The thing in October (part VI).

The thing about sequels is that, more often than not, they can't live up to the original. Yeah. Big surprise. People keep soldiering on, hoping for the next Empire Strikes Back, Godfather Part II or Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey. It doesn't always happen, folks. Take, for example, Poltergeist II: the Other Side.

The Freeling family is forced to stay with Diane's mother while they get back on their feet. Unfortunately, as noted by the youngest member of the clan, "They're back!". Richard Edlund's gimmicky effects are the real star of this follow-up, which scared me as a kid, but looks pretty silly today.

Jerry Goldsmith was asked back for this sequel. In Film Score Monthly's invaluable Buyer's Guide, Jeff Bond noted that some people preferred this score to Goldsmith's Oscar-nominated original. It didn't fully register at the time, but now, I totally get where he's coming from. Poltergeist has many good moments, but, overall, I get kind of a 'meh' feeling from it. As I've said elsewhere, it's not even the best score Goldsmith wrote in 1982. Bear in mind, he also did The Challenge, First Blood and the score I honestly believe deserved the Oscar nomination, The Secret of N.I.M.H..

As shaman Taylor (Will Sampson) visits the site of the Freeling's former home, "The Power" plays out over the opening credits, with some beautifully evocative Native American stylings leading into the character's noble motif. Towards the end of the track, though, we get a hint of the score's darker material and a brief reprise of Carol Anne's theme.

Speaking of the lullaby-like melody, it figures into tracks like "Things", "Late Call" (which, halfway through, features a clever electronic ringing phone noise) and the end credits.

"They're Back" is a pretty good encapsulation of the score, as churning electronics augmented with piercing stings, the chanting of a martial choir, Rambo-esque snares and horn hits and an electronic take on Taylor's theme unite.

The film's menace is Reverend Kane (Julian Beck). For a few minutes, the film forgets about killer braces, vomit creatures and flying chainsaws and gives us its most unsettling scene, as Kane gets inside Steven's head and beckons him to let him in. Goldsmith's music for the character, an electronic perversion of the hymnal "God is in His Holy Temple" (introduced in "The Mall") is creepy enough, but "The Visitor" turns the Kane music into a weird sort of death march, with churning electronics, tense strings, winds and the occasional intrusion from the choir. (Be on the listen for a string rendition of Kane's theme in "The Smoke".)

Even though the electronics can get to be a little much at times (this was the mid-80s, after all), Goldsmith still delivers in hair-raising cues like "Wild Braces", "Back to Cuesta Verde" and "The Worm" (the latter marking a return of the ominous, whispering voices of The Final Conflict).

It all builds to an exciting, Secret of N.I.M.H.-like climax ("Reaching Out"), where nervous, searching strings, rising horns and progressively heroic performances of Taylor's theme butt against creepy, piercing electronics, leading to a serene musical resolution for the film's surprisingly comical final moments. (The last few notes sound like they escaped from a Joe Dante movie. Really!)

Varese Sarabande's Deluxe Edition CD is still available at Amazon.com ('discontinued by the manufacturer', if you can believe it) and is worth having.