Not as scary as I remembered, although it’s got its share of jump scenes — and more likeable, actually. There’s always a decision made, from a writing standpoint, on how much time to spend on getting characters who do believe something’s happening, or have witnessed the supernatural phenomena in question, to convince other characters who don’t or haven’t that the central haunting/possession/whatever of the story is actually real. I tend to dislike stories where a lot of narrative is spent on the “you have to believe me” conversations, and I admire Poltergeist‘s willingness to send the characters right to that place without a lot of “that’s crazy talk” conversations. The chairs get stacked, Diane is like, “…Jesus,” she shows Steven, he believes her, done. With that said, this movie does feel too long in spots. The opening sequences showing the family hanging out on a Sunday afternoon were well shot, but could have been tighter; some of Zelda Rubinstein’s exposition went on too long; Steven’s scene out by the cemetery could have been chopped down a bit. Another nitpick: if you’re going to make specific reference to the fact that Diane is 32 and the oldest daughter is 16, it’s my feeling that you need to elaborate — your wife was a child bride, Dana is your child from a previous marriage, something. Revising Diane’s age upwards by even two years would have solved that problem; I don’t need everything explained to me but that was a bit jarring. (11/1/06)

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