer animation and it’s really sad. That artistry that the Industrial
Lights and Magic guys pulled off, it was pure magic and illusion. I long for
movies that mix both things, the practical with the computer generated. When a
filmmaker uses computer generated images to enhance, not to take over the
visual effects…then it’s magic. A recent example of this would be the
awesomeness that is Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). Sadly, everything is computer
generated today, and it takes away from that feeling old movies had of being a
magic show. I sincerely miss that.
Craig T. Nelson fights some ghosts in Poltergeist (1982)
Why is the modern horror film so toned down these days?
It’s all about one of the worst inventions ever made, the dreaded PG-13 rating.
It’s sad, it truly is. I mean on the first one, the tree that comes alive and
tries to eat poor Robbie Freeling looked like some sort of monster, trying to
gulp down the little kid, on the remake they toned that whole scene down. The
tree tried to eat the kid on the original film! Not so in the remake. Here the
tree grabs the kid, that’s it. I guess anything that was too crazy was eliminated;
it’s the Modus Operandi of modern Hollywood. The producer, Sam Raimi, knows
what horror fans want in a horror film, he’s given us some of the best horror
films ever; the Evil Dead films. Yet he is playing ball with Hollywood,
producing the kind of films they are asking of him, not the kind of horror
films he would make. Hollywood doesn’t seem to care that people like cheesy,
people like crazy ideas and concepts, that’s why we go to the movies! We don’t
go to the movies to see “reality”, we go to see escapism, at least in these kinds
of movies we do. So when a tree is going to come alive and eat a kid, we want
exactly that. Not a toned down version of that.
Honestly it’s starting to feel a whole lot like George
Orwell’s 1984 around here. In that novel the government doesn’t allow people to
feel intense emotions, everyone’s supposed to be emotionless all the time, all
this because intense emotions supposedly lead to war and all that. In reality,
it was a technique to control the masses, keep them from revolting against the oppressive
government, to keep them from expressing themselves, saying what they want and
feel. I think a similar technique is being used in Hollywood films of today.
Why is Hollywood so afraid to be intense? Is there something wrong with feeling
intensely? I want that spine tingling feeling, I want that jolt, that’s why I
go to see horror films; afterwards I go home to reality. But for two hours, I
want to escape man! There was a time when the occasional good remake would slip
in, but nowadays, wow, all the remakes are just bland renditions of the
original. Total Recall (2012)? Bland. Robocop (2014)? Beyond bland and back
again. Poltergeist (2015)? Bland again. It’s just sad. Let’s count the ways in
which this new Poltergeist film is bland when compared to Tobe Hooper’s
original special effects extravaganza.
The Freaky Bowens
First, as is to be expected, there were a few changes, for
example, the family in this new film isn’t “The Freaky Freelings! The family
whose house disappeared!” Nope, these are the Bowen’s the family who goes
through everything the Freelings did; only they aren’t the Freelings. Why the
change? Why is the little girl not Carol Anne? Isn’t yelling out “Carol Anne!”
a million times one of the most iconic things about the old Poltergeist movies?
I mean, seriously, you could have a drinking game every time they say Carol
Anne in the old movies! Trust me; you’ll be passed out half way through the
movie! But no, on this one we get a little girl called Madison, and she isn’t
even blonde. But whatever, those are minor changes right? What really pissed me
off where the major changes, like the whole softening up of the horror elements,
which I didn’t get because from inception, Poltergeist was always a straight
forward horror film, it meant to horrify you. These films weren’t afraid to
push the limits; they wanted to scare your pants off. In contrast, this new
Poltergeist film feels like its holding back, like it doesn’t want to scare you
too much for fear of losing its coveted PG-13 rating. And that’s really what it’s
all about these days, retaining the PG-13 rating so you can reach a wider
audience and make more millions. Because if it’s rated ‘R’, then the kiddies cant
pony up their allowance to see the movie, because theaters won’t sell tickets
to an ‘R’ rated film to a minor, right? Stop me if I’m wrong, but this never
happened to me, ever. Maybe where I live things are done differently, but I was
never stopped from seeing an ‘R’ film by the theater! Does this really matter? It’s
so sad that the quality of our horror films is decided by this factor.
So what else did they change? Well, let’s see, anything that
was too edgy or horrifying; two elements that any horror movie should have in
spades. For example, remember how Steve and Diane Freeling smoked weed in their
room and were being all sexy with each other? For this new one, they switched
the weed for alcohol, which immediately takes off that imperfect, free spirited
feeling that the Freeling family had in the original. They weren’t a perfect
family and because of this they felt real. Mom and pop were struggling to
survive, but they still knew how to have a little fun, smoking a dooby in their
private chambers after the kids were tucked in. There’s a scene in which their
eldest daughter flipped the finger on the men who were working on their pool
when they started saying nasty things at her. So anyhow, say goodbye to that
edginess the Freelings had, this new family is pretty much the picture perfect American
family. The father, portrayed by a “gimme my paycheck” Sam Rockwell doesn’t
have a job, but you’d never know he’s worried about this because his portrayal
of the father figure without a job is very unrealistic. He doesn’t seem to be
worried that he’s got no money to feed the kids. Is he supposed to live on his
credits cards forever? These problems are presented, but never dealt with in a
realistic manner. I know I’d be freaking ripping my hairs out of my head if I
had three kids and no job. And how about the chemistry between the parents? It’s
nothing like the magic that Jobeth Williams and Craig T. Nelson had in the
original film. That relationship I bought. The one in this new one is Non-existent.
Sam Rockwell, I’m sorry to say, was not truly invested in this film. In the
original, both Jobeth Williams and Craig T. Nelson displayed emotion, I bought them
crying out to Carol Anne, here, it’s like they are ashamed to be talking about
ghosts and “the other side”. I guess we can chalk that up to modern cynicism.
Then we have the ghosts, which are decidedly a whole lot
less horrifying. On the old film, the ghosts showed their ugly faces all the
time, I remember that spider like creature that came out of the closet, which
sadly doesn’t make an appearance on this one. There’s no slimy, sinewy tunnel
to the other side. On this one the ghosts are relegated to being shadowy
creatures that we hardly ever get a look at. The old film reveled in showing us
the ghosts. When the ghosts showed up, you were going to be wowed. Not so here.
The spectacle is gone. They don’t want to scare you too much. The best example
I can think to explain the dampening of the horror elements in this film is the
pool scene. On the original, the Freelings are building a pool, so they got
this muddy hole next to the house. And of course, as anyone who has seen the
original knows, the house was built on top of the cemetery, so when it starts
to rain and the earth loosens up, we get that awesome scene in which all the
corpses start popping out of their caskets, apparently trying to grab Diane
Freeling as she screams in horror. On the remake, it was almost funny….we only
get one little cgi skeleton that pops out of the ground, for 5 milliseconds. On
the original, that scene just went on and on, horrifying us with its real,
tangible skeletons. On this one, it’s a freaking joke. That was one of my favorite
scenes from the original! Want another example? They even took out that scene
where the guys face melts as he looks at himself in front of the mirror! How
could they! The bastards!
So anyhow, I’m sorely disappointed with this remake. It’s
another fine example of how violence and horror is being toned down on purpose
by the powers that be. Hey, Hollywood, check this out. I want horror movies to
be scary. When I go see a movie about ghosts, that’s what I want, I want to see
the ghosts, I want to see something that’s intense and scary. Bottom line my friends:
the original Poltergeist is still the superior of the two films. It has the
spectacle element, it had the horror element turned up to the max and it had a
family I could believe in, with some real heart and chemistry. At the end of the day, that’s really what the
Poltergeist movies are truly about, family. As for this remake, I wouldn’t say
it’s a horrible film. Its well shot, looks pretty and in a surprising twist, actually take
us to “the other side” without being overtly cheesy like Poltergeist II: The
Other Side (1986). It introduces a couple of innovative concepts, like sending
a drone with a camera into the other side to check it out, gotta hand it to
them, that was a cool idea. I went into this one wanting to hate it, but it kind of warmed up on me, but there's no denying it was missing that edge. Sorry.
It’s also a
perfectly good movie to get your 10 year old kid started with horror films. Why?
Because it’s an extremely light horror film which probably has something to do
with the fact that it was directed by Gil Kenan, the director behind the children’s
horror film Monster House (2006). Sadly, I don’t think he was the right guy to
direct this film; we needed somebody with more of a horror loving heart, a true
horror connoisseur. I mean, we went from Tobe Hooper to Gil Kenan? Something’s
not right there. Why not give today’s horror masters a chance? Sadly, what
Kenan did was take away what I loved about the original, a film that wasn’t
afraid to scare us at the while still being a family film, which is an odd mix.
Kenan treated this one like it was another kid’s film, which I think was a huge
mistake because audiences are expecting something along the lines of the
horrifying spectacle that Tobe Hooper and Stephen Spielberg gave us back in ’82.
And it’s a bad thing to play with audiences expectations, especially when it
comes to a remake. Yes my friends, the original Poltergeist was a strange bird.
It was the first family oriented horror film that didn’t forget it was a horror
movie and that it was there to scare us. Worst part of this whole ordeal? The
original Poltergeist was rated PG, a whole rating beneath PG-13 and as it turns
out, it was far scarier. Go figure!
Poltergeist (1982) Rating: 5 out of 5
Poltergeist (2015) Rating: 3 out of 5