It used to be modern audiences couldn’t stomach black and white movies
but are ALL films from the 20th Century now taboo?!
You’re watching Beyond The Trailer’s review of the TOTALLY MODERNIZED Poltergeist...
The original Poltergeist, released in 1982, was a tremendous success and one of the early
building blocks that lay the foundation for Steven Spielberg’s legendary career. While
it can take some time for most Hollywood talent to learn the value of diversifying their portfolio,
Spielberg was prolific right out the gate - not only directing smash hits likes Jaws,
Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark and ET, but also producing
instant classics like Gremlins, Back to the Future and - one of his earliest producing
gigs - Poltergeist. Spielberg also co-wrote the film, about a typical imperfect suburban
family that found their new house suddenly terrorized by dangerous and violent spirits.
A huge hit, Poltergeist went on to gross one hundred and twenty million at the box office
- over two hundred million when adjusting for inflation - and was nominated by The Academy
Awards for its impressive visual effects, sound editing and score by Jerry Goldsmith
- who might never have achieved John Williams fame but was nonetheless a Hollywood legend.
Two sequels were made, but despite its initial success MGM couldn’t turn Poltergeist into
a franchise - a rumors of a curse plaguing the films didn’t help. Now, in the age of
remakes and reboots, Sam Raimi - another big director with his own diverse portfolio - has
decided to reboot Poltergeist, and MGM surely hopes they’ll be able to turn it into a
franchise the second time around. And while some might question rebooting such a classic
- and recent - film, to be fair Raimi has already successfully rebooted one of his own
recent horror classics, Evil Dead. Like with the first Poltergeist, the director is far
less known than the director producing. Gil Kenan has a short resume, just two films - the
animated Monster House and the family adventure flick City of Ember, which both did poorly
enough at the box office that it took him seven years to land his next film, Poltergeist.
As for onscreen talent, the new Poltergeist also mirrors the original in that it features
recognizable yet not movie star talent. That’s also a popular trend today with horror movies
actually, such as The Conjuring which starred Ron Livingston - and interestingly his wife
Rosemarie DeWitt stars here. He must’ve put in a good word for the horror genre, and
why not, as its the biggest movie on his resume. So with non-stars like DeWitt and Sam Rockwell,
that means this reboot is relying largely on the reputation of the original film to
attract moviegoers, yet at the same time is telling them not to bother with the original
film...? Tsk, tsk, tsk. But it would be a lot easier to resent this new Poltergeist
if it didn’t look pretty darn good...