The film’s sense of conviction and psychological nuance never rises above that of the “I Learned It from Watching You” anti-drug PSA.
No, Poltergeist III doesn’t make any sense, but it reaps the rewards left by the legacy-dashing second film’s sins.
Midnight Movie has a surprisingly ambitious structure, as Hooper is aiming for the novelistic equivalent of the vérité approach that was so effective in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
It wouldn’t be nearly as effective a film if one weren’t attuned to the hidden diametric pull between various fissuring elements.