1982’s Poltergeist is regarded as a classic of the horror genre, which shouldn’t come as a surprise given the talent involved. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre‘s Tobe Hooper directed the supernatural chiller, while Steven Spielberg initially wanted to get behind the camera but couldn’t due to a contractual issue. Still, he remained on board as a heavily involved producer and co-writer of the screenplay.
A massive success when it premiered, Poltergeist made back the $10 million production budget a dozen times over at the box office, as well as winning rave reviews and landing three Academy Award nominations. Inevitably, a franchise was born, though it was one that suffered greatly from the law of diminishing returns with the 1986 and 1988 sequels.
Like virtually every other major horror brand, a reboot hit theaters many years later, in 2015, but was dismissed as little more than a homage to the original rather than a good movie in its own right, despite a talented cast that featured Sam Rockwell and Jared Harris. Gil Kenan’s Poltergeist still did solid if unspectacular business, but another entry didn’t seem to be a priority for the studio.
However, noted insider Daniel Richtman is now claiming that a new Poltergeist movie is in the works. And while he hasn’t shared any further details other than that, our own sources – the same ones who told us last year that the Scream franchise was getting a new installment – have confirmed that this is indeed true and while plot details are still sketchy, we understand that it’ll act as a sequel to the original films. Though whether it’ll ignore any of them like the recent Halloween did is still unknown.
Unfortunately, we don’t have much else to go on right now, but it seems that this is a separate project from the one that the Russo brothers are heading up. Although, given that we haven’t heard too much about that lately, it might not even be happening anymore.
