You've got to love a Show like this when the Title has a double meaning...and no meaning.
This is Poltergeist: The Legacy, specifically its Pilot. The Title makes you think something obvious- a follow-up.
With the real Franchise Star sadly dead way too early, this must be about her Family. Wait- didn't her Family dump her on someone else in the 3rd Film? Isn't her Sister off in College (Movie code for also dead IRL)? Which Family is the Star of this Show?
None of them!
Instead, this is the tale of a group of paranormal experts dealing with threats around the World. The name of the group- the Legacy.
Great- more people who get into Paranormal Investigative College on the backs of their rich Parents!
No, the name is because it is apparently a family thing to be part of the group. That literally only affects/relates to the Lead, but alright.
The Plot here involves some mystical artifacts that, conveniently, relate to his Father's death. Can he get The Legacy together to save the World? Let's see.
In the Opening, a Father and Son try to find an evil box. The former does, but is tempted into opening it, releasing a CGI Skeleton that kills him.
Now his barely-a-teen Son is in The Legacy? We're boned.
Quick technical note: I have the Pilot on VHS (as mentioned) and Season 1 on DVD. The Screen Caps are from the latter.
All grown up, he's in charge of one House for The Legacy and has all but one of the magic boxes in storage.
I'm not sure if keeping them all in one place is a good idea though...
Over in Ireland, a Widower and her Daughter go to an Antique Shop. The latter feels 'drawn' to a box, which the Shopkeep happily sells her.
The problem- it won't open...yet.
It does open and possess him with the spirit from the box. It needs to possess the girl, however, as her innocence will empower it.
The Legacy goes to Ireland to find the box, but it is too late. And yes, I'm counting half of this Pilot taking place in Ireland as an excuse to make it a Holiday post.
The Shopkeep (William Sadler and his dodgy Irish Accent) uses his powers to kill one of the team (said image is on the VHS Box Art) and sleep with the Mother.
After he's bested, the spirit is still loose.
It follows them back to the Castle and uses their fears to take their keys to the boxes, so that they can all be opened.
Just like Justice League's Mother Boxes, that is a bad thing. Also like that Movie, the Team kind of sucks and easily loses all of their keys.
On the plus side, their teammate gets to make one last appearance as a spirit.
It all leads to a big, kind of silly finale in which an evil Child is born and the boxes are open.
Our sword-swinging Hero manages to save the day with the girl's help, setting us up for 4 Seasons (3 on Showtime and one on Sci-Fi). The End.
A pretty good Pilot, but it definitely has some issues. For starters, the MacGuffin isn't that creative. Boxes that contain evil spirits- meh.
The connection to the supposed source material is really lax too. The Films were always about spirits 'trying to get to the other side.' I guess that *sort of* connects here...maybe. The Marketing reason for this is obvious, even if there had been some time between the last Film and this Show (8 years to be exact).
Mind you, other attempts to turn Horror Films into TV Shows have also tried this- see Friday the 13th: The Series.
We also got that weird
Omen Pilot where Damian was a floating ball of green light. Wait- William Sadler was in that too!!!
Later on, we'd get more direct adaptations for stuff like The Omen and The Exorcist.
The closest thing we get here is Zelda Rubinstein appearing as a different Character in Episode 20.
On its own, the Pacing is pretty good and the setup/payoff is worth it. There are some dated-looking effects like the flying skeletons, but nothing truly terrible. At worst, the facial morphing (big in the '90s) is silly.
The overall package is good and I can see myself going back to this, especially for a Season 4 Episode I need to cover in the future.
It's not great, but it shows potential. Hopefully the rest of the Series delivered more than, well, this morphing effect...
It has some strong moments, but definitely feels like a Pilot that is laying things out. I have the whole of Season 1, so maybe I'll explore a bit more.
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