Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘Poltergeist’ (2015)

Written by Scott Edwards

​Moving into a new house is never easy, especially if you have kids since you're not only taking them away from their friends, but putting them into a new and unfamiliar place, meaning it takes more time for them to become comfortable. Being one of these kids, it took years for me to adapt to my new surroundings, but eventually I settled in. Not knowing what the sounds were in the attic or why things were always falling in the garage, I made up my own stories about what was happening in the house to keep myself calm and for the most part it worked. But knowing that what I told myself might not be correct, I was never truly comfortable until I was able to find out for myself what was really going on.

After being laid off from his job, Eric Bowen and his family are being forced to downsize. When checking out houses, Eric and Amy have to make a decision on where to move their family and when they are able to find one in the right price range, they are forced to jump at the opportunity. While checking out the house, Eric and his son Griffin notice that there is a closet that does not seem to want to open, but thinking little of it, a bid gets placed on the house and the Bowen’s have found their new home, even if it is a temporary one.

While the family is moving in, young Madison has already found that she has new friends that want to play with her. Walking into her room and seeing his little sister talking to the closet like it is a person, Griffin is interested in what is going on. With some sort of power running through the closet, the electricity in the room is great and the two sit down and have fun with the strangeness. But it only works when the kids are playing with it, not when the parents are in the room. As night settles in, Griffin tries to get comfortable in his new room, the attic, but before he is able to fall asleep, he hears something rattling around in his closet. Opening it up and seeing a little ball hanging from a string, Griffin gives it a little tug and stuffed clowns come flying down. As Griffin is frightened of everything, he runs to his parents’ room and will not go back to his own until someone checks it out. Only finding a squirrel that was making the noise, Eric tries to tell his son to toughen up, but has no idea what the house is capable of.

As Maddy has made her new friends in the house, the lost people, she continues to talk to them all of the time, but when they show up on the television, she knows that they are coming to join her family. While her parents don’t really listen to her stories, they are starting to recognize that their youngest may be caught up in too much make believe. While not knowing what is happening in the house, Eric and Amy head off to a dinner party as a storm is moving in. Leaving Kendra in charge of her siblings, they think everything will be fine, but the storm is all that the lost people need to gain some extra power and fulfill what they are here to do.

As far as remakes go, this one is not terrible as it tries to focus more on modern times. Trying to keep with the original storyline, Maddy (Carol Anne) is taken by the ghosts and Griffin (Robbie) is tormented by the house. But in this movie, the parents have no idea that there is anything strange happening in the house and are surprised to see that their child has gone missing. The parent’s role in this movie was not as prominent as in the original and that is how the storyline played out as Griffin is forced to be the man of the house and try to save his little sister. Technology was used in this movie, especially during the ghost hunt and I liked how it came into the story, especially with the use of a drone to see the land beyond. They even had a prominent television ghost hunter come and help out, which had to be the high point of the movie. Taking the best scenes from the original Poltergeist and Poltergeist III, then throwing in a little Paranormal Activity, this movie was not as bad as I expected. I wish there would have been a little more character development and build up to the scares, but the action in the movie was good and you really did not have to wait that long for something strange to happen as the house really seemed to like to have Maddy staying there. Stay Scared.

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