The 2015 remake of the classic spook house film Poltergeist opened this weekend and, like most fans of the origin, I asked why? But the trailers were decent and it’s not like i wasn’t gonna see it anyway… but should you?

Well, I’m here to say that I was pleasantly surprised. I think this is a really good and effective flick. The funny thing is, it’s a remake and my instant reaction is to think that they are just going to CGI it up and not bring the genuinely subtle spookiness. But that’s fanciful thinking since the original had some great scares, but it was far from a subtle movie. It sucked its own house into a black hole at the end… it tore the face off someone… it had a promenade of visual FX ghosts… all that ain’t exactly hiding the shark from the camera level of subtly.

So the new movie follows in the footsteps of what is really a big special FX blockbuster that, yeah, used practical FX over CG, but I fully suspect they would have gone all out in that old movie had they the technology. The new movie primarily uses that CGI but I thought it did it with restraint. We do see more of the spirits but it’s done in a way that shadows them and makes them creepy (probably because if they did it with bright lights, they might not look so good).

So this movie is roughly retelling the same story only with some interesting twists. For example, send an airhog drone into the mysterious vortex to the other side in the kid’s closet. Or the medium they bring in has his own reality show. Why the kids have the world’s creepiest-ass clown is explained… the use of the creepy tree outside the boy’s window is done better.

I found a number of the scenes in this movie legitimately tense to the point of being unsettling and scary. But this isn’t a dark ‘n gritty reboot – the movie is just a much interested in being fun and funny as the original. It retains a wicked sense of humor about the haunting and the family genuinely seems believable as a unit. It doesn’t, however, focus as much on the suburbia themes of the original and i guess that could be seen as a bad thing if all you wanted was a shot-for-shot remake. I was ok with the variations.

Does the movie work the whole way through? Well, not really – the end isn’t as chaotic and exciting as earlier scenes were. The setup was a little abrupt and worrisome because of it. But this is far from a generic haunted house flick that we get these days that are themselves trying to ride the coat-tales of a 30 year old movie.

So, yeah, I liked this movie. Based on the reviews, I may be the only person seeing that bright side (going into the light!). Part of me suspect those reviews are just incensed the movie was remade at all. I’ve seen some who are convinced through rose-colored glasses the original was this subtle masterwork of suspense. I don’t think so. Better movie, but this one is surprisingly good.

Score: 86