2015’s Poltergeist is a pretty solid remake of the original Poltergeist that I think is better than a lot of people give it credit for. While it does have some similarities with the original movie, I do feel that they do more than enough of their own things to make this movie stand out from the original and not just be the exact same story.
How to Download Poltergeist (2015)
Poltergeist was released on May 22, 2015. You can download or stream the film from a digital platform such as Amazon Prime Video or Apple TV. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and make your choice.
The Movie Review
New Family, New Story: The Bowen Family
One thing that I liked was how this is not a movie about Carol Anne and the Freeling family. I actually think that it would have been disrespectful to have Carol Anne be in the movie after the tragic end to the young life of Heather O’Rourke who passed away before Poltergeist III even hit theatres. Having this story be about a new family was the right call.
This time around we have the Bowen family which is led by parents, Eric and Amy who are played by Sam Rockwell and Rosemary DeWitt. Eric and Amy have three kids, teenager Kendra, son Griffin, and the youngest of the bunch, daughter Maddy. I think that the movie does a good job of making you like the Bowen family and feel for them as Eric lost his job and you can tell that the family have moved into this house due to necessity and not because they want to.
Terrifying Events Unfold
In what feels like no time at all, weird stuff starts to happen in the house and Maddy does the whole “they’re here” thing which is something I got a kick out of. During one hellacious night, the Bowen kids are terrorized by ghosts and Maddy ends up sucked into the ghost world through her closet, but she is able to communicate with her family through the TV.
There are certainly some similarities here with the original like Maddy getting sucked into the ghost world and the whole evil tree coming to life thing as well. The tree scene and the whole night of terror, in general, is very well done and has you on the edge of your seat the whole time it is all happening.
Ghost Hunters and the Fight for Maddy
One of the things I like about Eric and Amy is that they do not take ages to believe what is happening and they go to the university for some help. There is no Zelda Rubenstein’s Tangina here, instead, we have a woman from the university called Dr. Brook Powell and she tries to help the family and soon realizes that this is a job for a professional ghost hunter.
That is where Jared Harris’s Carrigan Burke comes into play. Carrigan is a professional ghost hunter and he is also the ex of Brook! She calls him in to try and help the family and he is honestly a major highlight of the movie. Speaking of highlights of the movie, the way that young Griff runs in to try and save his sister Maddy was so awesome to see and made the 9-year-old seem like a total badass!
Why the Poltergeist (2015) Remake Works
The 2015 Poltergeist is a fun modern take on a classic horror movie and it is a movie that I watched recently and it was even better than I remembered it being. I think that some people cannot get past the fact that this is a remake of Poltergeist and that gets their defenses up and prevents them from enjoying this. I am not saying that this is a masterpiece of horror or anything like that, however, there is certainly more to like than dislike here. I truly do not know how a Poltergeist remake could have been done any better.
