At several points during this adequate, sometimes interesting but ultimately pointless remake of the original POLTERGEIST, I found myself thinking, "Why did they bother?"
The new film brings nothing new, more powerful or better to the table beyond the obvious leap in special effects since 1982, often copying scenes verbatim before gently nudging them into a slightly different take.
The cast is certainly game. Sam Rockwell and Rosemarie Dewitt are Eric & Amy Bowan, moving into a new home due to Eric losing his job.
It's somewhat telling that in the early 80's, the Freelings in the original film were portrayed as successful people, moving into a new neighborhood for upwardly mobile families and now the family is downtrodden and the successful folks in the film are portrayed as callous, rude people. It's a fascinating look at success now vs in the 80's.
But I digress....so their youngest daughter still gets sucked into the TV, her brother gets dragged into the big tree outside his window, but after awhile, I just found myself waiting for the good parts to see how they'd be updated.
Jared Harris brings some good energy as TV ghost hunter Carrigan Burke, bringing his TV catchphrase "This House Is Clean" with him in the updated version of Tangeena from the original.
Sam Rockwell is, as you'd expect, terrific and Kyle Catlett is very good as young Griffen.
The writer David Lindsay-Abaire has done good work in the past on Broadway and film (Oz The Great & Powerful) but he's slumming here.
I can give the filmmakers credit for moving the story along quickly, but if you aren't going to bring anything NEW to the story or reinvent it in some way, why bother? The original Poltergeist is an all time favorite and one of the best films of the 80's. Like it's sequels, this remake will be quickly forgotten as it fades into the light..... We'll give it a C-.
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