Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986)

All too often, a successful film makes enough money and generates enough buzz that Hollywood can’t help but create a sequel. Not all sequels are bad but most are inevitably inferior to the original for one reason or another. The chief reason that Poltergeist II: The Other Side fails to find success is the original Poltergeist itself.

The original film was a breath of fresh air from the rising trend in splatter films and graphic horror. It used common yet creative scenarios to make the hairs on the back of our necks stand up. It was the fear of the seemingly normal that fueled the first film. Most importantly, the original was such a tight and complete film that it left no room for a sequel. The Freelings saved their daughter, found out why their house was haunted and got the heck out of Dodge.

This film does what should have been unthinkable- it undoes all the closure of the original and supplants it with reasoning that’s far harder to swallow (a tactic know as retroactive continuity or rectconning). The filmmakers are basically saying, “Remember that nice, neat ending in the original? Well there’s more!” Unfortunately, less is almost always more.

Before, the reason for the haunting had been because the Freeling homestead was built over a cemetery where only the headstones had been moved. Now the story is that a religious cult committed mass suicide in a cave under the house and their souls are still trying to cross over. The youngest Freeling, Carol Anne, is special and those lost souls need her to be led to the other side. The spirit of the cult leader, Kane, will stop at nothing to have her.

Retconning always cheapens a story because it takes what you thought you knew to be true and throws it out the window. Philosophers might not mind it but it’s quite irksome to moviegoers. It doesn’t take away the power and impact of the original Poltergeist but it certainly makes the sequel harder to accept and get into.

I think the biggest problem is that the film tries to force a potentially interesting plot onto the same family. There was such a sense of relief and triumph for the Freelings at the end of the first film that everything happening now just seems excessive and unfair. How much paranormal abuse does one family have to be subjected to? The events that unfold could have easily occurred to a new family and it could have been so much more than it turned out to be.

Other problems that plague the film are either omissions or forced inclusions. Dana Freeling, the eldest child, is absent without any explanation (though the actress who played her died shortly after the release of the first film). Carol Anne’s grandmother is introduced to reveal the young girl’s specialness and act as a sort of catalyst for things to come. There is also an awkward Native American element to the film that is never fully explained. Taylor, a shaman, has some kind of connection to Kane and can help open a portal into the first part of the other side, where Kane and his followers are stuck. Neither of these things get explained at all. Finally, when the Freelings travel into the other side to save Carol Anne the effects are anything but special, even for 1986.

Put simply, Poltergeist II: The Other Side strikes me as an interesting idea with plenty of potential. Had the story not been forced to fit around the Freeling family, that potential may have been realized. Poltergeist did not need a direct sequel and Poltergeist II did not need to be a direct sequel.

RATING: 1.5 out of 5