What's the latest movie you've seen?

[Guybrush]

Nice one, @jimmy jazz 🙂 I loved Threads.

We saw this tonight:

Poltergeist II from 1986



It has a score below 6 on IMDb, so I've just assumed it was pure trash, but a while ago I found out its reputation is better than its score would suggest and a not insignificant portion of Poltergeist fans prefer it to the original.

I still think the original was better, but this positively surprised me still. It still feels a bit like a Disney take on a horror movie, but I do feel like it's scarier in parts. The character of the villainous Kane, while in his human shape and played by Julian Beck, is probably creepier than anything in the first movie.

I also like that it's about this family where they love eachother and try to protect one another. It gives the movie a nice emotional core and horror movies work better when there's a contrast to the dark and scary, like how Braindead is a love story between Lionel and Paquita.

The movie is definitely flawed in places, like it goes completely Lovecraft with monster designs for some reason, but I don't really mind it because it's still entertaining. Bring on the schlock.

Best scene for me, I think, was possessed dad.

[Psy-Fi]

Johnny Stool Pigeon (1949)

B&W film noir flick about a narcotics detective going undercover to infiltrate a heroin smuggling operation. He convinces a prison inmate, who he helped convict, to join him to help him get inside the gang. Along the way, a woman joins them at the insistence of the convict, and various complications arise.

[Guybrush]

Also saw this:

Poltergeist 3 from 1988



I'll admit the reason I saw it is it autoplayed after Poltergeist 2 and I was like alright, let's take a gander.

It's definitely the weaker of the three, but I still had fun watching it. There's a lot of mirrors in the movie and some clever special fx. It does become very predictable, but then again I don't expect to be scared, only mildly entertained.

Child actor Heather O'Rourke is back as psychic child Carol Anne, this time visiting her aunt and uncle who lives in what looks to me like a skyscraper or very tall high-rise. With her, the old man ghost Kane also comes visiting, yay. Also Tangina, the heroic medium from the previous two movies. The guy who played Kane previously sadly died. The rubber prosthetics filled character they replaced him with has none of the previous actor's presence or creepiness. Ah well.

What follows is a bit of a farce with lots of randomness, fun practical effects and the name Carol Anne being loudly shouted roughly 300 times. Lots of fake snow and fog/smoke machines. No blood, though. The dead in Poltergeist are always kinda dried up, the old raisins.

The movie has a glaring plot hole in that we see two important characters being replaced by evil versions, but the makers of the movie never address this again and seem to forget it. It's on the level of American Horror  story (where similar things happen repeatedly). It seems this was due to the extremely sad death of Heather O'Rourke during the production which created a need to redo the ending. So tragic.

Anyways, I enjoyed the schlock and seeing Lara Flynn Boyle in her first big role, so I feel generous.