POLTERGEIST II: THE OTHER SIDE (1986) Blu-ray review

Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986) d. Gibson, Brian (USA)

“They’re baaa-aaaack.” The highly unoriginal tagline packs a fraction of the chills of Poltergeist’s “They’re heeeee-ere,” which is about the size of things in this half-baked, money-chasing follow-up. Gone are the rollercoaster thrills, taut direction, and cohesive screenplay Tobe Hooper and Steven Spielberg brought to 1982’s haunted house extravaganza, leaving C-list director Gibson with a game cast and a gamier storyline.

Fool's Views (1/1 - 2/28)

My name is Inigo Drago. You killed my brother. Prepare to die.

Howdy, folks.

Wow, what the hell happened, AC?

So, here’s the story: In late December, I started rehearsals for a new play (an adaptation of Rafael Sabatini’s Captain Blood) with First Folio Theatre, my first time on the boards since embarking on my newfound career as a personal trainer in late 2015. I was thrilled to be given the opportunity to run around in fancy duds, playing a scurrilous plantation owner with a penchant for flogging in the first act and then buckling the swash as an underdressed pirate in the second.

Putting the AC in bACkstabbing since 1685

However, the trade-off for having a full-time job as a trainer means that a show is suddenly (gasp!) a second job. Now, I’m not complaining – I know that plenty of my colleagues do the day-job thing and work their asses off doing play after play and it’s just a way of life for them. I’m just saying that I hadn’t done it myself in quite a while and it was a bit of a shock to the system, especially when my day started at 4:30am and often didn’t end until midnight. It’s a good thing I was having a good time doing burning both candle ends, or I’m not sure I would have made it through.