Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986)

Director: Brian Gibson

Writers: Michael Grais, Mark Victor

Composer: Jerry Goldsmith

Starring: JoBeth Williams, Craig T. Nelson, Heather O'Rourke, Oliver Robins, Zelda Rubinstein, Will Sampson, Julian Beck, Geraldine Fitgerald, John P. Whitecloud

More info: IMDb

Tagline: They're back.

Plot: The Freeling family move in with Diane's mother in an effort to escape the trauma and aftermath of Carol Anne's abduction by the Beast. But the Beast is not to be put off so easily and appears in a ghostly apparition as the Reverend Kane, a religious zealot responsible for the deaths of his many followers. His goal is simple - he wants the angelic Carol Anne; but the love of her family and the power of psychic Tangina once again unite, along with an elderly native American, to fight for her life.

My rating: 4.5/10

Will I watch it again? No.

Holy shit, where do I start?  I've only watched this once before it was in the theater on its original release.  I remember not liking it but I couldn't tell you why.  Now I can.  The first film, POLTERGEIST (1982), is a solid scare flick with everything going right and one that hasn't lost its effectiveness.  The first half of the picture isn't all that terrible I guess.  It's unrealistically abundantly optimistic.  There's a nice tracking shot when Kane shows up at the Freeling house.  Jerry Goldsmith is back to score the film (a plus) and you've got Julian Beck being all creepy as shit as Kane. 

Then we start to get into some strange goings-on here and there that don't really add up to all that much.  It's boring.  And the finale when we're 'on the other side' is ridiculously campy but it clearly wasn't supposed to be.  Goldsmith and Beck are the best things about this flick.  And then comes the third and final film that makes this one look good.