"Poltergeist, frankly, fails as a horror movie but excels as a comedy"

Poltergeist 2015 is a movie that was pretty stunted from the start. Being a reboot of a movie who's clever moments of pure horror soon became horror clichés, and a horror flick where its main attractions soon became not only infamous pop culture references but have also been the main butt of jokes in popular modern media such as 'Family Guy' - namely the episode 'Petergeist' - for years, Poltergeist 2015 had a lot to live up to.

So instantly 'Poltergeist' is trying to adapt a now cliché, convention molding piece of horror movie history and this reboots attempt to re-create it is done with very little flair. Instead 'Poltergeist' becomes a by-the-numbers modernisation of the original which, not only doesn't try to, but doesn't evolve from the original, unless you count the evolution of the television from an ancient CRT to a nice little HD one.

By now the story of 'Poltergeist' is so riddled into the minds of horror fanatics and movie fanatics alike that I feel that the story requires little explanation. The basic gist of 'Geist' is simple, a family moves into a house that is built on an old cemetery and then their young daughter, this time named 'Madison' instead of 'Carol', is abducted by the angry spirits and communicates, through the this time, very expensive-looking HD, television.

Sam Rockwell as the "fun-dad" Eric Bowen is surprisingly effective in his role and the supporting child actors who play Kendra, Griffin and Madison Bowen are effective also with Kennedi Clements as Madison is arguably the highlight of the entire movie. Rosemarie DeWitt is also competent in her role of Amy Bowen but the character, who is supposed to be the metaphorical glue that holds the ,apparently distant, Bowen family together feels forced and her central, albeit important, task of contacting Madison seems to be her only time to shine whereas husband Eric shines brighter with his sense of humour giving the movie the majority of its entertainment value.

The humour in 'Poltergeist' is where the movie gets the majority of its appeal from. While the 1982 original is campy and chuckle-worthy, it still manages to bring the scares for what is now quite outdated in ideas and technique. However, 'Poltergeist 2015' instead spits out gag after gag, some of which are unintentional but come off as strikingly hilarious, noticeably the behaviour of Nicholas Braun's 'Boyd' after he is attacked in the closet.

The movie is overshadowed by its incredible skill to build up tension but then fails on the execution of the scares. Being a victim of mild coulrophobia I was incredibly disappointed when the infamous clown sequence turned out to be the lamest scare in the movie, barely making me jump. In fact, the scene was more humorous than scary when the clowns destroyed face caused by hyperactive brain to be reminded of the also infamous face glitch from buggy "masterpiece" 'Assassin's Creed Unity'. 'Poltergeists' inability to scare does become apparent during the later sequences of the movie where the scenes drag in countless amounts of CGI to cover up its lack of practical stunts. After watching the movie you may ask to yourself; is the CGI a worthy replacement to its barebones practical work? And the answer is yes.

While 'Poltergeist' CGI isn't the most highly detailed, its wonderful use of lights, while coming off as a little mid-two thousands, is highly entrancing while the "other worlds" walls of skeletal husks is competently effective in creating an unnerving atmosphere but does seem of a lower standard than everything else.

The part where 'Poltergeist' spectacularly fails is in its suspension of disbelief where, even in a movie where ghosts communicate through mobile phones and televisions, there are parts where things just don't make sense. The extremely loud sequence of falling toys is deafening and echoes through the room but doesn't appear to be heard by anyone else in the house and father Eric Bowen seems hardly phased by the whole "my daughter has been abducted by Poltergeists" plot that the entire movie is based around. Little niggles like this, along with a dull reading of the signature "They're here!" line all add together to take you out of an otherwise fairly entertaining horror flick, minus the inclusion of any horror.

Overall, 'Poltergeist' is a movie that, frankly, fails as a horror movie but excels in being a comedy. With sequences that are both intentionally and unintentionally funny and a decent team of actors, Poltergeist is an enjoyable re-tread through one of histories most beloved horror films although, not as good as the original it tries to recreate.

6/10

