Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986)

The Freeling family have a new house, but their troubles with supernatural forces don't seem to be over.

Director:

Brian Gibson

Writers:

Mark Victor, Michael Grais

Stars:

JoBeth Williams, Craig T. Nelson, Heather O'Rourke

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 1 win & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
JoBeth Williams	...	Diane Freeling (as Jobeth Williams)
Craig T. Nelson	...	Steve Freeling
Heather O'Rourke	...	Carol Anne Freeling
Oliver Robins	...	Robbie Freeling
Zelda Rubinstein	...	Tangina Barrons
Will Sampson	...	Taylor
Julian Beck	...	Kane
Geraldine Fitzgerald	...	Gramma-Jess
John P. Whitecloud	...	Old Indian
Noble Craig	...	Vomit Creature
Susan Peretz	...	Daughter
Helen Boll	...	Mother
Kelly Jean Peters	...	Young Jess
Jaclyn Bernstein	...	Young Diane
Robert Lesser	...	Kane's People

Storyline

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 religeous 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.

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Plot Keywords:

native american | friends who live together | vomiting | alternate dimension | cave | 

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Taglines:

"They're back". All the members of the wonderful Freeling family who won your hearts before. "They're back". All the strange forces that terrified the Freelings - and enthralled you. "They're back". The thrills, the chills, the laughs, the gasps, the excitement and the wonder of one of the greatest movie stories of our time.

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Genres:

Horror

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Certificate:

PG-13

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

23 May 1986 (USA)

Also Known As:

Poltergeist II

Filming Locations:

Spider Rock, Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$19,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$12,700,000, 26 May 1986

Gross USA:

$40,996,665

Company Credits

Production Co:

Freddie Fields Productions, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min 130 min (original cut)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Stereo

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Critic Gene Siskel hated this movie. He said JoBeth Williams "had no shame", having twice appeared nude at this point, in Teachers (1984) and Kramer vs. Kramer (1979). He called Craig T. Nelson a "clothes horse, if there ever was one". He also slammed the movie's production for "putting children in danger" and getting off on that kind of salacious thrill.

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Goofs

JoBeth Williams' character's mother in the film is played by Geraldine Fitzgerald, who is of Irish descent. This is shown in early scenes of the film when she speaks with young Heather O'Rourke, as her accent can be heard. However when Diane (Williams) has a flashback to her youth the mother in the scene, not Fitzgerald, clearly does not have an accent.

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Quotes

Taylor: This is an illusion. The Beast lies! Go through the flames, now!

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Crazy Credits

The opening credits take nearly five minutes to play out.

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Alternate Versions

During post production, at least 15 minutes were cut from the film during the final editing stages, and some of the remaining scenes were re-arranged chronologically. Scenes rumored to be cut included: 1. A line mentioning "Dana," (the eldest daughter from the original film) being away at college. 2. A scene involving JoBeth Williams, Craig T. Nelson and a floating toaster oven in their kitchen. 3. A scene in which the "Rev. Kane" appears at the house again and is confronted by "Tangina" right before she is about to leave after visiting "Diane" (Zelda Rubinstein was said to be very upset that this sequence was cut, as she felt it was one of her best scenes). 4. A longer "other side" sequence at the end featuring the family's battle with the Beast. 5. Longer versions of existing scenes featuring additional dialogue. Publicity stills from some of these scenes can be seen at: the fan site: http://www.poltergeistii.poltergeistiii.com/deleted.html

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Connections

Follows Poltergeist (1982)

User Reviews

Decent sequel overshadowed by poor post-production

I have seen this sequel to "Poltergeist" many times and have always enjoyed it as much as I did the first movie. You will find that most people who dislike this sequel do so for the simple fact that it's a "SEQUEL" to the original 1982 "Steven Spielberg" produced hit (surprise surprise!) and "Spielberg" was nowhere in sight this time around (so what!), not everybody cares about whether a big director is involved with a movie/sequel or not including myself.

The sequel is written & produced by "Mark Victor" & "Michael Grais" who co-wrote the original with "Steven Spielberg" and follows the doomed Freeling family four years after the original classic left off...

I have always regarded "Poltergeist II" as a worthy follow up with it's flaws (which it is) and can still not understand how this movie made it's way from a running time of "130" minutes down to a mere "91".

Its obviously down to MGM rushing the movie's production and ordering pathetic cuts. Some of this movie's editing is really poor and it's a shame because the movie is actually pretty good and only really falls apart at the end when you can see how bad a hack job this movie really received. They should have dropped "The Other Side" from the title because you only get to see it in the movie for about 2 minutes and what you do get to see is a rushed not-finished mess of a finale.

The Poltergeist franchise should have been sold to UNIVERSAL (The company "Steven Spielberg" first approached about the original). They would have given this movie the justice it deserved. As for the third movie "I really don't care" nothing could have saved the third movie from being bad". Even with it's problems, I still loved the character's from the first movie, the plot was on the right track and introduced us to one of the most memorable villains in horror sequel history, the evil "Reverend Kane" brilliantly portrayed by "Julian Beck", and while not being as productive as the original, the special effects held up too.

Wrapping everything up, this movie is a decent sequel and has the advantage of retaining most of the original cast from the first movie (minus "Dominique Dunne" who was murdered by her boyfriend shortly after filming the first movie) and there are some really good classic moments in this sequel, one being... "The Vomit Creature!"...check your Tequila for strange worms swimming around in it next time!.

7/10