This third entry in the popular but increasingly derivative horror series. When Craig T Nelson and JoBeth Williams (sensibly) called a halt to playing the exasperated parents of poltergeist-prone Carol Anne (Heather O'Rourke) after episode two, the writers came up with the wheeze of sending her to plague the living daylights out of other relatives. And sure enough, as soon as she moves into the spanking new Chicago high-rise home of Nancy Allen and Tom Skerritt, mirrors crack, smoke follows her down corridors and she can hear noises in her bedroom - not to mention the ice in the swimming pool (one of the best of a bad, cheap group of special effects). Various friends and lovers get bumped off and there's a lot of mumbo-jumbo spouted by mystics and psychics, but director Gary Sherman has no interest in supplying any meaning or motivation for what occurs in his own screenplay. Disappointing. FACT: 12-year-old star Heather O'Rourke died from ruptured intestines soon after shooting finished and the film is dedicated to her.

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