Film Reeview: Poltergeist III (1988)

There are rare occasions when you wish that certain films never got produced. On even rarer occasions that sentiment are shared by some of the authors of said films. One of them was Gary Sherman, director of 1988 horror film Poltergeist III.

His film represents the third instalment in the series started by Poltergeist, popular film about evil spirits haunting the home of Freeling family in hope of snatching their youngest daughter Carole Anne (played by Heather O’Rourke). In the second instalment it was revealed that the malevolent force is Reverend Kane, mad preacher and leader of 19th Century apocalyptic cult. Plot of the third film begins in Chicago where Freelings have sent Carole to live with her aunt Trish (played by Nancy Allen), Trish’s husband Bruce (played by Tom Skeritt) and their teenage daughter Donna (played by Lara Flynn Boyle). They all live in huge high-rise buildings where Bruce works as manager and Trish runs art gallery. Carole Ann is sent to special school for gifted children where her stories about previous hauntings catch attention of psychologist Dr. Seaton (played by Richard Fire), convinced that Carole Anne is able to make those stories credible through mass hypnosis. He tries to check his hypothesis by hypnotising Carole Anne, but those efforts only bring Kane (played by Nathan Davis, replacing Julian Beck who has played same character in the second film) from the Other Side. He begins to stalk not only Carole Anne, but members of her family and create all kinds of supernatural havoc in the building. Psychic Tangina Barrons (played by Zelda Rubinstein) senses that Carole Anne is in danger and flies to Chicago to help her.

First film, meticulously produced by Steven Spielberg, is considered to be one of the great horror films of 1980s. Second film, although significantly inferior, tried to give some sort of closure and neatly end the story. That effort is, just like with many 1980s horror film series, ignored for the sake of another uninspired and poorly thought of sequel. Freelings, the main characters of the story, don’t appear with exception of Carole Anne who is inexplicably dispatched to their cousins, that weren’t mentioned in previous two instalments. Gary Sherman and his screenwriter Brian Taggart, however, try to make the best out of situation and do something differently. Instead of suburbia, the setting is mega-urban Chicago and its slick, high-tec skyscraper (with famous John Hancock Building used for extrerior shots) with claustrophobic atmosphere. Sherman also experiments with the idea of Kane using mirrors instead of TV sets in order to haunt the world of the living. This leads to series of simple but effective scenes in which characters find distorted/false versions of themselves in the mirrors.

But, this is, more or less the only good thing about Poltergeist III. In everything else, it is significantly worse than previous two instalments. It starts with synthesiser score by John Renzetti, which is annoying and makes this film sound cheaper than actually is. Taggart’s script is also very weak, especially when developing characters of Gardners, who are one-dimensional and forgettable. The audience will probably lose interests for them long before the confusing ending, which features a lot of cheap scares. The cast, despite including some otherwise dependable actors like Skeritt and Allen can do little with such material. Lara Flynn Boyle in her first major film role is utterly forgettable, while Nathan Davis (who took the place of formidable Julian Beck) is laughable as main villain. Taggart makes things worse by poor dialogue, including repeated use of words “Carole Anne” which happen with laughably annoying frequency.

12-year old Heather O’Rourke, the star of the film, did decent job, at least considering circumstances of production. While shooting, she was misdiagnosed with Crohn’s disease and received therapy that would make her face bloated. Few months after the production and few months before scheduled release, she died of septic shock, creating PR nightmare for the studio. Sherman wanted film not to be released, but the studio ultimately forced him to actually re-shoot new ending with body double standing for deceased child actress. Poltergeist III flopped at the box office and was savaged by critics, which is the verdict that stands even today. That was sad and inglorious ending for the franchise where premature deaths of so many cast members created legend about “Poltergeist curse”. Plans for fourth instalment were scrapped; in 2015 came predictably unsuccessful remake of the first film.

RATING: 2/10 (-)

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