Poltergeist II: The Other Side
Short description
The Freeling family has moved into a new home, taking shelter with Diane's mother after the destruction of their house in Cuesta Verde and the ordeal that took their daughter Carol Anne. Their hope of a quiet life does not last. A magnetic storm gathers over the house, and a new presence reaches for Carol Anne: Kane, a preacher who once led a congregation to its death and now wants the girl for himself. As the attacks intensify, the family turns to the medium Tangina and to a Native American healer named Taylor, and ultimately to one another.
Brian Gibson directed the film, his first feature, from a screenplay by Michael Grais and Mark Victor, who also produced it for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Craig T. Nelson and JoBeth Williams return as Steve and Diane Freeling, with Heather O'Rourke as Carol Anne, Oliver Robins as Robbie, Zelda Rubinstein as Tangina and Will Sampson as Taylor. The 1986 release, a horror thriller running 91 minutes, was made for about 19 million dollars and took roughly 41 million worldwide, a solid return.
Audience response has been moderate: on IMDb it holds 5.7 out of 10 from around 33,000 votes, and on TMDB 6 out of 10 from roughly 800 votes. A critics' rating of 4.7 out of 10 from 56 reviews places it below the audience scores. Gibson went on to direct What's Love Got to Do with It, The Juror and Still Crazy.
What's left behind the scenes
- Initially, the film was supposed to be 131 minutes long, but its duration was then cut to 91 minutes. There is an opinion that the management of MGM insisted on the speedy completion of the film, and that they ordered the removal of certain scenes from the script altogether (for example, the final fight with Kane, which lasts two minutes). This greatly disappointed Zelda Rubinstein (who played Tangina), who believed that the best scenes with her participation had been removed from the film.
- Actor Julian Beck died between the second and third "Poltergeist" films.
- During the work on the scene where real corpses were used instead of mannequins, an entire day's work went to waste because the film was somehow overexposed. Everything had to be reshot, which cost $50,000 - $100,000. The night before the reshoot, Will Sampson (who played Taylor) was forced to perform an exorcism on the set to drive out evil spirits and calm the frightened actors and technical staff, who had genuinely begun to believe that the entire franchise was cursed. This wasn't the first time real corpses were used, rather than props. In the first film of the franchise, real skeletons were used in the scene at the Indian cemetery.
- Julian Beck died of cancer shortly after filming wrapped. Some of his lines were dubbed by Corey Burton during post-production. He later said that, thanks to the sound operators, he himself could no longer distinguish between the lines spoken by Beck and those he dubbed.
- Julian Beck (who played Kane) looks simply awful on screen. It was all due to the cancer from which he soon died.
- Young actress Heather O’Rourke, who played the youngest daughter, died of heart failure during the filming of the third "Poltergeist." She was only twelve years old and was buried in the same cemetery as Dominic Dunn.
- There is an opinion that the first three films of the franchise fell victim to the “Poltergeist curse.” After the filming of the first film, actress Dominique Dunne died at the hands of her friend. Actor Will Sampson died after filming. Shortly before the completion of the third film, Heather O’Rourke died. Many other actors also had a hard time later on.
- MGM hired the famous Swiss artist H.R. Giger to create concept art, in particular Kane as the Beast, who appears in astral form in the final of the film. Giger did not want to leave Zurich for long, so during the work on the film, his colleague Cornelius De Fries represented Giger on set. Giger was disappointed with the final result, and later stated that this was because he was not present on set himself.
- The fate of some of the lead actors turned out to be much more tragic: actress Dominique Dunne, who played the eldest daughter in the Spring family, was strangled by a jealous boyfriend.
- There is an extended 130-minute version of the film that provides more detail about the story of Reverend Henry Kane, and also mentions that the Springs' eldest daughter, Dana, is studying at college in another city.
- The house itself, which "played" the Freeling family home in the film, was destroyed during the 1994 Los Angeles earthquake.
- Of all the family members on screen, only Dana is missing, who, according to the script, is studying at university, but the scene explaining her absence was never filmed. Dominique Dunne, who played Dana in Tobe Hooper’s “Poltergeist” (1982), was killed by her acquaintance John Thomas Sweeney (who later changed his name to “John Maura” and disappeared) shortly after the premiere of Hooper’s horror film. In the final film, Dana is not mentioned at all, nor is her university studies. The filmmakers decided to say goodbye to this character and not cast anyone else in the role out of respect for the deceased actress.
- Filming took place in the town of Chinle (Arizona) and Suntill (California).
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
