The second official trailer for the reboot horror film Poltergeist is upon us, and although it bears resemblance to its February predecessor, the extended action is decidedly less light-hearted and more eerie than before.
The plot of the movie will be nearly identical to the 1982 original film: Sam Rockwell (Moon, Don Verdean) and Rosemarie DeWitt (Men, Women & Children) star as the ill-fated new homeowners of what seems to be a perfectly pleasant, harmless dwelling in suburbia; little do they know that their house was constructed over a burial ground full of angry spirits. When their daughter gets sucked into the spirit world, it’s up to them and a psychic to retrieve her.
Produced by the creators of Evil Dead and directed by Gil Kenan (Monster House), the updated Poltergeist spruces up all of the ghostly effects (now considered outdated by modern movie magic), providing a new generation of audiences with CGI that far surpasses the effects in the original film. There’s no telling whether or not all of the classic creepy events will make it into the remake, though the clown, the tree, and the closet vortex all make cameos in this trailer.
When asked why he decided to remake a classic, Kenan told Reddit:
Because it’s a great story. And great stories deserve to be told, even if they’ve been told well in the past, it’s material that is rich and relevant to the generation that’s telling the story, and a lot has happened in the 30 years since the original came out…I am a true fan of Poltergeist (1982), and I felt like I could honor the vision and the franchise that made the original as popular as it was. And I wanted to protect it.
When asked if he experienced anything odd or unexplainable during the reboot’s filming in Toronto (likened to the “Poltergeist curse” phenomenon of pop culture history), Kenan explained that the location was chosen “because it had a strange and unnecessary field that the houses of this particular community were built around,” and that he “was too afraid to find out what the land used to be” due to the major technical difficulties that ensued (including GPS navigation and electrical issues) only when in the field.
Another supernatural encounter turned out to be a personal one for the director:
The house that I rented during filming was straight-up legit haunted by a female spirit dressed in black…only after I left did I receive a call from the previous owner…who was terrified by the goings on in the house, and wanted to see if I had experienced any of it. So it was an incredible real-life inspiration for filming that followed me home.
Although its release date has been changed around for the past few months, Poltergeist officially hits theaters May 22nd, 2015.
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