The ‘Poltergeist’ Reboot Is Coming This Year, And The First Images Have Been Released
They’re ba-aaack!
The Poltergeist franchise is getting a reboot, and the first still images from the movie have been released to the media.
Thirty-some years after the original Poltergeist (1982) brought the haunted-house genre into the suburbs and scared an entire generation off toy clowns for life, the franchise is being brought back with a new cast, a new setting, new director, new writer, and most importantly, new special effects, according to USA Today. And it’s going to be in 3-D.
Director Gil Kenan says that he wants to do right by fans of the original scream fest.
“Whenever someone approaches material that’s so beloved, there’s a reflexive reaction to be worried. It’s a responsibility we take very seriously. We’re working to make a Poltergeist film that lives up to the original’s legacy.”
That means that some updating is going to have to take place. Most obviously is the focal point of the original Poltergeist: the family TV. In the 1982 version, the TV programming stops at midnight (after “The Star Spangled Banner” plays), and then defaults to static, allowing the beings within to lure young Carol Anne Freeling into the beyond.
The entire concept is foreign to anyone born after, say, 1982. Still, Kenan thinks he’s got it covered, according to Movie Pilot.
“The original film commented on how we’ve let television get out of control, babysitting our kids. It’s only gotten worse with the handheld portable devices. Screens are everywhere. The film is super-scary. And it’s scary on its own terms. I am excited to finally be able to share that with the world.”
The Freeling family is now the Bowen family, and the movie’s heroine is named Madison instead of Carol Anne, played by eight-year-old Kennedi Clements. The main cast is rounded out by Sam Rockwell (The Way Way Back) as the father, and Rosemarie DeWitt (The United States of Tara) as the mother.
Poltergeist (2015) is scheduled to land in theaters July 24, and the first trailer is scheduled to drop Thursday of this week.
[Images courtesy of: USA Today, Movie Pilot, The Verge]
