Poltergeist: 10 Big Differences Between Original And Remake

This is a pretty huge change to the last act of the movie. In the original film, we never really see into the spirit world that Carol Anne travels to. What it looks like is left completely up to our imagination.

In the remake, we actually see inside the other realm by the use of a drone. The son, Griffin, has a drone with a camera attached to it, and in the last act, that drone is sent inside the portal so we can see everything. What does it look like inside? Well, it basically looks like a pretty dimly lit version of the house, but with creepy spirits and skeletons everywhere constantly reaching out to grab the characters. Also, while in the original we really only ever hear Carol Anne, in this version, we get glimpses of her shadow running around the house, and in one scene, the spirit tricks the father into thinking he sees Maddy hiding in the closet.

On the one hand, it’s sometimes better to leave things to our imagination, but on the other hand, what’s the point of doing a remake if everything’s going to be kept exactly the same? This new take on the spirit world is creepy and interesting, and definitely helps keep this remake feeling fresh and not just like a bland copy of the original.