Poltergeist: Another 'run of the mill' horror

Walking in to watch Poltergeist, one expected a different kind of a horror movie because of its title. Now, if you know the basics of ghosts, and have seen another film titled Poltergeist that came out a few decades ago, you will know that a poltergeist is not the normal/usual type of ghost. It does not have a form. It just acts through objects and energy, getting violent and destructive. So, that kind of a grammar can make for quite a different horror flick.

Poltergeist, however, starts a lot like most horror films do. A family moves into a house, not because they want to but because their circumstances force them to. Typical horror film family: mom, dad, elder daughter, younger brother and baby sister. Then you know what has to happen! Spook!!

We have had so many of this type of horror films over the last year or two after the success of The

Conjuring  that the director needs to be amazingly inventive to find enough angles and sounds to scare us. The story as such carries very little in terms of surprises. It is the youngest of the family that discovers or is able to sense the presence of something supernatural. It is the youngest that is targeted first. The only surprise comes in terms of what happens to that person. The arrival of the exorcist/ghosbuster or whatever you want to call them with all their thermal cameras and magnetic field detectors is almost becoming a cliché and you do not really feel any sense of excitement when they are actually setting up to do their stuff. The disappointment is that in spite of having a fairly surprising main haunting event, the script doesn’t build up to it in an effective manner. There could have been a few more minor events which effectively brought out the prowess of the haunting entity. But it is as if the writers couldn’t come up with enough interesting material and decided to go for main event without wasting much time.

Even the exorcism, or something similar that is tried towards the end is not very convincing because the prowess of the haunting has not been shown to us in all its ferocity. That said, it does have its moments, some interesting imagery during the exorcism process.  The little girl has played her part with quite some innocence. The others really have to mouth their lines and look concerned and disturbed, and nothing more is required of them.

What do you look for most in a horror movie? The spooky moments of course! It’s the director’s

ability to make our hearts skip a beat that makes or breaks a horror movie. It is when you watch movies like Poltergeist that you realize that spooking people with sounds, half open doors, false alarms and similar stuff is not something everyone can do. Tried as hard as they might have, the team of Poltergeist has managed to give one or maybe a couple of genuine spooky moments, the drilling machine scene is one of them. The rest is just like sitting through a plane narrative of a haunted house! And one more thing; why was this made in 3D?

Flickers briefly and goes up in smoke!

1.5/5