The Bowens have hit some hard times, and must find new housing. They’ve found a steal of a house.. the problem is, they’re not alone. They’re youngest daughter, Madison has made some new friends, but they’re idea of a playdate is nothing short of haunting.
Of course, this is the 2015 remake of the classic Poltergeist. Though I didn’t hate it, I took issue with a few things, that I’ll discuss in a moment.. first, let’s take a look at what I did like.
Kennedi Clements plays Madison Bowen, and as far as I’m concerned, she nailed it. Was this good acting? or just being a little girl, naturally? Either way, she was convincing as our little victim.
I feel that they stayed true to most of the original story.. most.. of course, there was some aspects brought up to modern times, phones, tablets, drones, etc. So, no problem there. Jared Harris is Carrigan Burke, the psychic brought in to help the Bowens.. he has his own “Ghost Hunters” kind of show, but he’s actually legit.
Now, for some of the reasons I didnt give this movie a higher score…
- The parents are oddly not panicky when their daughter is taken.. I would expect more emotion, more outbursts, more breakdowns, anything really.
- The overuse of CGI kinda killed the overall feel of the movie. I really feel that practical effects could have been a lot more effective. The “dead” people, where badly done as well.
- PG13 is not a rating I want to see in a Horror movie. Especially on a remake of one of the scariest iconic films in the genre.
- One of the members of the paranormal team thinks that this is all a scam to get a reality TV show.. really? Even if he was just trying to establish if they were serious, or not.. it was a jerk move.
Biggest issue I think, is pacing. Everything happened way too soon, and non stop. The original had great timing, pauses in the action to ramp tensions back up.. by the end of the movie, I really thought it was only 45 minutes long. It just flew right by.
But, as I said, I didnt hate it. I just think it could have been better.
OK, I forgot a couple of things…
- You’re unemployed, and the bank lets you buy a house? You even told the realtor that you just lost your job..
- You have a scene where you go through 3 credit cards before you find one that’ll work.. Let’s buy (really) expensives gifts for everyone!! No Income, one working credit card.. Let’s buy an iPhone for the bitchy teen!
- Your husband just lost his job.. Let’s be an author and write stuff, and not contribute to the household finances! Yay!
Because of these items that I forgot.. I have knocked the score DOWN
