Poltergeist III (1988) Reviews

• Heather O'Rourke is the greatest (her best acting, IMO)

  J_Malice2005-07-31

  Going in a different direction from the previous two movies in the series, this one took a few chances. The high-rise, mirrors, a new Kane(sad what happened to Julian Beck), etc. I loved this movie for those reasons. Not saying I didn't enjoy the other two because those were excellent, but it seemed like there wasn't anything in there to make them considered a horror movie except for the presence of ghosts with a little bit of suspense. "Poltergeist III" contained murder, suspense, tricky camera angles and most of all, the best acting I have ever seen from Heather O'Rourke. She was so adorable in her red pajamas and I truly believe she carried the movie with up to par performances by Skeritt, Allen, Rubenstein, Fire, Flynn Boyle and Wentz. Her presence on screen while watching this movie is so magnificent and very believable. When I was little, she was my first crush and I loved her, I only found out on 6-4-2005 that she passed away and it crushed me. I say this is the best of the series and I know I am the minority, but hey, to each his own. I realize the first movie is pretty much legendary for her famous line "They're Here", but I feel the acting here is better. The way they made the concept of the mirrors work is amazing and I thought it was a great attempt a something new. I gave this movie a 9/10 because of how much I enjoyed Heather O'Rourke's performance. Check it out.

• Positive thoughts :-)

  Resa712003-08-24

  I honestly DO NOT know why this film was criticized for being so bad.....while it's not as good as the 1st "Poltergeist" movie, it's DEFINITELY NOT a bad movie! The film boasts a good cast (Heather O'Rourke, Lara Flynn Boyle, Nancy Allen, Tom Skerritt), GREAT special effects, and has some scary moments to boot. It's certainly better than some of the 80's "slasher" movies, where too many sequels ruined the originals, and I honestly think that it rates up there as being a very underrated horror movie of its time. :-)

• No classic but it absolutely terrifies me

  tlcglitznglam2005-07-27

  I was shocked when I came to this site to see how low the rating is for this movie. I loved horror movies as a kid and still do, but of everything I remember watching when I was younger, Poltergeist III scared me the most. I would go literally weeks before I could look at myself in the mirror again... I'd always have to run by them. I used to watch this movie with my friends and it made them equally afraid of mirrors. I'm not going all out to say that the acting was high quality or that it goes down in my books as a classic horror movie but I think it's highly underrated. It's an incredibly dark, terrifying movie in my opinion. I think it's by far the scariest of the three Poltergeist movies, although the original Poltergeist is my favorite.

• Third times the charm

  aaronzombie2000-04-19

  The first POLTERGEIST is still the best haunted house film in history(In my opinion.), but this 2nd and final(?)sequel comes in at a close 2nd. Carol Anne stays with some relatives(Tom Skeritt, Nancy Allen, and Lara Flynn Boyle.)in a Chicago highrise to go to a special school for gifted children. Suddenly the evil Reverend Kane and his army of ghosts from the first two films show up to make life Hell for the residents of the highrise. Exciting, suspenseful, great story, acting, and music score. ***** out of *****. R.I.P. Heather O'rourke.

• Guess who's back in town?

  nick-ccr2009-04-12

  Okay, now its Poltergeist III. The only two returning actresses are Heather O'Rourke and Zelda Rubenstein. Its about Carol Anne who moved to her aunt (played by Nancy Allen) and uncle's (played by Tom Skerrit) high rise apartment building. Her aunt and uncle's daughter (played by Lara Flynn Boyle) lives there too. Carol Anne finds out that Reverend Kane (from the 2nd movie) has returned to make her lead him into the light, and the more she doesn't, the more friends of hers will get killed. The acting is terrible mostly but Heather O'Rourke does an excellent job in her last performance and Lara Flynn Boyle also does very good. Tom Skerrit didn't do too good in this one and neither did Nancy Allen. Reverend Kane doesn't even look like himself. The special effects were very good and the use of mirrors was also really cool. The part where the kids were sneaking around was the most intense part of the movie because the movie is not intense. Richard Fire was atrocious as Dr. Seaton and him denying everything just goes way too far. The movie is entertaining and fun. The ending was somewhat abrupt because Heather O'Rourke was dead before filming finished. An average sequel and an okay way to end the story. Overall: 5/10