Matthew Costello - Poltergeist: The Legacy - Maelstrom

[andydecker]

Matthew Costello - Poltergeist: The Legacy - Maelstrom (Ace Books, 2000, 229 pages)

Craig White

Poltergeist: the Legacy was a 4 season supernatural TV series from 1996 to 1999. Like Friday the 13th: The Series it had nothing to do with the movies.

I can't remember much about it, except that it was promoted with much effort herewith and still was no hit. Like other series of its time there are no re-runs, at least not in Germany, which is kind of a pity. I seem to remember that some of the episodes were not half bad, but Friday the 13th: The Series was better written. And it had Helen Shaver in the cast, who became a prolific director, and Kristin Lehman, who must be one of the most successful Canadian actresses, has done hundreds of TV epsiodes, a lot of it in genre stuff.

Matthew Costello wrote some horror novels and some novelizations like this one. He also developed some CD-Rom Games - remember those? - like The 7th Guest, which was a massive hit.

[helrunar]

That's too bad that Poltergeist: the Legacy failed to hit in Germany. The series was pretty uneven but had a fabulous cast, headed up by Dutch actor Derek de Lint who is great in everything. Helen Shaver was another wonderful presence--I loved her work in it. Martin Cummins who has since become a somewhat distinguished director in his own right was the eye candy for me, and Robbi Chong was very good as well. Kristin came in I think in season 3.

The first two seasons were the best. After that it kind of began to fall apart though each of the final two seasons had good moments. A highlight for me was Fionnula Flanagan, a wonderful Irish character actress, who played a character I liked to call Mrs Satan. She exuded a deliciously wicked sense of wit as she plotted the downfall of the Legacy and the personal destruction of each member. 

H.

[enoch]

I remember this series.  It was pretty good and I watched every episode I could, though I too thought Friday the 13th was better (not only better, but a very underrated series).  Now, Baywatch Nights -- THAT was a bad show, albeit so bad that it was immensely entertaining. Well, the first season may have been just plain bad, but with the second season it became an X Files ripoff and the real fun began.  God, it was horrible.  I loved it.