Review - Poltergeist III

A lot of smoke and mirrors, or should I say puddles and mirrors?

Poltergeist III finds us in Chicago with Carol Anne Freeling’s Aunt Trish (Nancy Allen), Uncle Bruce (Tom Skerritt) and cousin Donna(Lara Flynn Boyle) in a high rise building chock full of mirrors and windows. Why she is there is a mystery through the whole film and is a big reason why this film didn’t really fit in with the others. Poltergeist I and II relied on heavily on the family dynamic and this was pretty well lost in this third installment. As I’ve said before - as a franchise, Poltergeist does pretty well and does not spiral completely out of control, so this film is at the very least enjoyable (unfortunately, that’s at the very most of it too).

The premise behind the third and final Poltergeist (we lost little Heather O’Rourke after the filming of Poltergeist III) is that Carol Anne has been sent to stay with her Aunt Trish and family for some unknown reason (presumably so that Kane cannot find her?) and she is attending a school for the gifted. At this school there is a psychiatrist, Dr. Seaton (Richard Fire) who believes that Carol Anne is nothing more than a gifted hypnotist. That she single handedly led the entire community in Cuesta Verde to believe that there really was some sort of supernatural occurrence. Through his sessions he unwittingly leads Kane (Nathan Davis - God bless him, he really tries but he is no Julian Beck) back to Carol Anne.

Tangina Barrons (Zelda Rubinstein) returns to once again lead Carol Anne away from “the light” and back to a loving family. She conveniently contacts the good doctor on her way to save Carol Anne so she can scold him for leading Kane back to his angel - I can think of no other reason that she contacted him? It didn’t make a whole lot of sense that he would help when he didn’t believe that Carol Anne was really in any danger in the first place.

Regardless, if you can somewhat separate yourself from the first movies in the Poltergeist series and watch this for what it is - a somewhat cheesy horror flick making great use of mirrors and 80's hairdos and fashion - then you can enjoy it, at least a little.

Directed by
Gary Sherman

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Steve Feke uncredited
Gary Sherman
Brian Taggert

Cast (in credits order) verified as complete
Tom Skerritt .... Bruce Gardner
Nancy Allen .... Patricia Wilson-Gardner
Heather O'Rourke .... Carol Anne Freeling
Zelda Rubinstein .... Tangina Barrons
Lara Flynn Boyle .... Donna Gardner
Kipley Wentz .... Scott
Richard Fire .... Dr. Seaton
Nathan Davis .... Kane
Roger May .... Burt
Paul Graham .... Martin Moyer
Meg Weldon .... Sandy
Stacy Gilchrist .... Melissa
Joey Garfield .... Jeff
Christian Murphy .... Dusty (as Chris Murphy)
Roy Hytower .... Nathan
Meg Thalken .... Deborah
Dean Tokuno .... Takamitsu
Catherine Gatz .... Marcie Moyer
Paty Lombard .... Helen Moyer
E.J. Murray .... Mary
Sherry Narens .... Mrs. Seaton
Phil Locker .... Bill
Maureen Steindler .... Old Woman
Alan Wilder .... Observer
Brent Shaphren .... Observer
Mindy Bell .... Observer
Conrad Allan .... Young Boy
Maureen Mueller .... Gallery Woman
John Rusk .... Gallery Man
Sam Sanders .... Security Guard
Laurie V. Logan .... Elevator Woman
Jerry Birn .... Elevator Man
Jane Alderman .... Scott's Mother
Mary Hogan .... Extra
Lynn Koppel .... Extra
Laura Koppel .... Extra
Mark Zweigler .... Extra
Chris Montana .... Extra
Wendy Wolfman .... Extra
Harold Taulbee .... Extra
Christy Davis .... Extra
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Corey Burton .... Kane (voice) (uncredited)