Poltergeist

An absolutely pointless remake of the classic collaboration between Tobe Hooper and Steven Spielberg. The three stars I gave this are strictly for Sam Rockwell's acting chops. Nothing else and I mean nothing else works. The kids are annoying., the mother is forgettable and the poltergeist hunters are dull. Terrible special effects that are crappy CGI copies of the groundbreaking original movies' practical effects are everywhere in this dumpster fire. Forget this and watch the original classic.

I was a huge Poltergeist fan when i was a little kid and was really scared of the original movies when i saw them on TV in the late 80s or early 90s. It had everything a good movie should have. a good script, good actors, good director... this one had none of those. the actors feel unmotivated. the script was rewritten to add the typical 21century Hollywood movie formula and the director didn't know what he was doing anyway...

don't watch this remake... stay with the original! its scarier anyway, even today!

Poor remake. Zero real scares. Nonsensical reactions from the family. The young boy just can't act ....or was badly directed. Just widening the eyes a little and walking everywhere tentatively in slow motion steps isn't convincing anyone. He walks through most of the movie like this and it became really annoying very quickly.

People see the most shocking things and then don't even mention it!?

Whomever wrote the script should be ashamed of themselves. Truly terrible. Totally unbelievable characters and reactions. Plot holes and stupid dialogue.

Watch the original.

One plus. The 3D was great fun. (If a little forces at times) Blatant cash in that fell flat on its face.

This movie startet actually pretty okay, at least way better than I expected. For around 45 minutes I said to myself "This isn't so bad. That's a solid 6.5." Okay, there wasn't happening much, but that's not a bad thing. You keep the pacing slow and than some strange things start to happen, until the girl disappears and the family decides "to call someone". But instead some freaky, weird and maybe creepy lady showing up, there just came this drunk fella, pissing me in the face for 45 minutes. This became so absurd in a bad way, so dumb dialogue, so unnecessary scenes, so never ending stoned / drunk Sam Rockwell, that I can't imagine how this was green lit in the first place. Filmed. Produced. Showed in cinemas. I mean: What the heck? Did someone even bother to read through the entire script?!

But there's one good thing about this pile of horse rubbish. I realised what is the problem with all those (remakes of) modern horror films: They don't take the subject seriously. They don't buy their own stories. There isn't the same sense of wonder and believe in occultism, that has been in the late 60s, 70s and maybe early 80s. That's why they produce such mindless bull crap.

Seriously - don't watch this.

Director Gil Kenan is relatively new in the director's chair, and unfortunately it shows. This modernized telling of the classic original is neither scary nor convincing. The acting was merely ok and the effects so-so. I'd rather watch the original ten times over than to watch this remake a second time.