The Creation book HOLLYWOOD HEX, about seemingly cursed movies provoked Michael to pick up the POLTERGEIST Trilogy, ROSEMARY'S BABY and EXORCIST and EXORCIST III. Oddly enough we've not picked up THE CROW...
POLTERGEIST is uneven. There seem to be scenes in the movie that are played for laughs instead of scares. So sometimes the images are very haunting and visceral and other times way too broad to be anything but absurd, and sometimes jar you out of the spell the other scenes put you in. POLTERGEIST II is filled with nothing but adsurdities, ending with the image of the Freeling family superimposed over images from a cloud tank and a light show.
However, the two scenes featuring Julian Beck as the Reverend Cane are the best part of the film. His impeading death looms over his performance, giving his presence a true feeling of physical decay, it's both startling and intimate. You know it's real, and not a special effect. If only there was more of him and less of the new age bullshit that passes for spiritual wisdom in this (and the original) movie.
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