Gil Kenan’s upcoming remake of Tobe Hooper’s 1981 classic Poltergeist is happening whether we want it to or not so read on folks for some new details! According to Bloody Disgusting, the upcoming remake will follow Eric Bowen and his family who, after he loses his job, relocates to a new town to start over. His daughter, Madison, is abducted, making him truly understand what’s important in life: family. In the new version, Eric’s wife, Amy, can communicate with the dead.

There will be another new character in the mix as well who will be Carrigan Burke, a television personality who hosts “Haunted House Cleaners”. The supernatural doesn’t scare this guy. Dr. Brooke Powell is Carrigan’s ex-wife who is a parapsychologist at a local university. Her team investigates the supernatural events surrounding the disappearance of the Bowen girl.

Casting is currently underway and shooting is set to begin as early as September in Toronto, Canada. Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert and Roy Lee all produce with David Lindsay-Abaire listed at the main screenwriter although Juliet Snowden and Stiles White had previously worked on the script.

Well, that’s that. Even though I’m usually optimistic when it comes to remakes I can’t say that I’m too excited for this one. The original flick is, in my opinion, the perfect horror film and one that is still pretty damn scary to this day. We’ve been getting so many paranormal flicks these days that this upcoming remake is going to have a hard time finding its own unique voice in the genre and for that reason I think this one is going to have a pretty big hill to climb.

[Written for AITH]