POLTERGEIST: THE LEGACY [1996–1999 / MGM]

When you think about the original run of three ‘Poltergeist’ films, what do you consider their legacy to be? It doesn’t matter, you don’t have to know. The answer was given to us by Showtime in the form of 4 seasons of a spin off show called ‘Poltergeist: The Legacy’. Fitting neatly into the sort of post-’Silk Stockings’ world of 90s PG-13 sexsploitation, this spinoff is all about the things that made the original films great. Young models, a cougar, and a certifiable sugar daddy all living together in oversexed, underfucked harmony, while poorly hunting down spirits.

If that doesn’t sound like the films, let me try an alternate description. A group of people trying to overcome supernatural forces, but are blocked time and time again by their own internal psychological struggles. That actually is totally on par with the films. So on one hand I can be sassy and point out the titillating differences, but I can also speak in complete honesty about the themes remaining the same. Considering that a soft-core hard left is typical of any 4th installment in a horror franchise, going the skinamax route is actually a bit conservative anyway. The attentive viewer will, on very rare occasion, get served a flash of a nipple, but primarily we’re talking about sexuality that is constant yet so tame that watching a contemporary CW show would make any of the characters blush. If you don’t love this particular perpetual pitch of horniness there isn’t a lot to secure your enjoyment of the show though. The absolute terror that the film could produce is gone. Instead we get a fair amount of CGI glimpses into the other side, and a bunch of computers doing impressive things if google doesn’t exist yet. So while their libidos are a mystery, the facts of the occult history are always at our protagonists’ fingertips. Actually, this sounds a lot like every CW show. Sexually frustrated models with cool gizmos fighting against low rent CGI forces of darkness? The legacy continues for real.