Poltergeist III (1988)

Featured Audience Ratings

• J P

  
  Son of a fucking bitch. I meant to watch Exorcist 3 not Poltergeist 3. I just sat through this entire piece of suck ass. I didn't realize until it was over that I had mixed up the movie titles. Fuck me. 2 hours of my life WASTED. FUCK YOU POLTERGEIST 3!

• Summer W

  
  Yuck. Despite some marginally creepy moments, this flick is poo. It's also unsettling because I know poor Heather O'Rourke died making this turd.

• Anthony L

  
  Although I kind of liked this film, I didn't see it as a Poltergeist film. Firstly, there isn't a poltergeist in it as such and secondly and structure that made the first two so popular was thrown out the window. The story is a bit dire, would Carol Anne's parents… More
  Although I kind of liked this film, I didn't see it as a Poltergeist film. Firstly, there isn't a poltergeist in it as such and secondly and structure that made the first two so popular was thrown out the window. The story is a bit dire, would Carol Anne's parents really get rid of her after what the family had gone through? No, they wouldn't. Acting is also quite bad, apart from young Heather O'Rourke. Some of the effects are impressive, the girl coming out of a dead body was very impressive for sheer shock factor but alas, the mirror effects are over done and if you watch close enough, badly executed. I can?t help but think there are 3 really good films hiding in here that could have all been done so well but in the end it clashes together like a complicated mess. Watch out for blatant rip offs too, Christine, Shivers, Don't look now....shall I go on? Completist only. Sad about O' Rourke's death, she was a good little actress who would have gone far!

• Jason O

  
  "Poltergeist" is one of my all time favorite movies and definitely one of the best overall horror movies I've ever seen in every way. I haven't seen "Poltergeist 2" yet, but I did finally see "Poltergeist 3" and wasn't all that impressed… More
  "Poltergeist" is one of my all time favorite movies and definitely one of the best overall horror movies I've ever seen in every way. I haven't seen "Poltergeist 2" yet, but I did finally see "Poltergeist 3" and wasn't all that impressed with it. Carol Anne (Heather O'Rourke) is back in this sequel and she is still being plagued by evil spirits. In this movie, instead of hearing the demons calling her through television screens, a man calls her and acts through mirrors. A person can look at a mirror and see something that isn't actually happening at the same time as if they were to look away from the mirror. Carol Anne is visiting her aunt (Nancy Allen), uncle (Tom Skerritt), and her cousin (Lara Flynn Boyle) in "Poltergeist 3." The mirrors and the mischief eventually leads to a not so exciting goosechase in which everybody is on the loose trying to find Carol Anne. I thought "Poltergeist 3" was a decent sequel, but it wasn't by any means a great one. It has its good moments, but overall it's just not as groundbreaking or as exciting as the original movie. The acting and the special effects are satisfactory, though nothing to brag about. The plot isn't as exciting as the first movie in the series, but it's not all that bad. I think Craig T. Nelson and JoBeth Williams would've been better to come back in this sequel instead of Tom Skerritt and Nancy Allen. And of course, "Poltergeist" was directed by Steven Spielberg and "Poltergeist 3" wasn't, so I guess nobody should really expect as much from this movie as they should the original. If you liked the first "Poltergeist" movie, I'd recommend watching "Poltergeist 3," but unless you absolutely have to have all the movies in the series, I wouldn't recommend buying it. NOTE: That was my Amazon review from the year 2001.

• Robert C

  
  Not the best of the trilogy, but worth seeing if you enjoyed the other two.

• Lafe F

  
  Carole Ann is haunted by Kane the evil preacher in her new highrise apartment in Chicago. What the heck happened to the rest of her family? Why was she now living with her uncle and aunt (Tom Skerritt and Nancy Allen) in Chicago? What a bummer! We see Kane (new actor) and Tangina the… More
  Carole Ann is haunted by Kane the evil preacher in her new highrise apartment in Chicago. What the heck happened to the rest of her family? Why was she now living with her uncle and aunt (Tom Skerritt and Nancy Allen) in Chicago? What a bummer! We see Kane (new actor) and Tangina the little psychic woman. Heather O'Rourke sufered a fatal illness during the production, so even she wasn't in the entire movie. They pulled together a surprisingly good movie. Let's pretend the excellent first film and mediocre second film didn't exist; this one would still be watchable. The story is a bit of a shambles; we're not always sure what is really happening. Like Alice in Wonderland, a lot of the strangness happens with mirror and reflections. There are excellent lighting and optical effects. It's somewhat unique having an entire condo building being haunted; you've gotta give it that. Almost every scene is filled with optical trickery of some sort.

• Dean M

  
  They're baaaaaack again and it's the final chapter for the evil Reverend Kane and his terror followers. Cool heart-pounding suspense and scary special effects. I felt really sorry for poor innocent young actress Heather O'Rourke who died so young during filming this… More
  They're baaaaaack again and it's the final chapter for the evil Reverend Kane and his terror followers. Cool heart-pounding suspense and scary special effects. I felt really sorry for poor innocent young actress Heather O'Rourke who died so young during filming this movie production.

• Daniel D

  
  Easily and obviously the worst of the three. But not as bad as people make it seem

• RJ M

  
  There is a legacy surrounding the Poltergeist franchise. A legacy of mysterious on-set accidents, and unfortunate deaths of people involved with making the films. One of the, unfortunately, most famous deaths is of little Heather O'Rourke, who died before this film was even… More
  There is a legacy surrounding the Poltergeist franchise. A legacy of mysterious on-set accidents, and unfortunate deaths of people involved with making the films. One of the, unfortunately, most famous deaths is of little Heather O'Rourke, who died before this film was even completed. It's a real life tragedy that mirrors the hardships her character, Carol Anne, endures through all three movies in this series. The filmmakers wanted to go in a different direction with this entry, opting to have the entire film take place within a Chicago high rise. They also stayed completely away from blue screen visual effects, and went with practical on-set effects involving make up, and extensive work with reflections and mirrors. The result is a very claustrophobic, and atmospheric movie that is visually remarkable. It also uses its visual trickery as a means of moving the story along. The story setup is solid, if unremarkable, and the acting is (mostly) workmanlike and believeable. Unfortunately after a very solid first 45 minutes, the movie disolves into a series of sequences where characters run up and down hallways and stairways, yelling the names of other characters. It's like the script ceased to exist, and the actors were told something like "Okay, you see Carol Anne being pulled into another dimension...run down the hall in a panic, and yell her name as many times as you can." I'm sure that someone out there has taken a count of how many times "Carol Anne" is yelled throughout the course of this movie. My money is over 200 times. Tragically, little Heather died before the film was completed. Instead of scrapping the film, the director chose to finish it without her. But filming the end of a film without your main actress meant that the original ending had to be scrapped, and the film completed by any means possible. This results in an ending that is nothing more than a simplistic cop-out. It really sinks the second half of the movie. While not as good as the first two films, it's still a guilty pleasure, and a decent ghost story in its own right.

• Jim W

  
  I feel bad that it was the little girl's last movie but it's awful. It acts as if her parents who loved her dearly in the last 2 couldn't handle evil spirits being after her. So they dumped her off to relatives. This one is just awful, did I say it was awful ?

• Leo L

  
  The brilliance continues with this third one! Once again, with a new director in the tow. Great performance by Zelda Rubinstein.

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