Poltergeist III (1988)

Strange little sequel filled with annoying characters and some horrible dialog. Poltergeist 3 is not really all that bad, it just suffers greatly from those two flaws. Story does wisely by switching the setting from the suburbs to the big city. The character Carol Anne now resides with her aunt and uncle and snobby cousin in Chicago, where they live in a high rise. Soon, ghosts start popping up again. This movie has some of the stupidest lines in it, it's often hard not to grin. O'Rourke did a good acting job in the first two films. Here, not so good. I think that may be the fault of whoever wrote the go-nowhere script. A lot of the characters lines in this seem forced or overacted. Especially the character of Dr. Seaton. The special effects are impressive though. The makers used a lot of mirror tricks that really pull the movie through it's stupider moments. However, the chopped off head of Kane scene was atrocious. I guess this movie suffered because of severe budget cuts.A lot of scenes in this movie feel a bit lame(the kid who busts up through the ice and runs into the window, the "break the mirror" scene,the kid who flips off the security camera, etc., etc.). Nancy Allen, who plays the aunt, does not look happy to be involved in this. Weaker entry in the series, but it is watchable. Seems a bit rushed. Features annoying teenagers you would find in a Friday The 13th movie. A guy rips off Lara Flynn Boyle's cheek. And whats with that growling window pane in the end? Ya gotta see it if you saw the first two. Two stars.

Fmovies: What made the first Poltergeist so appealing was how likeable the characters were. For the 3rd installment in the Poltergeist series only Heather O'rourke (Carol Anne) and Zelda Rubinstein (Tangina) are hold overs from the original cast. If O'rourke and Rubinstein were smart they would have skipped particiapating in this bomb of a movie also.

Though the special effects were somewhat interesting this movie suffers from a bad script and bad acting highlighted by the actor who plays Dr. Seaton, who may have given the worst acting performance ever. There are far too many characters in this movie who are uninteresting and that you have a hard time caring about.

There is a certain sadness in watching this film knowing that Heather O'rourke died a few months before it's release. A double for Heather is used to shoot the final scenes of the movie which creates an odd and choppy ending.

This movie is a sad final chapter in the Potergeist series. The people behind the 2nd and 3rd installments were never able to recapture the magic from the original Poltergeist. It's even sadder that the cute and innocent little girl passed away at such a young age.

There are actually some good things about the maligned POLTERGEIST III including a capable director; a cool, ominous soundtrack; and a decent rudimentary story-line that makes the build-up... of the iconic little blonde girl Carol Anne now living in a glass-structured Chicago high-rise with her aunt and uncle... work for and against itself since, as the movie progresses into manic delirium, it's more of a letdown than a horrible experience from start to finish...

By the technically-important forty-five minute mark (the same time it takes KING KONG to reveal himself), a lot has happened, and it's somewhat interesting. Aunt and Uncle, who also work for the building they reside in, are at a downstairs party full of spooky-looking art pieces; the cute teenage daughter sneaked herself and her friends into the building's off-grounds swimming pool for a beer party; the late Heather O'Rourke's Carol Anne just started to get really scared of the impending ghosts... And that last example - important and inevitable as it is - is also the problem...

Imagine having difficult yet challenging obstacles to cross and climb to get across half a field to then merely/simply run like hell to the other side. POLTERGEIST III goes from intriguing and suspenseful to a redundant and annoying chase scene between the family and the ghosts, led by an ancient, white-haired Reverend Kane...

Which is even more blasphemous to the flawed yet entertaining POLTERGEIST II, by having another actor deliberately made-up to resemble the late great Julian Beck, than the new guy's voice shouting "We're Back!" to counter Carol Anne's legendary "We're Here" from the classic and timeless original. But there's another pro to this 80% con of a sequel's sequel: Heather O'Rourke, who died not long after production wrapped (that shows with overly puffy facial features) turns in a pretty great performance, having to mentally react to what she remembers as opposed to what's actually happening: the latter being more exciting to the viewer and easier for the actor: especially a really young child actor, who's often deliberately manipulated for a more effective performance...

This occurs at a school for "really smart" children, another initial location with wasted potential that includes a shrink-in-denial played by Richard Kind, wielding a novice style of contrived, atrocious delivery that makes bad horror movies so fun to bag on...

Whether that aspect was intentional or not, Kind's phony-kind Dr. Seaton is the real villain here, and even he's lost in the frenzied shuffle (along with a glorified cameo by the Columbo of ghost whisperers, Zelda Rubinstein's Tangina) where the otherwise talented VICE SQUAD and DEAD & BURIED director Gary Sherman is overcome within an ominous, neat-looking corner of purgatory that, with so much going on, he and the cast couldn't possibly paint their way out of.

Poltergeist III fmovies. This third installment deals about Carol(Heather O'Rourke)goes with her uncle(Tom Skerritt), aunt(Nancy Allen) and their teenaged daughter(Lara Flynn Boyle)to stay into a highrise building. Then , appear the otherworld creatures who had haunted her previously and she's still pursued by weird beings. Again the strange reverend Kane( Nathan Davies substituting to Julian Beck). The family find its building and the swimming pool invaded by unfriendly spirits which abduct the 6-years-old girl. Carol Anne with the help her aunts and along with psychic Tangina Burrons(Zelda Rubinstein) confront against the supernatural forces.

Another undisguised follow-up from excellent original(produced by Spielberg), occasionally plodding and pointless sequel; furthermore, rapidly and lousy made. This sensationalistic scary ghosts story packs eerie scenes, tension, thrills, chills and amazing images. The interpretation is uninspired and is badly pulled off in gaps and flaws that cause no coherence and lack common sense. Average musical score , I miss the magnificent soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith proceeded in Poltergeist I(Tobe Hooper) and II: the other side(Brian Gibson). O'Rourke spontaneously deceased months before the movie's release and the film is dedicated Heather. The picture is rated 'Parent guide' for spooky events, creepy intensity and frightening happenings.The whole project collapses under regular direction by Gary Sherman. Here, he's screenwriter, special visual effects designer and mediocre director. In spite of it, he achieved some success in the terror cinema(Dead and buried). This inferior sequel is exclusively for Poltergeist trilogy buffs.

This is the third and final (although, knowing Hollywood, there will probably come a remake of the original sooner rather than later) entry in the "Poltergeist" franchise, which is according to yours truly the most overrated and unjustly successful horror franchises in the history of cinema. I never understood the popularity of the original "classic" because it is an incredibly clichéd, immature and over-sentimental piece of crap that presumably only had success because Steven Spielberg's name was attached to it. The sequel - unimaginatively entitled "The Other Side" - is just as dull, but for some incomprehensible reason even that film is highly appreciated among horror loving audiences. "Poltergeist III", however, is widely considered as a downright failure and a disgrace to the series. Now I don't intend to be contradictory without reason, but personally I actually enjoyed the third part a lot more than the first two parts! This is still an extremely mediocre, forgettable and sometimes very dumb spook-tale, but at least it's not as infantile and whiny than its predecessors.

Thanks to the more specific horror expertise of director Gary Sherman ("Dead & Buried", "Vice Squad") and writer Brian Taggert ("Visiting Hours", "Of Unknown Origin"), "Poltergeist III" relies more on macabre atmosphere and gruesome effects, rather than on expensive lights & lasers shows. The screenplay inventively adds the use of mirrors to generate multiple uncomfortable sequences, and the film contains a lot less false scares and pointless "boo-moments!" The Freeling family finally got fed up with all of little Carol-Anne unwelcome and irritating ghost-stalkers, so they send her away to Auntie Patricia and Uncle Bruce in Chicago. They live high up in the ultra-modern and hi-tech skyscraper of which Bruce is the caretaker, and Carol-Anne attends school in an institution for gifted but emotionally unstable children. It doesn't take long before the Preacher Kane shows his nasty mug in the tower again. He enjoys cracking the mirrors, messing with the elevators and icing the luxurious pools, but he mainly just keeps nagging for Carol-Anne to lead them back into the light. Midget-medium Zelda Rubinstein to the rescue once again, I'm afraidÂ… There's a lot of senseless nonsense and too many tedious dialogs in the script, but at least this is partially compensated through a handful of creepy moments (the possessed cars, eerie mirror reflections or the absence hereofÂ…). The make-up effects are delightfully tacky and typically 80's, including one of the characters bursting through the corpse of another. Heather O'Rourke, the young ambassador of the whole series, sadly crossed over to the other side herself before the movie was fully completed. "Poltergeist III" is dedicated to her memory.

The first POLTERGEIST is still the best haunted house film in history(In my opinion.), but this 2nd and final(?)sequel comes in at a close 2nd. Carol Anne stays with some relatives(Tom Skeritt, Nancy Allen, and Lara Flynn Boyle.)in a Chicago highrise to go to a special school for gifted children. Suddenly the evil Reverend Kane and his army of ghosts from the first two films show up to make life Hell for the residents of the highrise. Exciting, suspenseful, great story, acting, and music score. ***** out of *****. R.I.P. Heather O'rourke.