Buy it... on the 2003 "Deluxe Edition" from Varèse Sarabande if you missed or are unsatisfied with the older albums, or if you never owned it and wish to hear one of Jerry Goldsmith's more noteworthy horror scores.

Avoid it... on that 2003 product if you are satisfied with the competent Intrada album from 1993 or if you prefer the intensity of the action sequences during Goldsmith's first Poltergeist score.

Goldsmith

Poltergeist II: The Other Side: (Jerry Goldsmith) Disaster not only followed the Freeling family in the Poltergeist franchise of films, but the productions and their actors as well. After the huge fiscal and popular success of Poltergeist in 1982, a sequel was inevitable, but the collaboration of the same cast and crew would prove to be daunting. The production process for the sequel was badly plagued, from the battle for control over the picture to the death of some of the franchise's key actors. By the end of the Poltergeist trilogy, four primary actors would be dead, including Heather O'Rourke, who portrayed the clairvoyant little girl, Carol Anne. Despite all of these real life hauntings, the franchise forged ahead, and Poltergeist II: The Other Side was billed as having the most spectacular special effects ever to be seen in a horror film. Despite these bone-chilling effects, however, the film suffered from a poor script, ambivalent audience response, and a lack of fresh ideas (the quality of the stories in each successive film in the franchise diminished as well). Signed on late in the process was composer Jerry Goldsmith, whose superb score for the first film had been nominated for an Academy Award. Writing music for the sequel over the 1985 holiday season, Goldsmith decided to match the film's increased technical intensity by himself raising the stakes with his instrumental ensemble. He set out to combine the best of The Omen, Poltergeist, and his concurrent electronics-heavy scores into one gargantuan effort. When critics pounded on the film at its 1986 release debut, Goldsmith's score was spared much of the criticism, often praised for its ambitious achievements compared to other, lackluster production features.

Goldsmith added five new themes to the two that are repeated from the first film, with each of the new characters represented by a strong thematic voice. The evil spirit of Kane, disguised as a reverend who offers help to the troubled family (and played by theatrical legend Julian Beck, who likewise died before this film's opening), is particularly well developed in the score, enhancing the character's menacing presence in the film. The score for Poltergeist II is therefore a piece of music very well developed in its constructs. By the end of the soundtrack, your mind boggles with the amount of diversity in the motifs and themes for the film, and this yields both the strength and weakness of the work. Much of the intense attention to two or three particular themes from the original film is lost in Poltergeist II, allowing the subsequent themes to be somewhat watered down at times. But you nevertheless have to give Goldsmith top grades in his effort in expanding upon a set of stationary characters. The subtlest effect is the use of a trombone for Kane; when he first visits the Freeling family, his motif is introduced in the form of a distant, dying propeller blade, not chopping in the foreground, but diving over the horizon in a repetitive, ominous note. Also in the cue "The Visitor," Goldsmith builds the character's evil persona to such a degree that the music resorts to outright male yelling straight from the underworld after four minutes of the suspicious trombone effects described above. The themes for the mystical Indian shaman, Taylor, as well as Grandma Jess, are substantial, but never in competition with the quality of the themes from the first film. The most effective motif for Poltergeist II, ironically, is the least sophisticated addition to the equation.

Goldsmith returns to explosions of liturgical choral chants like those heard in The Omen when the ghosts of the underworld catch up to Carol Anne through her toy telephone (the family was thankfully smart enough to go to a place where there are no televisions). While effective, these cues are somewhat over the top compared to surrounding material. In its first four major cues, the score rumbles in an awkward stance, not able to provide comfort to the audience because of the impending terror, but not able to dive into the horror material immediately either. Finally, with "They're Back," Goldsmith lets it all loose, and between this cue and "Wild Braces" (known as "Dental Problems" on earlier albums), the chanting provides a truly enticing atmosphere for the horror. A less creepy reprise of girl's chorus for "Carol Anne's Theme" (without the troubling laughter at the conclusion this time) is once again heard over the end credits to wrap up the sequel. Collectors of Goldsmith's music will remark that Poltergeist II is mostly an exhibit of the composer's talents with the synthesizers. As the composer stated at the time, he was experimenting with electronics as an additional section of the orchestra. More than any of his other scores, Poltergeist II is intricate in his integration. At every moment there is the use of an electronic element, whether as a feathery effect in the background or an ear-piercing slash in the foreground. As in Legend (composed within a year of this project), these electronics would sometimes hinder the listening experience in regards to the orchestral material. But their existence makes sense, given the poltergeists' methods of contacting Carol Anne through technology. Some listeners may find the constantly rough edge of the majority of the synthetic effects to be too grating, overshadowing the organic elements.

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At times, the electronics are brilliantly employed, including the synthetic imitation of blowing wind (and thus passing spirits) heard in "The Worm" and other cues, but Poltergeist II also shows Goldsmith's sometimes overzealous experimentation with electronics. In their favor, Goldsmith sacrifices the best element of the first Poltergeist score: the rolling string and brass motif of the horrific climax. Even in the film's return to the old house lot, Goldsmith fails to bring a reminder of this idea to a rolling boil, as he had done so well in the first score. Thus, the element of creativity is somewhat heightened, but outside of the outward chanting, the horror is diminished. On album, Poltergeist II has had a storied history due to shared rights between Intrada Records and Varèse Sarabande. They released five cues on a very early CD in 1986 (the former domestically, the latter internationally). This woefully short album was replaced by a 1993 Intrada release limited to 2,000 copies. It featured most of the score, save one cue of significance. That cue (the essential "The Visitor") and an extra minute on another would finally bring the score to its "Deluxe Edition" format from Varèse Sarabande in 2003, coinciding with an MGM release of the film on DVD. With the 1986 products being unacceptably short and the 1993 Intrada album hopelessly gone from the market, the 2003 Varèse album (perhaps not a Club title like other "Deluxe Editions" due to the lack of too much new material) is a good buy. No matter the release, however, Poltergeist II is too scattered to match the intensity of the original Poltergeist score. It's solid work, and it will certainly be interesting for Goldsmith collectors in its integration of electronics into the orchestra, but the 1997 comprehensive release of Poltergeist on album remains a better buy if you were to choose one from the series. ***   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

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For Jerry Goldsmith reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.26 (in 113 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.32 (in 133,462 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.