Review of The Uninvited

I saw this film for the first time recently and was amazed at the striking similarities between this movie and the original Poltergeist, made in 1982. "The Uninvited takes place in an affluent, Cuesta-Verde-like neighborhood. The family's house has a twisted old tree much like the one that the Freelings' have in Poltergeist. The story here is a tad different, with Sharon Lawrence's character having a baby that is stillborn. It is after this that she begins to witness strange phenomena in her house. At this point, the parallels begin: When the poltergeist-like phenomena start to happen, she is amused by it and thinks of it as a "playful supernatural force" that we don't yet understand. This also happens in Poltergeist: Remember Diane and Carol-Anne playing with their poltergeist in the kitchen. Later in "The Uninvited" the poltergeist, of course, turns menacing, posing a particular threat to Sharon Lawrence's young son, played by Alex D. Linz, just as the poltergeist targets Carol-Anne in the original. Sharon Lawrence soon enlists the aid of an older psychic woman to help her make sense of it all. She informs us that the "heart" of the house is in the child's closet. In a scene that mirrors the original poltergeist, the closet lights up and opens to reveal all of the toys (including wind-up toys) moving around on their own. Then comes an earthquake-like shaking followed by a shot of Sharon Lawrence clinging to the psychic with tears running down her face saying "Go into the light! Your mother is waiting for you in the light!" We also learn that the house is built on a cemetery where, surprise surprise, they didn't move the bodies. If you have seen Poltergeist, you will recognize the similar scenarios and camera shots throughout "The Uninvited:" The mother running down a moving hallway to reach her children to have the door slammed in her face and the door locked by the poltergeist; The classic "stacking" scene- here done with eggs rather than chairs; The father searching around a mud pit in the pouring rain discovers the remains of the cemetery; The confrontation between the mother and the poltergeist that, when it becomes visible, looks like the twin of the one in the Spielberg movie. Bottom line: Rent the horror classic "Poltergeist" and forget this unofficial remake.