The True Terror of the Poltergeist Film

Poltergeist, though it came out over thirty years, was one of the scariest films to date. Folks who have seen it will tell you that they still have nightmares from the film. A little known fact, though, is that this film actually ended up having its’ own set of horrific events that the crew endured that could be a movie in and of itself.
For those who aren’t familiar with the film or even the word itself, a poltergeist is a ghost or spirit who is mischievous or plain out wicked. A poltergeist is most known for making objects appear to move on their own. Over time, if nothing is done about them, they become increasingly malevolent and lead to horrible and gruesome occurrences.
In this article, we’ll explore how the crew making the film ended up enduring their own, personal nightmare.

Photo source: Pixabay

1. There is an ever-infamous scene where the mother, Diane, ends up falling into the pool and much to her horror—it’s filled with skeletons. However, much to her disgust, she found out after completing the scene that they were not imitation skeletons. To stay within budget, they were actually donated skeletons from a university. Simply put—they were real, human bones.
   2.) It was reported that objects such as chairs, pens, food, costumes, and other important props would come up missing or in a place that they could never have gotten such as a roof. It was speculated that there may have been a mischievous crew member on set trying to mess with people, but the actors stated they didn’t feel that way. In fact, they felt immense “bad vibes” while they were on set and believed that as a result of having those human bones as props, had invited some type of spirit in.
   3.) The character of little Carol Anne who was ever so famously remembered for being the one who ended up getting sucked into the television set by the poltergeist and taken to a supernatural realm. While she was able to go on to serve her roles for the first movie as well as a sequel, she suddenly died from experiencing cardiac arrest, and as a result—septic shock at the young age of only twelve.
   Common health knowledge tells us that people that young typically do not experience cardiac arrest, and the occurrence is often blamed on demonic brutality.
   4.) The character who played the eldest child in the main family in Poltergeist, was barbarically attacked at her home only a few months after the release of the film. She had been beaten and strangled so viciously that she was on life support. Only days after this attack, she was removed from life support.
   5.) Kane, a character from the sequel to Poltergeist, found himself diagnosed with stomach cancer and passed away before the sequel had a chance to hit theaters. It was a rapid disease, and his diagnosis came immediately after accepting the role. It could have very well been a coincidence, but as the body count of crew members for the film continues to stack up, many believe that it’s unlikely.

6.) After all of the happenings, bad vibes, and bone usage from the first one, the director and the rest of the crew thought it would probably behoove them to perform an actual exorcism on the set and everything it entailed—from the props to the people. The film company employed a man by the name of Will Sampson who was Native American by heritage to perform it. Afterwards, each and every crew member all stated that they felt much better than ever before while on set.
Tragically, however, the man who performed the exorcism died within two years of the sequel’s release from kidney failure and malnutrition.
7.) More recently, Richard Lawson, another actor from the films, was on board of a plane when it crashed in 1992. He was one of the few that survived, but he reported feeling “plagued” for the rest of his life since filming, and whole-heartedly attributes that disaster to the curse that he believes the film carried.
8.) Another actor from the films—though he had a relatively small role—was murdered in cold blood by a recently released convict. The attack was, in fact, random, and deeply felt by others that it was a part of the curse of being associated with the movies.

Are all of these tragedies the result of summoning malevolent spirits into existence by heavily speaking about them and re-enacting their behaviour? Or are these simply a long string of terrible coincidences?
It all depends on what you believe, but if you conduct more research on the topic, you might find that there was more at work with the crew of Poltergeist than you previously thought.
But be careful! Don’t look into it too much, for you might be next!