No, This 'Poltergeist' Star Had No Idea The Dead Bodies Were Real

If you’ve had a really bad day, sometimes it can help to think about the people out there who have had worse days than you. You can think about how at least you have food in the fridge and a house to quarantine in. You can also think about the Poltergeist actress who only found out she’d been swimming in a pool with real dead bodies after she got out of it.

Poltergeist is the 1982 horror movie about a family that accidentally moves into a place built on top of an old cemetery, and is immediately haunted to a truly horrifying degree. It still stands up today, and things like this are probably why. 

They’ve ditched the real bodies, but the modern film industry is facing some pretty unique challenges. Let the GOAT Team catch you up…

JoBeth Williams plays the mother of the family, Diane Freeling. Right at the end of the film, after already enduring far more ghosts than anyone really should ever have to, Diane is dragged into the swimming pool where skeletons start trying to attack her. She ultimately gets out, but it’s a pretty horrible moment.

What’s even more horrible is that the production department worked out that it was cheaper for them to buy real skeletons from a medical supply company than it was to have them made out of rubber. So that’s what they did, and just decided not to clue JoBeth Williams in on that fun little detail. 

Remember that terrifying scene in Poltergeist where JoBeth Williams has to swim through a pool of bones and skulls? Well they weren’t movie props – they were actual dead bodies. Grim! Apparently real human remains were used because they were cheaper than plastic skeletons?? pic.twitter.com/9XpqGbFOJF

— Stevodadevo (@Stevodadevo2) April 2, 2019

Poltergeist didn’t just end up famous for the final film, there was also a lot of talk about the Poltergeist Curse. After a string of actors who had been involved in the film sadly passed away before their time, rumours about the film being cursed started to fly. For those who believe in the curse, the fact that real bodies had been used in this scene is usually put forward as what kicked it all off.

Curse or not, next time nothing is going the way you want it to, rest assured that at least you aren’t in Poltergeist and swimming in a pool of dead bodies.

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