13 Nights of Hallowe'en 2010: Night #11 Poltergeist II: The Other Side

If you are new to my array of blogs or just have forgotten, my favourite movie of all time, any genre, is the originalPoltergeist. I already told you all about it for last year's Hallowe'en movie. I decided not to repeat myself although there were more than a couple haunting movies previously covered that I could have tackled again. Poltergeist II: The Other Side is a great sequel. It didn't have to be as brilliant, or as beautiful as the original, it just had to keep you involved with the family. It helped immensely that Craig T. Nelson, Jobeth Williams, and of course little Heather O'Rourke returned--and the boy too. With them came Zelda Rubinstein as the absolutely iconic Tangina Barrons. This time the Freelings have moved in with the children's grandmother but the ghosts still want Carol Anne, especially their leader the Reverend Kane played by Julian Beck.

Let's start there, with Julian Beck as Kane. That is one seriously creepy old man. Beck is just absolutely amazing whether it is pretending to be a sweet innocent old codger or the seething, wrathful, fire and brimstone, cult leader unsatisfied even in death to let his followers go. That in itself is also the coolest thing about this movie--the back-story that dovetails so well into the goings on of the previous film. That is likely because Poltergeist II has the same writing team that brought us the original movie: Michael Grais and Mark Victor. Kane has another problem beside Tangina this time out in the form of a Native American shaman played by Will Sampson. Both Sampson and Beck were supposed to have died after working on this movie because of the Poltergeist curse--also Dominique Dunne and Heather O'Rourke--one of the creepiest (false) movie legends.

Mood: inspired.

Music: Halloween by Aqua. MP3s