Quartile rating: 5/10 · 1 rating
Carol Anne has been sent to live with her Aunt and Uncle in an effort to hide her from the clutches of the ghostly Reverend Kane, but he tracks her down and terrorises her in her relatives' appartment in a tall glass building. Will he finally achieve his target and capture Carol Anne again, or will Tangina be able, yet again, to thwart him?
Poltergeist III is a largely disappointing sequel that strips away most of what made the original compelling. The plot is thin and repetitive, essentially rehashing Kane's pursuit of Carol Anne with little new development. Acting is generally weak, with even returning players like Zelda Rubinstein feeling underused; the film is most noted for Tom Skerritt and Nancy Allen doing their best with poor material. The one relative bright spot is cinematography — the Chicago high-rise glass building setting allows for some inventive mirror-based practical effects that are genuinely clever for the era, giving the film a slightly distinctive visual identity. Novelty is low as it recycles the same antagonist and threat mechanic from Part II with minimal creative expansion. The ending is famously troubled, having been reshot after Heather O'Rourke's tragic death, resulting in an incoherent and unsatisfying conclusion that undermines even the modest tension built up earlier.