In June of 1988, the third and presumably final chapter of the Poltergeist saga was released to both poor reviews and tepid box office performance. Despite the fact that the film opened in the top five it's opening weekend, it quickly dropped off. Poltergeist III picks up two years after Poltergeist II: The Other Side. We find that Carol Anne Freeling, 12, is now attending a school for gifted children with emotional problems in Chicago. She is living with her aunt Patricia (Nancy Allen), uncle Bruce (Tom Skerrit) and step-cousin Donna (Laura Flynn Boyle-her first feature film) in a brand new 100 story high-rise which is chock full of mirrors. Carol Anne's psychologist at the school, Dr. Seaton, is trying to help her via hypnotic regression sessions to remember the traumatic events of her past. Seaton thinks that Carol Anne can somehow put people under hypnosis themselves and make them think they see the supernatural. That's how he explains away Carol Anne's previous encounters. Unfortunately, because Carol Anne has always been clairvoyant, while under hypnosis she unconsciously lets the evil Reverend Henry Kane and the last few remaning spirits find her. The ghosts then invade the mirrors in the highrise and begin to possess people's reflections. Fortunately, the psychic Tangina Barrons returns to help Carol Anne and her now surrogate family. The biggest problem with Poltergeist III is the fact that it is a completely unnecessary sequel. The conflict in the original film was never really resolved, so Poltergeist II, while not as good as the first, al least was valid. Part III, on the other hand, merely invents a story and tries to pass it off as a continuation and ultimately a resolution to the "Poltergeist Trilogy." Another problem was that only two members of the original cast returned: Heather O' Rourke and Zelda Rubinstien. They, while very good, would have been very much helped by the return of Jobeth Williams, Craig T. Nelson, and Oliver Robins. The music of Joe Renzetti was very eerie in this film, but it lacked the familiarity of "Carol Anne's Theme" by Jerry Goldsmith. The visual effects were very creative because they were all done live on the set, but they just could not compare to the awesome optical effects in the first two movies. The most intriging aspect of Poltergeist III is that it contains the final screen performance of Heather O' Rourke, who died four months before the film was released. She gave her best and most in depth performance of Carol Anne in this film. After O' Rourke died, MGM was unsure and nervous about marketing the film using Heather's image, so they cut facial views of her from the trailer and designed a theatrical poster with no tagline. Only the back of Carol Anne is seen in the poster, as she looks up at the tall highrise. In fact, the ending was reshot after she died so a body double was used. Look closely at the very last scene in the film and you will notice that her face is not shown. Overall, Poltergeist III was not as good as the first two but still remains eerie because of it's main star's untimely death.
Poltergeist III ** (out of four) PG13 1988 Taglines: "Guess who's back in town?" "We're back!" "They're back...again." "He's found Her."
Reviewed by David Furtney Visit my Poltergeist Trilogy Site at
www.angelfire.com/ga/poltergeist
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