Movie Review: Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986)

The movie stars Craig T. Nelson, JoBeth Williams, Heather O'Rourke, Oliver Robins and Zelda Rubinstein.

My wife came across this film on one of our movie channels last night and, since we didn't have any other plans, we ended up watching it while trying to program my oldest daughter's new cell phone. I saw this movie not long after it came out but had not watched it in a while. As a result of that, I really couldn't remember much about it. As it turns out, it wasn't as good as I thought it would be.

There were a couple things I found I didn't like about this movie. The first was it seemed to be a bit gimmicky.

The first film managed to be scary by building up the mood. Even if something wasn't actually popping out at you on the screen, you still manage to be on the edge of your seat because you're expecting it.

This movie, in comparison, seems to rely heavily on (bad) special effects and, while still does some things right (the creatures in the bathroom mirror were somewhat creepy), the fake-looking monsters and things like flying chainsaws do detract from it a bit.

Also, as I told my wife, this movie seems to enjoy having people yell and scream all the time. I had a slight headache when I was watching it and it progressively got worse as the movie went along, simply because they seemed to talk as loud as they could even when the situation didn't call for it. My guess is the actors were trying to sell the scenes. It didn't work.

This is an OK movie. But, the original was definitely a lot better than the sequel. Because of that, I don't think it's a film I would go out of my way to watch again and, if I did, it probably would be with the sound turned way down.

My Grade: C