I went and took in the new Poltergeist movie at the cinema tonight. I'd only heard bad things about it, but having never seen the original movie (I know, I should hang my head in shame) I did enjoy it!
Quite similar in style to Sam Raimi's other recent horror film "Drag me to hell" (although not as good) you can tell it doesn't take itself at all too seriously and it ends up being quite fun.
The pacing is a mile off from the start. The wee girl disappears and it's hard to figure out for how long before the investigators come in, but its at least the following day anyway, and the family had all had a sleep, a wash and done their lippy and hair. All the way through indeed, the family looked incredibly refreshed and not at all "in bits" the way regular folks would be if their daughter disappeared for a period of time, never mind adding to the equation a haunted house. It was almost more a state of disbelief, with the teenage daughter still cracking wise throughout. The seemingly regular-thinking-any-American-family only mentioned contacting the police once and quickly disregarded it, only to choose calling in the paranormal investigators instead.
In that respect the entire film was more of a nightmarish fantasy, than a "really happening" type horror film. The "action" sequences were alright, one in particular I liked with the wee boy being tormented and then attacked by all these clown dolls, which to be honest has probably been done a million times before this.
Sam Rockwell and Jared Harris were good to watch, because they always seem to bring a bit of humour to their roles which fitted in well with the way they done this remake; especially Jared Harris, who has this mad Irish accent and may as well have winked at the camera after each line!
In summary, the film itself probably isn't very good at all, and I'm sure I've seen better films that didn't rank as high as 32% on Rotten Tomatoes. This is probably another one to watch once, don't expect too much out of it, and you should be entertained no bother for an hour an a half.
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