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May 31, 2015

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‘Poltergeist’ remake frighteningly good

IT’S infrequent and particularly satisfying when the remake of an especially memorable film equals or exceeds the experience of the original. In 1982, “Poltergeist” saw the brilliant pairing of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s” low-budget horror director Tobe Hooper with far more mainstream screenwriter and producer Steven Spielberg for an effects-laden event movie that earned its place as a contemporary benchmark among supernatural thrillers.

In setting the scene, Eric (Sam Rockwell) and Amy (Rosemarie DeWitt) Bowen, crippled by the financial impacts of the Great Recession, look to downsize so that they can continue adequately providing for their three kids. They find what they’re looking for in a distressed but affordable home for sale that’s located in a nondescript development full of vacant properties on the outskirts of an Illinois town where Amy attended university. Youngest daughter Maddy (Kennedi Clements) is excited to move in following the initial tour after conversing with some new invisible friends who speak to her from a mysterious bedroom closet. As the film reaches its midpoint, all of the essential elements of the original are in place and in part this satisfying continuity is attributable to a screen story again written by Spielberg.

Although Rockwell appears capable of holding the Bowens together in the face of financial and personal peril, it’s a rather under-written part that lacks the frequent character tics he’s exploited more memorably in smaller-scale films. DeWitt is the predictably supportive emotional core of the family, eventually driven to extremes by her daughter’s predicament.

Director Gil Kenan’s overall improvements to the movie’s visual style aren’t only attributable to advances in technology and a 3D update.

While Hooper favored shock value and jump scares, Kenan and cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe construct far more fluid sequences as the camera glides and hovers over its subjects, reserving the most impactful shots for the climactic scenes.




 

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