POLTERGEIST II: THE OTHER SIDE (aka POLTERGEIST 2)

Poltergeist II: The Other Side Movie Review

One year after the events of the original film, the Freeling family believe they are in the clear, but discover otherwise when a mysterious Native American named Taylor (Will Sampson, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest) warns the danger is still very real. Let's address the elephant in the room right off the bat--Dominique Dunne, who played Dana, the eldest daughter in the original film, was murdered by her boyfriend shortly after the release of Poltergeist, and her character is not mentioned at all in this film. I personally would have liked to have at least seen her absence explained (her being in college was in the original script but was scrapped), but, for whatever reason, she's just forgotten. Other than her, the rest of the original Freelings are here, and we also get the return of Zelda Rubenstein as psychic oddball Tangina.

She knew I was going to use this picture

Speaking of oddballs, this movie is loaded with them, which only adds to the fun of it--Craig T. Nelson is awesome in his hilarious, spastic performance, Sampson steals the show as Taylor, and Julian Back is creepy as Reverend Henry Kane.

And honest man?

This movie manages to maintain a fun balance of horror, splashes of comedy, and a whole lot of bizarre, from the strange characters to the use of actual skeletons in the shots to everything that happens on the "Other Side".

It looks like this

Poltergeist II: The Other Side is not nearly as scary as the original film, and probably is not as good, but it certainly is a ton of fun to watch--it is loaded with that off the wall element you expect from 80s supernatural movies (and I haven't even mentioned what happens after Steven eats the worm), and that can never be a bad thing. As with Stigmata, I watched this one while visiting my Mom in Ohio, and we had a blast watching it together for the first time in decades. 

On A Scale Of One To Ten: 7

Poltergeist II: The Other Side Movie Trailer