Titreenp SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Billie Morin This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Madilyn Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

DeuceWild_77 After the critical and box office success of the original movie, the screenwriters (this time without Spielberg) developed a sequel to further explore the secrets behind "the other side" and its connection to the Freeling family, especially the younger one, Carol Anne.Back were the original main cast: JoBeth Williams and Craig T. Nelson as the devoted parents; Heather O'Rourke and Oliver Robins as the kids (because Dominique Dunne was murdered after the original movie, the production opted to exclude her character, Dana, who is only briefly mentioned) and Zelda Rubinstein as the eccentric psychic Tangina.English director Brian Gibson (an odd choice for director) was chosen to helm this sequel which is way more darker than the previous film, but at the same time a little more pedestrian directed.The original story was expanded here and it positively links without being too far-fetched and the inclusion of the Reverend Henry Kane, played superbly creepy by the ill-fated Julian Beck, was top notch. Reverend Kane directly entered to the pop culture as one of the most frightening villains that came out from the 80's decade and the "Poltergeist" franchise forever will be associated to his character.Will Sampson, who also died 1 year later (due to the Poltergeist "curse", if you believe in that) is very good playing straight, but with a sense of humor, the benevolent Shaman Taylor and the veteran actress Geraldine Fitzgerald used as a fill-in for the Beatrice Straight's character in the original, leaves her mark as the Motherly figure despite her less than 10 minutes on-screen."Poltergeist II - The Other Side" have its flaws, even if the original story flows well for this sequel, the novelty factor was over and Gibson couldn't reproduce the same eerie atmosphere, the mastering of suspense or the creativity behind the camera-work, and the fact that MGM butchered the movie from the initial length of 130 minutes to just 91, most of the scenes / plot extensions felt incomplete and, most especially, the ending confrontation when the audience can finally have a look on the other side, was too short and the impact was kind of dull.The effects are good and 'au pair' with the original film, even if some of them are considered too cheesy for the nowadays standards and others being too disgusting (the worm scene involving Craig T. Nelson who, strangely, acted his Steve Freeling way more over-the-top / campy here, maybe a deliberated decision between him and the director or he forgot how to play the character right or even, he was just in for the paycheck, not believing in the material).Heather O'Rourke's role is less prominent here (once again, too much Craig T. Nelson...), but the child actor still delivers, her first encounter with Reverend Kane in the Mall is unforgettable as a good piece of thrilling cinema (it helped, that little Heather was in real life scared of Julian Beck, who sported a gaunt look due to his stomach cancer).In short, it's a good follow-up film, not as exceptional or a masterwork of the genre as the first, but way more showy, visually horrifying & visceral. For fans of Horror B-movies with large budgets, this one is worth a watch !!

Scott LeBrun Here we have yet another belated, completely unnecessary sequel that only barely gets by. After their otherworldly encounters, the Freeling family has relocated and are now living with Dianes' (JoBeth Williams) mother (Geraldine Fitzgerald). They don't get much of a breather before supernatural forces again begin to plague them. And these forces still want to get their hands on little Carol Anne (Heather O'Rourke). Diane, Steve (Craig T. Nelson), Carol Anne, and Robbie (Oliver Robins) this time receive assistance from a wise Indian (Will Sampson), while Tangina (Zelda Rubinstein) makes an encore appearance.Technically, "Poltergeist II: The Other Side" is reasonably well made. But it's so lazily conceived that it's very hard to care what happens here. Making things tolerable are a still very likable bunch of actors, but they have some pretty bad material to work with this time around. A lot of the dialogue is simply abysmal. Attempts at humor largely fall flat. Director Brian Gibson is no Steven Spielberg, or Tobe Hooper, and can't generate any suspense or excitement at all. The efforts of a very talented visual effects team (supervised by Richard Edlund) can only do so much to help. It's hard to believe this was written by the same guys who wrote the first film.This is not to say that this sequel is devoid of highlights. One pleasure is in watching the supremely creepy Julian Beck as a malevolent "reverend" who puts a human face, of sorts, on the antagonistic spirits. One ingenious moment involves Robbies' braces; the other is a sequence many people do enjoy about this sequel. That would be the "vomit creature" sequence. It turns out there are consequences for swallowing the worm at the bottle of a tequila bottle.The family is still worth rooting for; young O'Rourke is as adorable as before. It's just too bad they're stuck in such a blah story.H.R. Giger ("Alien", "Species") is credited with conceptual design.Sadly, the final film for both Beck and Sampson.Five out of 10.

jacobjohntaylor1 Poltergeist (1982) is a very scary movie. But this movie is scarier. This is one of the scariest movies you will ever see. It has a great story line. It also has great acting. It also has great special effects. If you do not get scared of this movie then no movie will scary you. This movie is very intense. Heather O' Rourke was a great actress. This this movie. All the Poltergeist movie are must sees. And this is the best one. Julian Beck was a great actor. Craig T Nelson is a great actor. J.o.B.e.t.h Williams is a great actress. Oliver Robins is a great actor. The Poltergeist movies is one of movie series you do not want to miss.

virek213 JAWS 2; HALLOWEEN II; THE RAGE: CARRIE 2—all of them horror film sequels that I can only label as "curiously frustrating", in that there's enough in them to like, but just as much to be skittish about. This is also true of POLTERGEIST II: THE OTHER SIDE, the 1986 sequel to the highly acclaimed and highly successful 1982 Steven Spielberg co-produced/co-written horror film classic that Tobe Hooper (of THE Texas CHAINSAW MASSACRE fame) directed, and which ranks with THE SHINING as one of the few true horror classics of the 1980s.The film picks up one year after the events of the original, as the Frelengs, led by Craig T. Nelson and JoBeth Williams, have now moved off to a desert suburb of Phoenix, Arizona while trying to get a new start, living with Williams' mother (Geraldine Fitzgerald). Nelson is having a rough go of it trying to be a vacuum salesman; he had been in real estate, but the Cuesta Verde incident left him out in the cold. When Fitzgerald passes on, however, it lets open the door for some literal ghosts of the Frelengs' past to haunt them. They become terrorized all over again; and this time, getting in contact with both the famous medium Tangina Barrons (Zelda Rubinstein) and an Indian (Will Sampson) well versed in the supernatural, they figure out why. Back in the 19th century, a group of White settlers were confronted by Indian warriors in what was to become the Cuesta Verde Estates, resulting in a horrific Sand Creek-type massacre that resulted in a mass graveyard that Nelson's former employers had built Cuesta Verde over. The spirits of those survivors, including especially a deranged preacher named Kane (Julian Beck), have come back to snatch O'Rourke and to lead them to the Light because they are still not at rest, but they seem to have no intention of bringing her back. Rubinstein and Sampson insist that the Frelengs must return to Cuesta Verde to confront Kane and his minions by entering the Other Side, that netherworld between life and death that Williams and O'Rourke crossed in the original. In between, though, they are confronted with a whole host of horrific things, including a "Vomit Creature", and a supernatural chainsaw that threatens to tear Nelson's station wagon apart as they head out for Cuesta Verde.Unlike a lot of horror films, POLTERGEIST II maintains a good solid position of having five of the principals from the original film (Dominique Dunne, however, had been killed in real life shortly after the original film had been released), plus the solid special effects work of Richard Edlund, who had worked on the original. What POLTERGEIST II lacks, however, is the effective and incisive direction of Hooper and both his and Spielberg's understanding of the genre and of family. Mark Victor and Michael Grais, though they co-wrote the original's screenplay with Spielberg, somehow fail to grasp those concepts of the original; and Gibson, who directed the 1980 film BREAKING GLASS and later did 1993's WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT, is not really in Hooper's, let alone Spielberg's, league. The mayhem may very well have been accelerated from the original, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's better.Two additions, however, do work quite well. Sampson, a real-life Native American who starred in films like ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST and THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES, is extremely good as the Indian shaman who, along with Rubinstein, assists the Frelengs in their confrontation with the ghosts. And Beck is incredibly grisly and frightening as the deranged preacher out to permanently possess O'Rourke; he comes off as a supernatural version of Robert Mitchum's role in the 1955 classic NIGHT OF THE HUNTER.The most welcome return on POLTERGEIST II, besides Edlund's special effects, is Jerry Goldsmith's intense orchestral score. These things do keep this film from being just another Hollywood exploitational sequel. But what is there is still strangely empty; and that, in the end, is due to the absence of both Spielberg and Hooper in the basic involvement of things.