After settling in, the Bowen parents are invited to a dinner party and leave oldest daughter Kendra (Saxon Sharbino) in charge babysitting. Brother, Griffin (Kyle Calett) Goes through his battle with the infamous clown doll and, is attacked by the tree, as in the original. Again, it isn't new or original, it just makes you roll your eyes. Madison is then abducted by the specters, in the closet that is apparently a gateway to purgatory. Things move along quickly as the family contacts a paranormal investigation group at a local college. No where near as cool as Ghostbusters but, it's the same idea.
The team investigate the house and, decide to bring in a rock star caliber investigator Carrigan Burke (Jared Harris) who, is a very pale comparison to the late Zelda Rubenstein's Tangina. Burke is a television celebrity whose appearance is just so generic and corny. The climactic battle scene at the end is original and does differ from the original and, really isn't horrible. If only the film as a whole had more original ideas it would have favored better. Remakes don't have to copy scenes, there is room to tell the same story with originality. Writer David Lindsay-Abaire tried to take Steven Spielberg's story and tell it with his own flair. Sadly, his flair for writing is geared towards animated features for DreamWorks Animation. Poltergeist isn't original, it isn't fun, it isn't scary, it just isn't any good. Stick with the original, it tells it's story the right way. This remake just wasn't needed.
Rating D