Poltergeist III (1988) Review

 "My knight in shining acne!"

-Marcie

After the previous movies, Carol Anne Freeling (Heather O'Rourke) is sent to live with her aunt and uncle in Chicago.  Unfortunately, Reverend Kane (Nathan Davis) is still after Carol Anne and follows her for one last showdown.

What Works:

The special effects are easily the best part of Poltergeist III.  There some really awesome practical effects with Kane melting and Tangina (Zelda Rubinstein) getting torn apart.  This movie focuses a lot around mirrors, so we also get some creepy shots of something appearing in a mirror, but not in the real world.  I also like the frosty look of The Other Side, which is far better than anything from the second film.  Best of all is the pool that drags several characters into it.  It looks fantastic.

Tom Skerritt plays one of the leads, Carol Anne's Uncle Bruce, and does an awesome job.  Bruce is a fun and wholesome character and makes you wish he was your uncle.  He doesn't believe in any of the hocus pocus until it stares him in the face.  From then on, he doesn't back down and is willing to do whatever it takes to save his family.  Is he the most complex character?  No, but he's really likable and easy to root for and that's good enough for me.

The supporting actors all do a good job as well, even if they don't get enough to do.  Heather O'Rourke and Zelda Rubinstein both return and it's great to see them again, even though it's really sad to know that O'Rourke died before this movie came out.  I also really like Lara Flynn Boyle as Heather's cousin.  She's a teenager who wants to live her own life, but also really does care about Carol Anne.  None of them get enough screen time.

Finally, the skyscraper setting is a nice change of pace.  They do quite a bit with the location, so it's not quite repeating the first two films.

What Sucks:

The problem with Poltergeist III is it can't quite justify its existence.  The plot is pretty much the same as the second movie.  Kane is after Carol Anne.  That's it.  We've seen this before.  From a storytelling perspective, we don't need this movie.  This is a cash grab with the Poltergeist name.  If you're going to make a sequel, make a sequel that's worth watching.

The script is really disjointed.  We are introduced to a bunch of characters, but most of them aren't really relevant to the endgame.  Some disappear from the movie entirely, others are captured or killed off.  Only Bruce and Pat (Nancy Allen) really do anything in the 3rd act and it feels like most of the film's subplots were completely discarded.

The 3rd act itself is very anticlimactic.  I know it was a reshoot and Heather O'Rourke had passed away before she could do the reshoot, which severely limited production, but I can't imagine the original ending was worse than this.  

Kane was one of the best parts of the second movie and unfortunately Julian Beck passed away, so they needed to recast for this movie.  Unfortunately, Kane is only seen in quick shots and is more of a force than a character.  It's disappointing.  I wish they would have cast someone who could really do something memorable with Kane here.

Richard Fire plays Carol Anne's psychologist who ends up going to the building and his performance is not very good.  I don't buy a word he says.  You could have cut him out of the movie entirely and it would have been a big improvement.     

Finally, the movie never gives a good reason for why Carol Anne's parents sent her away.  The family unit was such an important part of the first two movies, discarding it completely just doesn't make sense.  They didn't even try to come up with a reason for it.

Verdict:

Poltergeist III is a mild improvement over the second film, but nowhere close to the quality of the original.  Most of the actors do what they can, the special effects are solid, and the change of setting is nice, but the story doesn't make much sense, they wasted a lot of potential, and ultimately, the film can't justify its existence.  Just watch the original.

 4/10: Bad