Poltergeist III (1988)

A-Z Horror Movie of the Day..."Poltergeist 3" (PG-13 - 1988 - US)Sub-Genre: Paranormal/Sequel My Score: 5.1Cast=6 Acting=5 Plot=4 Ending=6 Story=4 Scare=4 Jump=6 F/X=5 Creep=7 Sequel=4Carol Anne is staying with her aunt in a high-rise building, where the supernatural forces haunting her make their return. "Kane! Give her back her family. You don't need them. You don't need Carol Anne! I can lead you into the light. I have the KNOWLEDGE... and the POWER!" RIP Heather O'Rourke...she passed away before this film was finished and they had a double for the final scene. This movie had a black cloud over it and it bombed in the theater. If you have not seen this one, it's no big deal. It took me a long time to bring myself to watch this...there were a couple of good parts but it was a meh.

It looked pretty eighties. The use of practical effects was fantastic as everything looked so real! The use of mirrors must have been a nightmare to film. The ghost world scenes looked especially good. The movement was nice but some cuts were a little jarring. The sound was mostly good. Some of the vocal filters used were a bit extreme. The music was subtle and good. Shame it was stereo but it wasn't such a big deal. It was a little cheesy. The acting (or possibly direction) was not that great and they seemed like they were reading lines most of the time. The ending felt very forced and rushed. I liked the theme of mirrors instead of a TV but overall it is obviously the weakest of the trilogy although never boring so ultimately entertaining and that is what you want, right? Easily the weakest of the trilogy but still an entertaining conclusion.

Heather O' Rourke(who sadly died before film was released) again plays poor Carol Anne, who is once again plagued by the same sinister spirits from the first two pictures. Here, she is staying with her rich uncle (Tom Skerritt) in his high rise apartment complex(Craig T. Nelson & Jo Beth Williams did not return) where she is forced to call upon once more the help of family friend and medium Tangina(Zelda Rubenstein) who is determined to end this supernatural menace once and for all...Sequel is really no better or worse than Part II, yet remains just as melodramatic and nonsensical, though it does at least lead to a conclusion of the trilogy, which to date has not been changed(thank goodness!)

I recently have been going through a "ghost kick." I've been watching tons of ghost and haunted-house films. Everything I can get my hands on- from classics like "The Haunting" and "The Changeling", to foreign films like "Ringu" and "Ju-On", to modern films like the "Paranormal Activity" trilogy and "Insidious." So, naturally, when I saw "Poltergeist II" and "III" on Netflix, I started them up, intending to watch them back-to-back. I actually like "Poltergeist II"- it's silly, but is a fun sequel overall. I hadn't seen the third film, however, in years, and I wish it had stayed this way."Poltergeist III" is scary. Not because of effective jumps, a creepy atmosphere, or top-notch writing like the original. But because it is so bad. Just foul, awful. Tedious.This time around, Carol-Anne (Heather O'Rourke) has been sent to live with her relatives in Chicago, supposedly because she's been accepted into a school for gifted youngsters. The real reason is that the actors for the first two films probably read the script and refused to be involved.She is staying with her aunt Pat (Nancy Allen), her uncle Bruce (Tom Skerrit) and her cousin Donna (Laura Flynn Boyle). Bruce owns the high-rise building where they stay, and Pat apparently works in an art gallery in the same building.Carol-Anne has been tormented by memories from the first two films. At her new school, a doctor named Seaton (Richard Fire) believes that she isn't haunted by ghosts, but rather is a manipulator who can cause mass-hallucinations by using hypnosis... uh... yeah, the movie actually goes there. It insults the audience by suggesting that Carol-Anne may be a manipulative hypnotist. Of course, we know it's actually the vengeful spirit of Henry Kane who is haunting her. But the fact that the movie stoops this low by even suggesting this as a possible explanation is just pitiful.Blah, blah, blah- you know the drill. Kane catches up with Carol-Anne, and torments her, nobody believes her at first, and so on. Eventually, the family must come together (with the help of Tangina, again played by Zelda Rubinstein) to stop Kane once and for all.This movie... sucks.The plot is all over the place. The first two films at least had a logic to them. This movie starts up by adding new rules and layers to the "haunting" that make no sense. Kane just sort of hangs around inside of mirrors the whole time. I'm not kidding. Mirrors were never used like this in the first two films. But in literally EVERY SINGLE SCENE, there's a lame scare where Kane will appear in a mirror (mirrors line the halls of the building), and it actually becomes funny within 10 minutes, because you KNOW it's going to continue. They try to change it up later on, by doing other gags where the mirrors don't reflect things properly, but it's still the EXACT SAME "SCARE"... It happens at least 50 times in the movie, I'm not kidding. It gets old really fast. They sort-of try to explain it (I guess the mirrors reflect the spiritual world, or some such nonsense), but it doesn't mean anything.Also, whereas the first two films used special effects effectively, and had all sorts of monsters and creatures and skeletons, this film has none. Remember the giant skull from the first film? The "Vomit Creature" from the second? They are tossed out the window so Kane can randomly appear in a mirror and cackle before vanishing in every single scene. It's so uncreative that it hurts to watch.I also must say, the "rules" for this film have no consistency. Somehow, Kane can now "clone" people in the Mirror/Spirit world, so half the movie, you're not seeing the characters, but rather evil reflections of them that don't do anything in particular, just act evil at random. Like everything else, it makes no sense.The film is a mess. There is also a recurring "scare" where Carol-Anne will hear Kane calling her, but like the mirror gag, it becomes funny when we realize it never, ever stops. I was able to predict when it was coming and say it along with him in the movie, it was so blatant and over-used.The acting was pretty bad. O'Rourke tries, but can't work with the material, and seems more like a brat than an innocent little girl. Nancy Allan starts off nice, but her dialog makes her come off as a nasty, self-centered jerk even though she's one of our "heroes", and Tom Skerritt... he just seems creepy and unsettling, even though he's meant to be a nice guy. The actors simply have no good dialog or development to feed off of, and all suffer for it.The film is abysmal. I'm only giving it a 2 to honor the late Heather O'Rourke. But it's actually, easily a 1 out of 10. Avoid this, please, for your sake!