Real skeletons in a movie? The actor found out years later!

Even nearly 42 years after its release, Tobe Hooper’s Poltergeist is still as captivating as ever. A film about a family haunted by evil spirits in their suburban home continues to haunt our nightmares: a smiling clown doll that comes to life, a closet that’s actually a portal to another world or even a little angel girl who squeezes her hands. at the television screen, warning his sleeping family: “They are there…“

And then there’s the scene of the famous swimming pool that the family is just starting to build in the garden. It’s here that the source of the ghostly anger that befalls them is finally revealed in a stormy confrontation, as the bodies of those buried beneath the property, which was once a cemetery, float around the mother, played by Jobeth Williams. which slipped into this open pit.

However, long after filming this series, the actor learned the disturbing truth: “I always assumed the skeletons were made by the props department“has him Announced at Vanity Fair in 2022.A few years later, I ran into one of the special effects guys and said, “You made all those skeletons, that must be amazing.” He said, “Oh, we didn’t make them up, they were real.” what did i say He said, “Yes, they were real skeletons.”“

He added:I don’t know where they bought it, but it really appealed to me. I’m glad I didn’t know then because I would have yelled a lot, really.“

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Not for the first time: Profitability? authenticity? coincidence?

As the film’s director Craig Reardon explained, Poltergeist was far from the only Hollywood blockbuster to use real skeletons – even the original roller coaster Pirates of the Caribbean Disney used them in the early days in 1967 because the technology at the time was not sophisticated enough to create skeletons that the company said met their standards of realism…

for that PoltergeistThe reason was simple: it was cheaper than creating and buying fake skeletons made of plastic or other materials.

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However, sometimes the use of real skeletons is completely accidental, as in Zombie (1978). The film’s makeup artist, Tom Savini, apparently borrowed the skeleton from another prop artist without realizing it was real. After the film was finished, the skeleton was bought by a costume shop and Marilyn Wick, the owner, displayed it in her window. After the police noticed that it looked suspiciously like the real thing, it was seized and dissected. The skeleton was found to be authentic and dated back 100 years.

In the case of Polish concert pianist Andre Tchaikovsky, the latter actually bequeathed the skull to the Royal Shakespeare Company in the hope that it would be used in productions. Hamlet. In 2008, the late pianist’s wish was finally granted and his skull was used in a series of performances. Hamlet On stage with David Tennant, who later respectfully referred to Andre Tchaikovsky as a “cast member”.

Real bodies on an apocalypse movie now

In order to create an “atmosphere of authenticity” and get as close to the “spirit of war” as possible, some members of the Apocalypse Now set went so far as to scatter dead rats around the set to “create the smell of death”. “. As MovieWeb recalls, when producer Gray Frederickson confronted the producer about this, he heard one of the crew members say:Wait until he hears about the corpses“. This led to the discovery of several corpses hidden behind a tent where everyone was eating, and a plot to tie them to trees on set to promote this “spirit of authenticity”.

It is eventually revealed that the man who sold the bodies to the set designers was a grave robber who dug up and stole the bodies. The entire cast and crew were arrested in the Philippines until they could prove they had nothing to do with him and none of the bodies were included in the final cut of the film.

Poltergeist can still be seen on VOD on select platforms.