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Quotes

Carol Anne Freeling: They're here.

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When the investigators open the kids' bedroom, some of the flying stuff becomes transparent or very light coloured due to the matte effect. See more...

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After the first Poltergeist movie was made, actress Dominique Dunne (Dana Freeling) was murdered by her estranged boyfriend in 1982. Actor Julian Beck (Kane) died of stomach cancer in 1985 after filming the second film. And after the third, actress Heather O'Rourke (Carol-Anne) died in 1988 from cardiopulmonary arrest brought by intestinal stenosis. This has (annoyingly) been called "The Poltergeist Curse." See more...

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Poltergeist (1982) - 20 corrections

starring Beatrice Straight, Craig T. Nelson, Dominique Dunne, JoBeth Williams, Oliver Robins (add more)

Genres: Horror, Thriller

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click "edit" under an entry, then choose "correct entry". You can also submit corrections for corrections, if you think a mistake has been unfairly removed.

Mistakes
Trivia
Quotes
Corrections
Questions
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Robbie and Carol Anne share a bedroom, just to the left, and on an angle, of Dana's room (which is located upstairs, to the left, then directly ahead). This is obvious on a few occasions in the film (e.g. when the father says goodnight to them near the beginning of the film, and when the mother checks on them before having a bath near the end). At the end of the film when the poltergeist returns, the mother runs to rescue Robbie and Carol Anne from their bedroom - and bursts through the door to the left, and directly in front of her. Isn't that Dana's room? [You have look quick to see it but when Diane is running down the hallway, right before she is about to enter Robbie and Carol Anne's room, you can see the path to Dana's room. It's also visible in the shot right after the Diane, Robbie and Carol Anne spill out into the hallway as they escape the bedroom.]
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In the scene where the chairs are stacked up on the table, while JoBeth Williams ducks under the counter to get something, you can see the reflection in the waffle iron of the crew moving around off-camera to manipulate the chairs. It can't be a reflection of the chairs moving because the chairs are light-colored and the shadows are dark. [The reflection isn't distinct in any way. You certainly can't identify them as human. Just because you know how the effect was accomplished doesn't exclude the possibility of an explanation within the fictional movie world. Perhaps there was some other poltergeist activity in the kitchen beyond the chairs. We see the ghosts move objects (chairs, the coffee pot, a steak, the piano) throughout the movie. Not to mention when they physically manifest themselves. The fact is that there are any number of story-related possibilities for the indistinct movement in the reflection.]
Edit Corrected by JC Fernandez
During the climax of the film, coffins from the cemetery below rise out of the ground. Only problem: they're rising vertically. Coffins are laid horizontally. [The coffins are being blown out of the ground by an evil spirit that has possesed the entire house. The spirit can easily move the coffins to any position it wants as they blow out of the ground.]
Edit Corrected by dablues7
When Carol Anne says her famous, "They're here!" line in her parents' bedroom, what she really appears to be saying is, "They're ALL here." [I can say "They're here" and have my lips look like it's saying the "all" part.]
Edit
In the scene where the kitchen chairs get rearranged on the table, just when Diane bends down to grab a rag and a bottle, there's obvious movement reflected in the chrome waffle-iron, above her head. [Of course there's movement reflected, the kitchen chairs are rearranging behind her.]
Edit Corrected by JC Fernandez
In the scene when Marty is watching the steak slither across the table, the steak is over one of the tile lines on the table (obviously there is a slit there and the steak is being moved by rods underneath.) After Marty shines the flashlight and the shot cuts back to the steak, you can see by the tile lines that it is in a different position. [Of course it's in a different position... it's moving! You're using your knowledge of how they made the steak move (which is more deductive than obvious, because no "rods" are visible) to guide your opinion of where the steak should be. But there's no reason to think the steak couldn't have moved to a different place while the camera was focused on Marty.]
Edit Corrected by JC Fernandez
In the scene where Dr. Lesh is explaining what the "light" means to the Freeling boy she calls him Tommy at one point but the character's name is Robbie. It's not that the actress got confused and called the boy by his real first name which is Oliver, so who knows where she got the name Tommy from? [You need to rewatch this scene. Dr. Lesh never refers to the kid by name (not Tommy, not Robbie or any other name).]
Edit Corrected by JC Fernandez
Watch the scene in the kitchen when the poltergeist puts all the chairs onto the kitchen table. When Diana walks over to the cupboard you can see the reflection of the crew in the kettle moving the set into position. [There is a reflection of something moving, yes. But it's impossible to discern what it's a reflection of. It could just as easily be a reflection of the chairs moving.]
Edit Corrected by JC Fernandez
Watch when Carol Anne and her mother are in the tub with the red goop all over them. The father rubs a wash cloth over the face of Carol Anne to clean off the goop and the unconscious child tries hard but her eyes squint. [The human body is still prone to twitches and reflexive movement even when asleep or unconscious. Perhaps dad was a bit rough with the washcloth and her facial muscles reacted. Not to mention that Carol Anne was starting to awaken.]
Edit Corrected by JC Fernandez
Right in the middle of the movie when a psychic tells about how haunted the house is (the evil force has kidnapped their daughter, and she's in TV land, as they can only hear her through the TV) She tells them what they will do to get her daughter back from the poltergeist. And she specifically tells them that she can only hear her mothers voice. Then in another scene she says to the parents "who is she more threatened by"   and the mother says the father. So the psychic tells the father to tell his daughter that if she doesn't say anything she will get a smack. So of course the father tells his daughter that, but isn't she only able to hear her mother's voice? [First, Tangina never explains the plan to retrieve Carol Ann, she only explains what death is and why the spirits have targeted Carol Ann. Second, she wasn't being literal when she said that Carol Ann can only hear her mother's voice. She was trying to instill confidence in Diane, telling her that Carol Ann is alive and it's possible to reach out to her.]
Edit Corrected by JC Fernandez
"Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood" aired only during the week. It could not have been on at the same time as a Sunday-afternoon NFL game. [Not true. Many PBS stations run weekly shows during weekend hours. When I was a kid, I watched many of my favorites on the weekends. PBS stations are independently owned and can run whatever shows they like when they want to.]
Edit
At one point during the scenes where the mother is communicating with Carol Anne through the TV, the investigator asks her where Carol Anne was playing when she disappeared. The mother replies "In her bedroom closet." Carol Anne wasn't playing in her bedroom closet - she was in bed. [With all the toys in the closet, Diane may have assumed that Carol Anne had gotten out of bed to play.]
Edit Corrected by Krista
One end of a rope is tossed into the children's bedroom. It appears through the ceiling downstairs. The man downstairs is told to take up the slack gently. As we get an overhead shot of the man holding on to the rope, we can see the other end of it, even though that end is supposed to be by the bedroom. [That is not the other end of the rope. That is simply the point at which the rope becomes visible as it passes through the portal. What else did you expect to see?]
Edit Corrected by Garlonuss
Instead of Steve and the neighbor spending all that time fighting with the remote controls and nobody getting to watch their program, wouldn't it just be easier for them to get up and change the channel on the TV? I mean, I know people can be lazy with their remote controls, but come on... [It's a fair point, but there's no real reason why they shouldn't do it the way they do. It's not very useful to anyone but it's not a mistake.]
Edit
At the movie's beginning, why would the family bury a dead bird in a freshly planted flower garden, only to dig the whole thing up the next morning to put in a swimming pool? [This plot of dirt was moved by the people digging the swimming pool. They (the family) probably didn't originally want the garden to be dug up but in order to put in the pool, the workers had to.]
Edit Corrected by manthabeat
The main premise of the haunting, we are told, is that the greedy developer of Cuesta Verde has built the subdivision over a 300 acre cemetery that has had the headstones moved but not the bodies. Herein lies the problem. When was the last time that someone built a home, let alone a whole subdivision, without digging more than 6 feet down to excavate for sewer lines, water lines, basements, etc? Wouldn't someone, somewhere, have come across Great-Aunt Bertha's remains? [Cemeteries usually have lots of avenues and paths, so the developer could have laid out the subdivision so that the major utilities did not have to go through graves. He would probably only have to go through one or two graves per lot, and even those he would be just bumping them over a few feet (or just breaking them into pieces) rather than paying to transport them and dig a completely new hole. Obviously, he had to pay off some people in any case. He probably had illegal aliens do most of the digging, so they wouldn't tell. Houses in Southern California almost never have a basement.]
Edit
When the son drives away, with the dog in a cab. The dog jumps into the back seat, but in the next shot it sits firmly on the front seat. [There is another shot between those two. That shot was long enough for the dog to jump from the back seat to the front seat.]
Edit
When the parapsychologists are talking to the parents, Craig T. Nelson's character mentions that he is 32, and his wife is 31. And they have a 16-year-old daughter. Possible, but.... [Actually, in the parapsych's interview, he says his wife is 31, then corrects himself and says she's 32. Craig never mentions his own age, but I once read that he's supposed to be in his early 40's, suggesting at least 1 kid possibly from a previous marriage.]
Edit
My Spanish is a little shaky, but doesn't "Cuesta Verde" mean "it costs green"? Don't think I'd want to buy a house in a development that brags about it's priciness like that. [Actually, I speak no spanish at all, but according to freetranslation.com, it means "Green Slope"]
Edit Corrected by Anthony Chiaro
In the beginning when Steven's TV is being affected by the neighbour's remote control, what remote control can affect a TV in another house through their wall, across the yard, through the fence, then through the neighbour's wall? [An ultrasonic controller (or whatever they're called) can do so. I remember them from the late 70, early eighties.]
Edit