This cursed, haunted film used real human remains; six actors died violent deaths, tantric was called on set, then...

There is a trope about filming of horror movies that goes something like this: the production is plagued by mysterious incidents and there is some mention of a paranormal presence. And most of these so-called curses are almost always the work of the film’s marketing team but there have been times when the inexplicable has happened on the sets of a horror film. The most infamous incident is from this 1982 classic which resulted in six deaths.

The cursed, haunted film that used real human remains

In 1982, Steven Spielberg collaborated with Michael Grais and Mark Victor to write the screenplay of a horror film titled Poltergeist. The film was eventually directed by Tobe Hooper. Focussing on a suburban family whose home is invaded by malevolent ghosts that abduct their daughter, The Poltergeist had a troubled production. There were talks of a Poltergeist curse that would claim the lives of several actors. The origin of the curse are linked to a scene in the climax where JoBeth Williams (who plays the mom Diane) had to jump into a unfinished pool with human remains. What Williams did not know was that the skeletons used in the scene were real.

Williams told Vanity Fair in 2022, “I always assumed that the skeletons were made by the prop department. A few years later, I ran into one of the special effects guys, and I said, ‘You guys making all those skeletons, that must have been really amazing.’ He said, ‘Oh, we didn’t make them, those were real’.” Many films in those days used real skeletons and cadavers as they were cheaper than the fake ones. However, the hypothesis is that the skeletons used in the film were haunted and disrespecting the dead placed a curse on the film.

How ‘the Poltergeist curse’ claimed six lives

Four cast members of The Poltergeist died during the filming of the movie or shortly after it released. Dominique Dunne, who played the older daughter Dana, was murdered by her boyfriend in November 1982. She was 23. Heather O’Rourke, who played the youngest daughter Carol, was misdiagnosed with a disease and died of cardiac arrest a few years later at the age of 12. Another cast member, Lou Perryman, was violently murdered in 2009. His murderer did not even know him and said the murder was a random act. There were three other deaths connected with the franchise, including Julian Beck, who played a priest in the film’s sequel. He died of cancer in 1987.

When The Poltergeist’s makers exorcised the set

Actor Will Sampson played a shaman in Poltergeist II. The actor was a shaman in real-life as well and he told the filmmakers that he believed the set was haunted. The deaths of the actors, along with some ‘strange’ occurrences on set had convinced him of that. The makers got him to perform an exorcism ceremony on sets, after which no strange incidents were reported. Interestingly, Sampson himself died a year later of kidney failure.

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