Poltergeist II: The Other Side (dir. Brian Gibson, 1986)
The ghosts once haunted the Freeling family because their neighborhood was built on an ancient Indian burial ground, and also there were more freshly buried whiteman bodies underneath the house still in their coffins. This made for ghosts a-plenty. In this new one, the ghosts are kind of repurposed. Tangina (Zelda Rubinstein) has been leading an underground expedition underneath the original Freeling house’s site (the house was sucked into a black hole at the end of the last film) to find a subterranean cave. The cave was the site of an evil Christian doomsday cult, led by an evil cult leader named Kane.
An interesting aside: Other films, comic books, or video games that have featured a bad guy named “Kane,” or “Caine” or some variation thereof: Robocop 2, In the Mouth of Madness, Scary Movie 2, Citizen Kane, Beverly Hills Cop II, Kaine from the Spider-Man clone saga, Raising Cain, Witchcraft V: Dance with the Devil, Alien, Do or Die, The Kane & Lynch video games, “All My Children,” “Monday Night Raw,” Killer Kane from Buck Rogers, Admiral Cain from “Battlestar Galactica,” “Walker: Texas Ranger,” “Hunter,” Cain Marko from the X-Men, “Command and Conquer,” and, of course, the Book of Genesis.
I’m not too sure, but either the ghosts from the first movie were the ghosts of the suicide cult victims, or the ghosts of the suicide cult victims are all-new ghosts to deal with. Either way, the ghost of Kane (played by Julian Beck) begins stalking the Freelings.
The Freelings (Craig T. Nelson, JoBeth Williams, Heather O’Rourke, Oliver Robins) have been living with Gramma (Geraldine Fitzgerald) for the last year while they suss out the insurance about their vanished house (what does one claim in the event of a ghost black hole?). When Gramma unexpectedly dies, they just sort of bum about her house for a while, feeling sad. That’s when Kane shows up to bug them and say creepy things. Kane is clearly an evil ghost, but he walks around town and looks as solid and as real as all the other people. I’ve always suspected some of the people I meet in public might be ghosts.
To protect the Freelings is a kindly Creek Indian named Taylor (Will Sampson from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest). He intones many helpful spiritual lessons about finding inner peace, but that doesn’t stop some weirdo crap from going down. Most notably, there is a scene wherein Robbie’s dental wires come to life, snake out of his mouth, and wrap around his whole body, eventually pinning him to the ceiling, and almost sucking up dad and mom as well. This was a classic fear of any kid who had to wear braces. The wires are killed by sending electricity through them. Never mind that that would electrocute the family.
Another creepy scene. Dad is getting drunk (hey, man, this ghost stuff is stressful) when he swallows the worm in the bottom of a bottle of tequila. The worm, it turns out, was the vessel of Kane’s spirit, and dad is briefly possessed. He paws at his wife and threatens Carol-Anne. Then he vomits out a huge worm-man. The worm-man was played by Noble Craig. He is credited as “Vomit Creature.” Craig also played “Sewer Monster” in Big Trouble in Little China, “Puddle Soldier” in the remake of The Blob, and “Crypt Creature” in Bride of Re-Animator. An enviable career.
As I said above, eventually Tangina and Taylor lead the Freelings on an interdimensional spirit quest wherein they do battle with Kane, who has taken the form of an awesome H.R. Giger-designed snake-like slug monster. They escape with the help of Gramma’s ghost.
Poltergeist II was also nominated for a special effects Academy Award. The eerie spooky child-traumatizing tone of the first is still lingering ever so slightly over Poltergeist II, but it’s a much more haphazard affair. It doesn’t seem to drive forward or cohere. The messy suburban home notions are also still in place, and I like the banter the characters have especially between JoBeth Williams and Craig T. Nelson, who feel like a real married couple. But overall, Poltergeist II feels even more like an effects extravaganza than the first. The rules aren’t too clear anymore.
The rules go right out the window in the inferior…
