Poltergeist is a 2015 American supernatural horror film directed by Gil Kenan, written by David Lindsay-Abaire, and produced by Roy Lee and Sam Raimi. A remake of the 1982 film of the same name, the film stars Sam Rockwell, Rosemarie DeWitt, Jared Harris, and Jane Adams. It was released on May 22, 2015, by 20th Century Fox and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film grossed over $95 million worldwide.
Plot[]
Eric and Amy Bowen (Rosemarie DeWitt) are a married couple looking to buy a house for themselves and their three children: 16-year-old eldest daughter, Kendra, their 9-year-old son, Griffin, and 6-year-old youngest daughter, Madison. Eric was recently laid off, but they are shown a house that has recently come on the market that fits their price range, so they purchase it and move in.
The first night, they hear strange noises in the walls, and Griffin finds a box of clown dolls that were left at the house. In the middle of the night, lights and electronic devices start turning on and off, as some unseen force appears to move through the home. The commotion wakes Griffin, and he goes downstairs and finds Madison talking to an unknown presence inside the television. She tells Griffin someone is coming, and he attempts to unplug the TV, causing the lights to go out of control. Madison then tells the family they are here. The following evening, Eric and Amy go to dinner with their friends, leaving the three children at home. They learn that their house was built on an old cemetery, but the bodies were moved to a better neighborhood.
At the house, Kendra's phone begins emitting strange sounds, and as she traces the noise and enters one of the rooms, the floor cracks and corpse's hands emerge and begin pulling at her foot. Griffin notices the clown dolls seem to be moving by themselves. One clown doll attacks him, but he destroys it and escapes from his bedroom. He finds Madison in her room, scared, crouching at a corner, and tells her to stay while he goes to find Kendra. Madison is then lured into her closet and becomes lost in an unending void. As she sees her bedroom drifting away further, she is dragged into the darkness by ghosts. Griffin, while running around the house, is grabbed by the branches of the old tree outside their house, which pulls him out to be hanging on the tree. Amy and Eric arrive home to see Griffin being tossed around in the tree branches, which releases its grip when they come close, while Kendra tells them she can't find Madison.
The family hears Madison's voice emanating from the television. Amy and Griffin visit the Paranormal Research department for help. The staff sets up equipment in the house, and install GPS locators on everyone in the house. While trying to contact Madison, Eric is ambushed in the closet by a ghost resembling her. Angered, he breaks down the closet wall, throwing a chair into the darkness inside the closet, and as the chair falls back into the living room of the house, it reveals a possible portal Madison can escape through. The investigators realize that this haunting is a poltergeist. The lead investigator Dr. Brooke Powell decides to call occult specialist and television personality Carrigan Burke.
Carrigan explains that Madison is a possible psychic, able to communicate with spirits. He reveals that the ghosts are trapped and are angry because only the headstones were moved to the new cemetery, but the bodies remained, and plan on using Madison to free them from their purgatory. Carrigan comes up with a plan to get Madison back. He anchors a rope in Madison's room and tosses it into the vortex. They attempt to use Griffin's toy drone to guide Madison out, but it's destroyed by the ghosts when inside the portal. Griffin, ridden with guilt over leaving Madison alone in the first place, goes through the portal himself. When he finds Madison, the ghosts attempt to destroy the rope to trap them, but they both escape.
The family get in their car and begin to take their leave from the house, but the ghosts drag them back into the house and attempt to abduct Madison again. The family saves her from being sucked into the portal, which sucked in everything in her bedroom (curtions, toys, desks, the door and her bed), and Carrigan decides that as the only other psychic, he must go into the vortex and lead the spirits into the light. The Bowens flee as the house is torn apart by a giant light. The investigative team run to their equipment, looking for a sign that Carrigan managed to get back.
As the Bowens look for a new house, the realtor shows them a house with lots of closet space and an old tree in the backyard; the Bowens drive away laughing. During the end credits, it's revealed that Carrigan survived the incident and is back filming his ghost program, now hosting the show with Dr. Powell.
Cast[]
- Sam Rockwell as Eric Bowen
- Rosemarie DeWitt as Amy Bowen
- Jared Harris as Carrigan Burke
- Jane Adams as Dr. Brooke Powell
- Saxon Sharbino as Kendra Bowen
- Kyle Catlett as Griffin Bowen
- Kennedi Clements as Madison Bowen
- Nicholas Braun as Boyd
- Susan Heyward as Sophie
- Soma Bhatia as Lauren
Production[]
In early September 2013, the crew shot interior scenes for the film in an old residence in Toronto. Exterior shots were filmed on the West Mountain of Hamilton. The film was shot and released in 3D.
Release[]
On August 6, 2014, the film's release date was shifted from February 13, 2015 to July 24, 2015. On March 4, 2015, the date was shifted again to when it was previously set forSpy. It was released in 3D.
Marketing[]
The film's first trailer was released on February 5, 2015. Forrest Wickman of Slate Magazine's opinion was that the trailer made the film appear to be too similar to the original film. James Hibberd of Entertainment Weekly said that the trailer "retains and amplifies several elements from the original", and praised that "the modernizing doesn’t result in, say, the family’s daughter being kidnapped by ghosts in Snapchat". Brad Miska of Bloody Disgusting stated that "while every fiber of my being wants to reject it, [the film] actually looks pretty insane", and praised the trailer's final shot. Ben Kuchera of Polygon also opined that the trailer appeared to be similar to the original film, but that it "looks great, as a horror movie".
Home media[]
Poltergeist was released on DVD and 2D/3D Blu-ray Disc on September 29, 2015. The Blu-ray editions included an extended cut of the film.
Reception[]
Critical reception[]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 30%, based on 106 reviews, with an average rating of 4.8/10. The site's consensus reads: "Paying competent homage without adding anything of real value to the original Poltergeist, this remake proves just as ephemeral (but half as haunting) as its titular spirit." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 47 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
Writing for Variety, Andrew Barker called it "generally entertaining yet fundamentally unnecessary" and concluded: "Even when one is inclined to admire the cleverness with which the remake revisits and reincorporates Poltergeist's themes, it’s hard to pinpoint a single moment where it improves on them, and the aura of inessentiality hangs thick over the proceedings". Neil Genzlinger gave the film a mostly positive review in The New York Times, writing: "The new Poltergeist might well be the scariest movie 13-or-unders have yet seen, just as the original was for their parents back in 1982. Those parents might find it an enjoyable trip down memory lane, even if they do now recognize it as largely a well-served collection of horror-movie tropes". Eddie Goldberger echoed that sentiment in The New York Daily News, writing "It doesn't approach the original--really, how could it? But the new Poltergeist is a fun, worthy horror entry." Tirdad Derakhshani wrote in The Philadelphia Inquirer: "It's not exactly a scary film, but it does provide an enjoyable ride. It's good fun. But it left me befuddled", adding: "Why would anyone want to remake Poltergeist in the first place?". Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Mike McCahill called the film "an efficient scare-machine". Bilge Ebiri wrote in New York magazine: "This new Poltergeist isn't anything special... But it's not a travesty, and that feels like cause for brief celebration".
Other critics took a more skeptical view of the film. Writing a review for The Village Voice, Alan Scherstuhl stated, "Poltergeist 2015 is to Poltergeist '82 what today's shipped-frozen-to-the-store Pizza Hut dough is to the kneaded-on-site pies the chain's stoned cooks tossed in the Reagan era. It's the same kind of thing, with the same shape and some shared ingredients, but the texture's gone limp, and there's no sense of occasion about it, and there's some unpalatable goop stuffed in the crust. In a pinch, it beats pizzalessness — but just barely." Linda Cook wrote in The Quad City Times, "The Poltergeist remake is OK, but won't stay with you." Randy Cordova in The Arizona Republic wrote, "Ultimately, the whole affair is forgettable."
In CinemaScore polls conducted during the opening weekend, cinema audiences gave Poltergeist an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale.
Box office[]
Poltergeist grossed $47.4 million in North America and $48.2 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $95.6 million, against a budget of an estimated $35 million.
In North America, Poltergeist made $1.4 million during its Thursday night showings from 2,500 theaters, and an estimated $9.4 million on its opening day. Through its first three-day opening, it grossed $22.6 million from 3,240 theaters, debuting at fourth place at the box office behind Tomorrowland, Pitch Perfect 2 and Mad Max: Fury Road. In comparison to prior horror film reboots, its opening is well below the openings of 2009's Friday the 13th ($40.57 million), 2010's A Nightmare on Elm Street ($32.9 million), 2003'sThe Texas Chainsaw Massacre ($28.1 million), and right below 2005's The Amityville Horror ($23.5 million).
Outside North America, it earned $8.3 million on its opening weekend from 3,750 screens in 36 countries, finishing at sixth place at the international box office. In the UK, Ireland and Malta it opened in third place with $2.2 million and Brazil with $2 million.
