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Poltergeist (2015 film)

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Poltergeist
Theatrical release poster
Directed byGil Kenan
Screenplay byDavid Lindsay-Abaire
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyJavier Aguirresarobe
Edited by
Music byMarc Streitenfeld
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release date
  • May 22, 2015 (2015-05-22) (United States)
Running time
93 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$35 million[2]
Box office$95.6 million[3]

Poltergeist is a 2015 American supernatural horror film directed by Gil Kenan, written by David Lindsay-Abaire and produced by Sam Raimi. A remake of the 1982 film of the same name, the film stars Sam Rockwell, Rosemarie DeWitt, Jared Harris, and Jane Adams. It was released on May 22, 2015, by 20th Century Fox and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film grossed over $95 million worldwide.

Plot

Eric (Sam Rockwell) and Amy Bowen (Rosemarie DeWitt) are a couple looking to buy a house for themselves and their three children: eldest daughter, Kendra (Saxon Sharbino); their son, Griffin (Kyle Catlett); and youngest daughter, Madison (Kennedi Clements). Eric was recently laid off, but they are shown a house that has recently come on the market that fits their price range, so they purchase it and move in.

The first night, they hear strange noises in the walls, and Griffin finds a box of clown dolls that were left at the house. In the middle of the night, lights and electronic devices start turning on and off, as some unseen force appears to move through the home. The commotion wakes Griffin, and he goes downstairs and finds Madison talking to an unknown presence inside the television. She tells Griffin someone is coming, and he attempts to unplug the TV, causing the lights to go out of control. Madison then tells the family they are here. Eric and Amy went to dinner with their friends, leaving the three children at home. They learn that their house was built on an old cemetery, but the bodies were moved to a better neighbourhood.

At the house, Kendra's phone begins emitting strange sounds, and as she traces the noise and enters one of the rooms, the floor cracks and corpses' hands emerge and begin pulling at her foot. Griffin notices the clown dolls seem to be moving by themselves. One clown doll attacks him, but he destroys it and escapes from his bedroom. He finds Madison in her room, scared, crouching at a corner, and tells her to stay while he goes to find Kendra. Madison is then lured into her closet and becomes lost in an unending void. As she sees her bedroom drifting away further, she is dragged into the darkness by ghosts. Griffin, while running around the house, is grabbed by the branches of the old tree outside their house, which pulls him out to be hanging on the tree. Amy and Eric arrive home to see Griffin being tossed around in the tree branches, which releases it's grip when they come close, while Kendra tells them she can't find Madison.

The family hears Madison's voice emanating from the television. Amy and Griffin visit the Paranormal Research department for help. The staff sets up equipment in the house, and install GPS locators on everyone in the house. While trying to contact Madison, Eric is ambushed in the closet by a ghost resembling her. Angered, he breaks down the closet wall, throwing a chair into the darkness inside the closet, and as the chair falls back into the living room of the house, it reveals a possible portal Madison can escape through. The investigators realize that this haunting is a poltergeist. The lead investigator Dr. Brooke Powell (Jane Adams) decides to call occult specialist and television personality Carrigan Burke (Jared Harris).

Carrigan explains that Madison is a possible psychic, able to communicate with spirits. He reveals that the poltergeists are trapped and are angry because only the headstones were moved to the new cemetery, but the bodies remained, and plan on using Madison to free them from their purgatory. Carrigan comes up with a plan to get Madison back. He anchors a rope in Madison's room and tosses it into the vortex. They attempt to use Griffin's toy drone to guide Madison out, but it's destroyed by the poltergeists when inside the portal. Griffin, ridden with guilt over leaving Madison alone in the first place, goes through the portal himself. When he finds Madison, the poltergeists attempt to destroy the rope to trap them, but they both escape.

The family get in their car and begin to take their leave from the house, but the poltergeists drag them back into the house and attempt to abduct Madison again. The family saves her from being sucked into the portal, and Carrigan decides that as the only other psychic, he must go into the vortex and lead the spirits into the light. The Bowens flee as the house is torn apart by a giant light. The investigative team run to their equipment, looking for a sign that Carrigan managed to get back.

As the Bowens look for a new house, the realtor shows them a house with lots of closet space and an old tree in the backyard; the Bowens drive away laughing. During the end credits, it's revealed that Carrigan survived the incident and is back filming his ghost program, now hosting the show with Dr. Powell.

Cast

Production

In early September 2013, the crew shot interior scenes for the film in an old residence in Toronto.[4] Exterior shots were filmed on the West Mountain of Hamilton.[5] The film was shot and released in 3D.[6]

Release

On August 6, 2014, the film's release date was shifted from February 13, 2015 to July 24, 2015.[7] On March 4, 2015, the date was shifted again to when it was previously set for Spy.[8] It was released in 3D.[9]

Marketing

The film's first trailer was released on February 5, 2015.[10] Forrest Wickman of Slate Magazine's opinion was that the trailer made the film appear to be too similar to the original film.[11] James Hibberd of Entertainment Weekly said that the trailer "retains and amplifies several elements from the original", and praised that "the modernizing doesn’t result in, say, the family’s daughter being kidnapped by ghosts in Snapchat".[12] Brad Miska of Bloody Disgusting stated that "while every fiber of my being wants to reject it, [the film] actually looks pretty insane", and praised the trailer's final shot.[13] Ben Kuchera of Polygon also opined that the trailer appeared to be similar to the original film, but that it "looks great, as a horror movie".[14]

Home media

Poltergeist is set to be released on DVD and 2D/3D Blu-ray Disc on September 29, 2015. The Blu-ray editions will include an extended cut of the film.[15]

Reception

Box office

Poltergeist grossed $47.4 million in North America and $48.2 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $95.6 million, against a budget of an estimated $35 million.[3]

In North America, Poltergeist made $1.4 million during its Thursday night showings from 2,500 theaters,[16] and an estimated $9.4 million on its opening day.[17] Through its first three-day opening, it grossed $22.6 million from 3,240 theaters, debuting at fourth place at the box office behind Tomorrowland, Pitch Perfect 2 and Mad Max: Fury Road.[18] In comparison to prior horror film reboots, its opening is well below the openings of 2009's Friday the 13th ($40.57 million), 2010's A Nightmare on Elm Street ($32.9 million), 2003's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre ($28.1 million), and right below 2005's The Amityville Horror ($23.5 million).[18]

Outside North America, it earned $8.3 million on its opening weekend from 3,750 screens in 36 countries, finishing at sixth place at the international box office.[19] In the Uk, Ireland and Malta it opened in third place with $2.2 million and Brazil with $2 million.[19]

Critical reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 31%, based on 102 reviews, with an average rating of 4.8/10. The site's consensus reads: "Paying competent homage without adding anything of real value to the original Poltergeist, this remake proves just as ephemeral (but half as haunting) as its titular spirit."[20] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 47 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[21]

Writing for Variety, Andrew Barker called it "generally entertaining yet fundamentally unnecessary" and concluded: "Even when one is inclined to admire the cleverness with which the remake revisits and reincorporates Poltergeist's themes, it’s hard to pinpoint a single moment where it improves on them, and the aura of inessentiality hangs thick over the proceedings".[22] Neil Genzlinger gave the film a positive review in The New York Times, writing: "The new Poltergeist might well be the scariest movie 13-or-unders have yet seen, just as the original was for their parents back in 1982. Those parents might find it an enjoyable trip down memory lane, even if they do now recognize it as largely a well-served collection of horror-movie tropes".[23] Tirdad Derakhshani wrote in The Philadelphia Inquirer: "It's not exactly a scary film, but it does provide an enjoyable ride. It's good fun. But it left me befuddled", adding: "Why would anyone want to remake Poltergeist in the first place?".[24] Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Mike McCahill called the film "an efficient scare-machine".[25] Bilge Ebiri wrote in New York magazine: "This new Poltergeist isn't anything special... But it's not a travesty, and that feels like cause for brief celebration".[26]

In CinemaScore polls conducted during the opening weekend, cinema audiences gave Poltergeist an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale.[17] It drew criticism from both the skeptical and paranormal community for it's featuring of orbs as supernatural entities, the lens artifact commonly implied by amateur 'ghost hunters' to be evidence of the supernatural is a repeatable artifacting of digital photography.

See also

References

  1. ^ "POLTERGEIST (15)". British Board of Film Classification. May 7, 2015. Retrieved May 7, 2015.
  2. ^ Dave McNary. "'Tomorrowland' vs. 'Poltergeist' at Thursday Box Office - Variety". Variety.
  3. ^ a b "Poltergeist (2015)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved August 14, 2015.
  4. ^ "Poltergeist Remake Shooting Now, First Set Details". horror-movies.ca. September 8, 2013. Retrieved September 15, 2013.
  5. ^ Rockingham, Graham (September 7, 2013). "Remake of horror movie being shot on Hamilton's west Mountain". The Hamilton Spectator. Retrieved September 25, 2013.
  6. ^ Miska, Brad (February 4, 2015). "Possessed Clown Highlights 'Poltergeist' Sneak!". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved February 5, 2015.
  7. ^ "Fox Shifts 'Poltergeist' Dates". Deadline.com. June 20, 2014. Retrieved August 6, 2014.
  8. ^ Lesnick, Silas (March 4, 2015). "20th Century Fox Shifts Dates for Spy, Poltergeist and Paper Towns". comingsoon.net. Retrieved March 9, 2015.
  9. ^ "Poltergeist is set for 22 May 2015 and is to be released in 3D". BD. June 20, 2014. Retrieved August 6, 2014.
  10. ^ Nemiroff, Perri (February 5, 2015). "First POLTERGEIST Remake Trailer: Sam Rockwell and Rosemarie DeWitt Fight a Ghost Invasion". Collider. Retrieved February 6, 2015.
  11. ^ Wickman, Forrest (February 5, 2015). "The Poltergeist Remake Looks Like No "Kids' Movie"". Slant Magazine. Retrieved February 6, 2015.
  12. ^ Hibberd, James (February 5, 2015). "'Poltergeist' reboot first trailer: 3d masking done alsi in India, Chennai, Pixstone Images There is a clown". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved February 6, 2015.
  13. ^ Miska, Brad (February 5, 2015). "'Poltergeist' Trailer Looks Absolutely Bonkers!". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved February 6, 2015.
  14. ^ Kuchera, Ben (February 6, 2015). "The first Poltergeist trailer provides the scares, but few updates to original formula". Polygon. Retrieved February 7, 2015.
  15. ^ "News: Poltergeist (2015) (US - DVD R1 / BD RA)". DVDActive. Retrieved July 21, 2015.
  16. ^ Anita Busch (May 22, 2015). "'Tomorrowland' Limited Release While 'Poltergeist' Grabs Strong $1.4M – Box Office Thursday". Deadline.com. (Penske Media Corporation). Retrieved May 22, 2015. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  17. ^ a b Rebecca Ford, Pamela McClintock (May 23, 2015). "Box Office: 'Tomorrowland,' 'Pitch Perfect 2' in Close Memorial Day Battle". The Hollywood Reporter. (Prometheus Global Media). Retrieved May 23, 2015.
  18. ^ a b Anita Busch (May 24, 2015). "No Heat At Memorial Day B.O.: 'Tomorrowland's Rocket Runs Outta Gas With $41.7M Bow – Monday Update". Deadline.com. (Penske Media Corporation). Retrieved May 25, 2015. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  19. ^ a b Nancy Tartaglione (May 26, 2015). "'Tomorrowland's $74.7M Global Bow; 'Pitch Perfect 2′ Singing $190.4M Cume; 'Mad Max' Smokin' $227.7M – Wwide B.O. Update". Deadline.com. (Penske Media Corporation). Retrieved May 27, 2015. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  20. ^ "Poltergeist". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved August 16, 2015.
  21. ^ "Poltergeist Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved May 28, 2015.
  22. ^ Andrew Barker. "'Poltergeist' Review: An Unnecessary Update of a Horror Classic - Variety". Variety.
  23. ^ [1]
  24. ^ "'Poltergeist': A splendid remake without depth of original". Philly.com. May 23, 2015.
  25. ^ [2]
  26. ^ "Poltergeist: Not a Travesty; Not Scary, Either -- Vulture". Vulture.
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