A Scary Version of Poltergeist

Rating: 7/10 (11 July 2012)

Yikes! I haven't seen a movie in awhile that both jolted me multiple times AND creeped me out for a long time, simply with it's worldview! (The worldview being that pretty much everyone goes to a dark, creepy hell after death and there is no God). Also, the scares do not let up from the opening title screen to the end of the credits. Plus, the soundtrack, including the use of Tiny Tim's annoying but innocent sounding "Tiptoe Through the Tulips", shot my blood pressure up for most of the film.
Quick summery: Josh and Renai find their son, Dalton, in an unexplainable coma. Immediately after this, the hauntings begin, and become increasing violent, evil, and horrifying. They hire a medium who tells that that Dalton is not in a coma, but has had an astral projection (out-of-body experience) and his spirit has wandered too far from his body and is lost in the netherworld (or "The Further" as it's called in the film). As such, Dalton's body is unoccupied but alive, tempting spirits and demons to possess him in order to enter the world of the living; some to simply live again, and some to wreck havoc. Josh is told that he also possesses the ability for astral projection and thus, he must be the one to enter the netherworld to find Dalton.
I agree that there are two "halves" to the film, but I strongly disagree that the second half killed the first. The first half is a typical haunting film (slamming doors, strange figures moving around at night, malevolent spirits, etc). The second half goes beyond strange phenomena and has Josh actually go to the other side to get Dalton. This sounds a lot like Poltergeist, but The Further is not a bright light filled with creepy clown dolls and giant skulls. No, this a completed dark parallel universe filled with creepy corpses in suspended animation...until they are disturbed by the living and attack. There is also a demon that I think is the weak point of the film: The face looks like Darth Maul (like spitting image...look it up), but he has a long forked tongue like Venom from Spiderman, and a body like the Hell Knight from Doom and Doom II (look it up). Not that scary. But the lack of lighting and music are creepy enough that it makes up for Darth Maul/Venom.
All in all, a very scary movie that I probably won't watch again...it makes you jumpy and uncomfortable from beginning to end. If you need a good fright night movie, this a good choice.