[miketardis]

POLTERGEIST II: THE OTHER SIDE (1986)
The Freeling family (JoBeth Williams, Craig T. Nelson, Heather O'Rourke, and Oliver Robins) is now living with Grandma and trying to put the events of the first film behind them. Dad is having trouble holding down a job and won't allow a TV in the house (bastard!). But the persistent ghosts have caught up with them and still want young Carol Anne.
This sequel to the Steven Spielberg produced original is an amazingly missed opportunity. Original scribes Michael Grais and Mark Victor return, but screw up with a case of explanation-itis (it wasn't just corpses from a cemetery, but hundreds of doomsday cult members buried alive in a cave below the house!). Also, they inject some Native American mysticism into the mix. Will Sampson does his best with the role of a shaman, but seeing Nelson sweatily huff on a peace pipe and, later, unleash a white spirit out of his mouth to combat a huge demon is laughable. The finale, where the entire family journeys to the other side, is ridiculous.
All that said, the film does have some nice individual set pieces. The tequila worm vomit bit is impressive, as is the attack on the family with a chainsaw inside the car garage. The film's highlight is probably avant-garde actor/director Julian Beck as the cult leader Kane. He was very ill while filming (he passed away days after finishing) and that definitely adds to his creepy look/performance.

[Darth Slater]

the whole premise of the second film makes no sense, as the houses were built on a cemetery, and had nothing to do with a cult...

it was just to try to cash in on the popularity of the first...

although the preacher guy was as scary as hell (and looked like a skeleton)

I alwys thought at the end of the first film, that the tv they threw out of the hotel room would "flicker and show snow, just for a second before the credits rolled, **that way you would know the ghosts are following carol anne

[EGON004]

I remember catching this on tv right when the tequila worm thing was crawling across the floor. At the time I thought that was so disturbing. I liked alot of the movie, but didn't like the preacher storyline as much. The third one was pretty bad.