POLTERGEIST 2: THE OTHER SIDE/THE FLY 2: TWO TERRIFIC HORROR MOVIE SEQUELS REVIEWED BY SANDRA HARRIS.
POLTERGEIST 2: THE OTHER SIDE.
(1986) BASED ON CHARACTERS CREATED BY STEVEN SPIELBERG. DIRECTED BY
BRIAN GIBSON. MUSIC BY JERRY GOLDSMITH. CINEMATOGRAPHY BY ANDREW
LASZLO.
STARRING CRAIG T. NELSON, JOBETH
WILLIAMS, HEATHER O'ROURKE, OLIVER ROBINS, ZELDA RUBINSTEIN, WILL
SAMPSON, JULIAN BECK AND GERALDINE FITZGERALD.
THE FLY 2. (1989) BASED ON
CHARACTERS CREATED BY GEORGE LANGELAAN. DIRECTED BY CHRIS WALAS.
MUSIC BY CHRISTOPHER YOUNG. CINEMATOGRAPHY BY ROBIN VIDGEON.
STARRING ERIC STOLTZ, DAPHNE ZUNIGA,
LEE RICHARDSON, JOHN GETZ AND JEFF GOLDBLUM.
POLTERGEIST and THE FLY were
two of the biggest and best horror movies of the 'Eighties, if not of
all time. Who can forget the evil spirits whisking away the pretty
little blonde-haired angel Carol Anne Freeling through her television
set, of all things, or the handsome genius scientist Seth Brundle
accidentally mixing his DNA
with that of a fly to create the nastiest mutation ever to sully
God's green earth...?
We the viewers certainly can't. To us,
these films are unforgettable. They characterise the very best of
'Eighties horror and we fans watch them again and again and again
without ever getting bored. Sequels to either film were never going to reach the
dizzy heights of the original movies, but I must say that the two
sequels we're talking about now were pretty decent efforts. Shall we
take a closer look, my pretties? Yes, we shall...!
POLTERGEIST 2 is
a really enjoyable movie that falls down badly in the last five
minutes, which is a shame because that's when you really need things
to hold together. The original family, the Freelings, have moved to
Grandma's house, only to find that the evil spirits who targeted
Carol Anne in the first film have come back to haunt her again
through her little pink toy telephone. For shame, spirits...!
This time
around, the Freelings have pocket-rocket psychic Tangina Barrons back
in their corner once more, plus her friend Taylor, a native American
shaman. Taylor is big and burly and positively super-cool, the kind
of guy you'd want rooting for you if you had the devil on your tail.
That's
exactly the Freelings' problem. The devil is on
their tail, in the form of a ghostly preacher called Henry Kane who
wants Carol Anne and who has fiendish connections with the
corpse-ridden foundations of the Freelings' old home, the one which
disappeared.
That's
a pretty tricky one to explain to your insurance company, by the way.
'Whaddya mean, the house just vanished into thin air?
Houses don't just vanish, gosh-darn-it! Y'all expect us to believe a
cock-a-mamie story like that...?' You
can see where there might be a problem...!
Anyway, Tangina, Taylor and the Freelings (they sound like a 'Sixties pop group, don't they...?) have to join forces to ensure that
the truly nightmare-inducing Henry Kane (the Beast) doesn't
get his ghoulish mitts on Carol Anne. The special effects are
top-notch once again but the ending is a disaster. It's cheesy beyond
belief and sadly wouldn't frighten a kitten. That's my only complaint with
an otherwise great sequel which is well worth your time.
I
really enjoyed THE FLY 2 as
well, although in a million years it couldn't be as good as the
original and the Son of The Fly could never equal his father. Jeff
Goldblum as sexy scientist Seth Brundle positively crackled with
vitality, energy, sex and passion. His was a performance that could
never be repeated. It was his
personal best. Once you accept that, and don't expect the sequel to
attempt to duplicate the original in any way, you can relax and enjoy
this pretty darned good follow-up.
Seth's
Brundle's son has been born, incidentally killing his mother Ronnie
in the process. An
orphan now, the boy, who's called
Martin Brundle, is being brought up under observation in a strictly
scientific and clinical environment in the place that houses Bartok
Industries. Anton Bartok, the boss of the company, was the one who
financed Daddy Fly's teleportation experiments. See?
Now he
'owns' Baby Fly and he
raises him knowing that he will one day be smarter than the one who
sired him. That's pretty damned smart, as I think you'll agree. In
fact, when Baby Fly is five years old, albeit with the body of a
twenty-five-year-old male due to his Accelerated Growth Syndrome, the
unscrupulous Bartok gives him the job of repairing Daddy Fly's
telepod machines.
It looks like
Bartok thinks he can pretty much take over the world if he can only
get these miraculous machines working properly again. He also knows
that poor Martin will soon start to turn into a fly like his father
did and he doesn't care one iota. He just cares about his precious
machines and the wonderful money-making schemes he can cook up with them at his disposal. The dirty rotter...!
Can
Martin use the telepods to cure himself of the Curse of The Fly, or
will Bartok get his wish and get both Martin and the
famous telepods back under his control? Only time will tell, film-folks.
Martin
has a girlfriend-helper in this film, just like his Daddy did. They
even have sex, which is weird as, technically, Martin's only five years
old in the film...! Eeuw. John
Getz reprises his role as Stathis Borans, the man whose life was
pretty much unwittingly ruined in the first film by The Fly. He's
funny to watch as he sarcastically recounts his association with Seth
Brundle which effectively ballsed up his life forever. There's a little clip of Jeff Goldblum from the original film in there too, which is a nice nostalgia-inducing touch.
The
special effects are excellent as well, though obviously they couldn't
hold a candle to the work done on Jeff Goldblum's deteriorating face
in the original film. That face gave me nightmares when I watched the
film for the first time back in the 'Nineties. This film probably
isn't really scary at all, but it's a good interesting watch and the
bits about Martin's poor doggie were sooooo sad. I'm a real sucker for a shaggy dog story...!
Sequels
are always tricky to make. The odd time, you get one that's as good
as or even better than the original. All the sequels to PSYCHO
were excellent, and AMITYVILLE
2: THE POSSESSION kicked the ass
of THE AMITYVILLE HORROR somewhat, in
my humble opinion.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA
HARRIS.
Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, film blogger and movie reviewer. She has studied Creative Writing and Film-Making. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, womens' fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can browse or buy any of Sandra's books by following the link below straight to her Amazon Author Page:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO
You can contact Sandra at:
http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com
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