Poltergeist III - Die dunkle Seite des Bösen

After repeatedly facing evil forces, Carol Anne moves in with her relatives in Chicago in order to undergo therapy. However, the evil Reverend Kane is hot on her trail.

Among the well-known of legendary bad movie sequels, Poltergeist III is one with more scope and perspective than most. Fans of the suspense of the first two movies will probably be disappointed but it's still an entertaining addition the ghoul series.

Poltergeist III is at its best when we see the surreal mix of DIY ingenuity and production design of the special effects. Heather O'Rourke is very good as the lead and had such a bright future ahead of her. It's nice to see Lara Flynn Boyle in her first role too.

If you want to see how many times someone can yell "Carol Anne!" in 90 minutes, I guess you'd be into this. I think they set a world record for how many times the main character's name is mentioned throughout the movie.

The plot is standard sequel stuff: Carol Anne, the little girl plagued by paranormal phenomena in the first two movies, now stays with her bitchy aunt and her husband and daughter in a huge Chicago high rise building. Unfortunately for everyone, some prick counselor at her new school has been putting her under hypnosis to deal with the events of her past (he believes she has the power to produce mass hallucinations and is a manipulative liar despite witnessing paranormal activity in her presence--smart man). This therapy apparently opens her up and leaves her vulnerable to Kane, the preacher that wants her to lead them to the other side. Kane shows up in mirrors and other reflective surfaces (like puddles) and uses them to attack.

I've never seen so many mirrors in one movie. Even Carol Anne's bedroom walls are just big mirrors (I guess she hasn't hit that self-conscious stage yet). The hallways are mirrored. The elevators--mirrored. The poor girl has to go to the parking garage just to get away from all of the damn mirrors and it still doesn't end well for her.

There is some mildly entertaining subplot involving Lara Flynn Boyle's character, Donna, and her love interest with really bad '80s hair sneaking their friends into the building's pool after-hours. If you enjoy watching bad '80s fashion, you'll love these guys.

Once Kane starts to attack, Tangina, the short lady with the grating voice, comes back to help Carol Anne and her new family.

The movie manages to be pretty creepy by utilizing its inspired location--the building is often genuinely menacing. The mirror effects make up for some pretty corny dialogue and the characters' tendency to yell "Carol Anne!" every other minute.

Could have been much better if the script was worked on, but as-is, it's just a formulaic sequel with some average acting. Entertaining enough for a watch if you're not expecting anything close to the original.

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.

I'm a huge Poltergeist fan and I must say,I was hugely disappointed when I found out that only 2 of the main characters of the series were coming back to do this second sequel.I think this movie had the potential to be better than it was.It had an interesting plot of Carol Anne being sent to live with her aunt and uncle in Chicago,so that she could go to this school for gifted kids with mental problems,though I would suspect that Diane and Steven wanted to get Carol Anne away so they could have some semblance of a normal life,at least for awhile,the writers putting this in mostly so that they could have this in an urban setting,in a skyscraper.The most ridiculous aspect of this movie is how Dr. Seaton and Aunt Pat (Nancy Allen),must be the two dumbest characters,they still cling to the notion that all that's happening is just Carol Anne brainwashing everyone into believing that the entire building is being haunted by ghosts,no matter how many times the ghosts make it plainly clear and obvious that this isn't all in their heads. Nathan Davis is no match in comparison to the original Reverend Kane (played by Jullien Beck).Tom Skerritt plays the compassionate uncle who treats Carol Anne (the late Heather O'Rourke),like his own daughter. Apparently,Aunt Pat is not happy to have Carol Anne around,and it might have to do with some sibling rivalry she and Diane (JoBeth Williams),had growing up,though this is never explored.I think the mirror-thing was pretty innovative as well.Admittedly,having Carol Anne playing with a 'Speak-N-Spell' was rather ridiculous,being that she's supposed to be almost a teenager herself now (and so was having her wear those red, one-piece,footed blanket sleeper pajamas (Don't most of these have zippers? I've never seen button-up footsie pajamas before),though I think the writers added that so as to play to the subplot of the ghosts zapping the building out of it's heat and energy,making it freezing inside the building.Until I saw this movie,I didn't even know they make footsie pajamas that big,for preteen kids),and some of the other subplots could've used some work,or had been explored more in this film, overall this movie wasn't too bad,but admittedly,the first two movies in the series were much better,and the ending to this movie made no sense (I think they were planning a much better ending,but Heather died before they could do this,so they had to do this lame-excuse for an ending.Worst of all,what happened to Scott? Did he go to 'the light' with Tangina,Kane,and the other ghosts? Without Heather O'Rourke (whose life and career were cut tragically short),this movie would've gotten only a couple of stars from me,but because of her 8,or 9-star (out of 10), performance,I give this second sequel 5 out of 10 stars,so watch this if you may,but if you want a top-notch horror movie,look elsewhere!

Although "Poltergeist II" wasn't a box office smash, MGM still decided to make another entry - possibly because then MGM was considered the last stop in Hollywood by producers wanting to make feature films (and still is to a degree), and MGM then *really* needed the money (and still does to a degree). The end results really look like a token effort made to make a quick buck. Despite the luxury high-rise setting, much of the movie looks somewhat impoverished. There are a few good special effects (I saw a TV program that revealed that many of them were actually all done on set, instead of being added to the movie after principle shooting), but there are some shabby effects as well (specifically the "ice" effects seen several times in the movie.) The script contains a number of unanswered questions, more if you haven't seen any of the previous movies. The cast (especially the male actors) all seem to be phoning it in, showing their feeling to the entire enterprise. MGM put this out on DVD with part II, probably because they thought (correctly) that no one would buy part III on its own.