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

13 Nights of Halloween: Night #4 Hellraiser: Inferno

Tonight's movie is one that totally blew my socks off. "Hellraiser:
Inferno" is the fifth film in the Hellraiser franchise following on the heels of Bloodlines. Sequels can be mixed bags. Some people hate them with a passion. Many say that they never live up to the original. I am not one to dismiss sequels, and many of them I like. It is true that few sequels ever compare to the greatness of the first. For that reason you have to look at them as separately as you possibly can, especially watching them for the first time. Inferno is one movie where I must boldly say that I like it almost as much as the first one.

I'd also go a step further and say that to me, visually, I feel this sequel is truer to The Hellbound Heart than the original movie. That's a funny thing to say given that Clive Barker was the scriptwriter and director on the first film. Still I stand by it, and as I specified I mean visually. Inferno has the truest of the Cenobites in it. It also has The Engineer in a much more specific form than that creature that some claim was him in the original. As for the rest of Inferno? Well I couldn't shake the feeling by the end of it that it is maybe one of the most disturbing movies I've seen. It has the excellent mix of seen and unseen, lets you imagine your worst and then shows you the special effects' team's worst, which is their best. So what are you waiting for? If you don't have a copy of this to watch tonight get on it.

Mood: excited.
Music: Haunted by Poe.