Brian Gibson’s Poltergeist sequel is not as good as the first movie, yet in a half campy/humorous, half actually creepy way, it almost works as a good movie. It’s an okay movie at best, yet I still enjoyed certain elements which are really good. The best thing about this movie is the preacher Kane (Julian Beck in a terrifying and inspired creepy performance), who refuses to leave the poor Freelings’ family alone. He is the literal physical and spiritual representation of The Beast, who desires their daughter, Carol Anne (Heather O’Rourke), for reasons that only Zelda Rubinstein’s Tangina and Will Simpson’s Taylor seem to understand or know. JoBeth Williams and Craig T. Nelson play the parents, with Oliver Robins returning as their son. H. R. Giger was responsible for some of the creature designs, although he wasn’t satisfied with how they looked in the end. I thought they were good, but I’m not a legendary artist responsible for how the Xenomorph looked in the Alien movies. Funny enough this movie received an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, so go figure.
I’m tore because on one hand Taylor is a major part of the movie and that’s cool, but the flick could not resist the “Magical Indian” stereotype that Hollywood loves to use in movies. Will Sampson does a fine job with what he’s given I suppose. This movie probably didn’t need to exist, yet it does and it made money so of course we got another sequel and then later a remake. I watched the third one too because both of them were on Tubi at the time, which either speaks to me being a completist or in more likely because I’m doing the 31 Horror Movies in 31 Days challenge and they were readily available to me for free. Still neither movie is a complete waste of time, and I’m greatly amused at how the wonderful Zelda Rubinstein became the series’ official mascot.
Down The Rabbit Hole 
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