Amy Bowen: Rosemarie DeWitt
Kendra Bowen: Saxon Sharbino
Griffin Bowen: Kyle Catlett
Madison Bowen: Kennedi Clements
Carrigan Burke: Jared Harris
Dr. Brooke Powell: Jane Adams
Boyd: Nicholas Braun
Sophie: Susan Heyward
20th Century Fox
and MGM present a film directed by Gil Kenan. Written by David Lindsay-Abaire.
Based on the 1982 screenplay by Steven Spielberg. Running time: 93 min. Rated
PG-13 (for intense frightening images, brief suggestive material, and some
language).
There are some who are
calling the present period in cinematic history the Golden Age of Independent
Horror. It is true that there have been a good deal of innovative horror films
released over the past decade. We’ve seen the rise of Spanish and Korean horror
masters, like Guillermo del Toro and Joon-ho Bong. “Saw” changed the horror
landscape forever. The first “Paranormal Activity” was original and genuinely
frightening. And even as recently as this year we’ve seen innovative horror films
like “It Follows”. Perhaps, however, horror directors are getting a little full
of themselves and are forgetting the basics of filmmaking as they apply to
horror.
Gil Kenan has only directed
three films. His first was a motion capture animated movie, the overlooked
family oriented “Monster House”. His second was the non-horror, equally
overlooked family film “City of Ember”. Now, he’s tackling more adult oriented
horror in a family environment with the remake of the early eighties horror
classic “Poltergeist”. Although, indie horror master Tobe Hopper directed the
original “Poltergeist”, it was very much the child of its screenwriter, Steven
Spielberg. In preparation of tackling something from Spielberg’s canon, Kenan
seems to have spent a good deal of time studying the modern horror trends. It
would’ve served him better to study a cinematic master like Spielberg than what
some filmmakers today think is scary.
“Poltergeist” looks at a
family dealing with living in a new house that appears to be haunted. Although,
it is impossible not to compare this new version with the original, the changes
to the details of this family’s situation make sense for an update of what is
the same basic story from Spielberg’s screenplay. The Bowen’s are downsizing
due to the fact that their patriarch, Eric, has been laid off work for some
time. They’re moving into a neighborhood of cut and paste homes that were once
a nice subdivision—not unlike the one featured in the original film— that has
been devalued by the housing market crash. The mom, Amy, is a writer doubting
her ability to carry the family finances with her next book. They have a
teenage daughter filled with teenage rebellion, a boy still struggling with
fears of the dark and a precocious younger daughter.
The difference between this
family and the original’s is that the movie isn’t in love with their lives. How
could it be? Their world isn’t the family perfection of the early eighties,
where riches abound and the sky was the limit with new fangled family gadgets
like remote controls. However, Spielberg’s story kind of depended on that
perfection. His writing at the time was very fixated on his own childhood of
dealing with his parents’ divorce. “Poltergeist” presented a family that
overcompensated for his own and the resulting movie had a fascination with this
subdivision life of riches provided by the dawning of a new decade. The family
in this film is still solid, but they’ve been through the ringer.
That premise could’ve worked
if Kenan didn’t seem to so urgently rush through writer David Lindsay-Abaire’s
screenplay. The characters and setting are merely sketched out in broad
outlines. Important details—such as the fact that the subdivision was located
on an old cemetery that had been moved—are checked off as obvious exposition in
scenes that have little to do with the story at large rather than being worked
into natural conversation focused on the family dealing with their problems.
The result is a film that is more interested in getting to the scares than in developing
any sort of connection between audience and character.
Again, never straying far
from the original plot, a team of ghost hunters is brought in. First, we meet a
University based team lead by Dr. Brooke Powell, a woman who seems unsuited to
such eccentric notions as ghosts and demons. She brings in the much more
unconventional Carrigan Burke, the host of a reality-based ghost hunting show.
Played by Jarred Harris—who seems to be carving his American film career out of
horror eccentrics of late—the filmmakers are able to find some more original
ways to inject humor into the story, while unfortunately insisting on
referencing the original by repeating line readings pulled directly from
Spielberg’s script.
I was always glad that the
original did not take the audience into the world that the daughter is pulled
into by the ghosts. I liked that we had to imagine it. It certainly didn’t
surprise me that the filmmakers of this new one couldn’t resist taking their
cameras into that netherworld. Restraint is an unknown word in today’s
Hollywood. Surprisingly, this is one of the features that actually works in
this version. The world behind the bones of the house, as it were, is quite
creepy and effective for its purposes.
One area where today’s
horror filmmakers do insist, however ineffectively, on showing restraint is in
the film score. “Poltergeist” has me concerned that the art of the film score
is dying. I suppose the thinking is that the score might distract from the
“reality” being presented. That’s the only reason I can think of that no scenes
without horror action contain any scoring. Has Kenan not learned that a key
component to effective storytelling is contrast? The scoring of the horror
elements isn’t nearly as effective without the scoring of the non-horror
elements. Much of the film feels lifeless without any scoring behind it.
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