With Poltergeist being the hit it was, a sequel was unavoidable. In 1986, Poltergeist II:The Other Side was released, giving us a bit of backstory and insight on The Beast. Following the events of the first film, we begin the film with a new character, Taylor, a shaman who travels from a desert in the middle of nowhere to the wasteland that used to be Cuesta Verde, which is now a ghost town. He meets up with Tangina who has discovered a tunnel underneath where the Freelings’ pool was going to go. The same place where we saw Diane horded with skeletons. Well, there are more skeletons in the tunnel. It’s pratically a tomb.

We then meet up with Freelings’ who are now living with Diane’s mother and trying to live a normal life. Steve is no longer selling house, but vaccum cleaners instead. Soon, the mother passes away, presumeably from natural causes and it isn’t too long before spirits start appearing. They are after Carol Anne again. The family flees from the house, and are convinced at a diner by both Taylor and the spirit of Diane’s mother that is useless to run. The spirits will follow them wherever they go and they have to fight them and be strong. The family returns to the house with Taylor, who is there to protect Carol Anne. A strange old man named Henry Kane stalks the family and appears at their front porch, asking about Taylor and demanding to be let in. He is denied and eventually leaves, and we soon learn that he was a leader of a cult and that he is, in fact, “The Beast” from the first Poltergeist.

Through a ritual, Taylor attempts to prepare Steve for the fight he has to make and tells him that the entire family has to go back to Cuesta Verde and take the spirits head on. After Taylor leaves, things start to go crazy. The family fights their way out of the house and heads back to Cuesta Verde and enters the tunnel where they Tangina. Carol Anne and Diane are taken to the other side, and with the help of Tangina, Steve and Robbie are able to go to the other side, which we get to see this time around, and meet up with Diane and Carol Anne and as a family, they work together to fight off Kane, in Beast form.

While Poltergeist II has its moments, a lot of the magic that the first film had just didn’t translate into the second film. The excitement just seems dampered. This time around, Steven Spielberg wasn’t there to guide the picture. Tobe Hooper was gone, as well. So Brian Gibson took the helm with Mark Victor and Michael Grais returning as writers. H.R. Giger did some designs for the film, as well. And as far as effects go, the film certainly delivered. This time we got a hord of spirits approaching their home, a puke monster which starts off as a tiny worm in a beer bottle, and briefly, we get to see what “the other side” looks like.

There is also a strange subplot introduced very early in the film. From Diane’s mother we learn that the women on Diane’s side of the family have psychic abilities, including Diane and Carol Anne. This seems to come out of nowhere, as there is nothing in the first film to suggest that Diane is psychic, other than one brief dialogue exchange (“You haven’t done this before” “Neither have you!”). Ultimately, the only thing that really comes from this subplot is the backstory of Kane. Other than that, the subplot practically drops out of the movie. Oddly enough, Taylor decides to leave, only to randomly pop up in the end without reason.

It is also kind of strange that not once is the eldest daughter, Dana, mentioned. Dominique Dunne was killed after completing the first film, so it is understandable that her character is not there. But it’s also strange that none once does anybody in the family refer to her. Word has it that the movie was cut down from a 130 minute running time and that one of the missing scenes explained that Dana was away in college.

All in all, its the better of the two sequels and has some good effects and a good score from Jerry Goldsmith, but doesn’t quite live up to the Poltergeist name.