Poltergeist

Poltergeist (1982)

8 corrections since 14 Mar '19, 00:00

(6 votes)

Corrected entry: In the opening sequence, when Dana is in bed and hears Carol Anne say, "Hello, I can't hear you", for some reason there is a prosthetic leg lying across Dana's bed. (00:03:45)

mightymick

Correction: It's just Dana's leg.

Yup, she just has it at an awkward angle, but it's 100% her leg. Not sure how the OP thought it was a prosthetic leg to begin with. There's literally no reason for a prosthetic leg to be in the shot when they could easily use the actress' leg, and it looks far too real to be a prosthetic from an 80's movie.

TedStixon

Corrected entry: 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....

Correction: The original submitter nullifies their own entry by acknowledging that having a child at 16 is possible.

Phaneron

Correction: 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.

Revealing mistake: When Diane is pulled back from the front door near the end of the movie, they use a stunt double, as you can see the stunt person scramble off to the right after the real Diane lands behind the stairs.

jerimiah

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Suggested correction: You're close. They did use a stunt double but you don't see the double "scrambling off." The stunt double is barefoot and the person you see clearing the shot is wearing shoes. Most likely a stage hand helping the stunt double with the landing.

Stupidity: The family ask 3 so-called ghost experts into the house. After seeing flying objects in the kids' room, they are suitably impressed. But later on, the female expert is sleeping, one of the men is in the kitchen wanting to cook a steak, and the second man has his back to the monitors, his head buried in a crossword puzzle and he has headphones on with music on, so he can't see, hear or see what is going on.

kh1616

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Suggested correction: The only one acting stupid in this scene is the guy at the monitors. They have to eat and sleep sometime; if anything, having two people awake and one asleep at a time is the cautious route. The one guy goes into the kitchen to cook a steak, but the guy at the monitors, despite being told he'll be the only one watching them, doesn't put down his drawing or take off his headphones, depriving him of sight and sound.

Anson Gordon-Creed

Corrected entry: The bedroom door to the kids' room is always locked, but when the mother wants to open the door, she does so without a key. Later when the little ghost-clearance expert lady wants to go in, she finds the door locked and the father has to unlock the door with the key.

kh1616

Correction: They only locked the door after the girl disappeared to keep people out. Not before.

lartaker1975

Correction: The door was unlocked by the one scientist who went upstairs to investigate what was going on and ended up getting bit by something. The door was still unlocked after he left and was probably locked again later before Tangina arrived.

Continuity mistake: The wicker headboard of Carol Anne's bed is ripped apart when she holds onto it to try to keep from flying into the closet. Towards the end of the movie, when her mom tucks her into bed, the headboard is intact and has had no repairs.

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Suggested correction: Diane could've bought a new headboard obviously.

Corrected entry: Near the end of the movie, when Diane falls down the stairs and runs towards the door, she grabs the door knob. When she gets thrown backwards, you can see the cable that is attached to her shirt, pulling her back, in the first couple of frames in slo-mo.

Correction: If slow-mo is necessary, it is not a valid mistake.

Sacha

Corrected entry: 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?

Correction: 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.

Correction: But what about people buried throughout the US with no marker, or a marker that has disappeared over time? Many people were buried along trails of wagon trains, civil war, slavery, etc.

Revealing mistake: When the chair moves across the kitchen floor, Craig T. Nelson goes to investigate it (after it has stopped moving). He goes up to the chair and flips it over. If you look closely, Craig almost hits the camera with the chair's legs. You can tell this has happened because the camera moves up very quickly and Craig looks straight at the camera crew with very big guilty eyes. This is more easily visible on the widescreen version of the film. (00:33:30)

More mistakes in Poltergeist

Carol Anne Freeling: They're here.

More quotes from Poltergeist

Trivia: While filming the toy clown attacking Robbie, the clown's arms were wrapped tightly around Oliver's neck. He immediately said he couldn't breathe but Steven Spielberg and Tobe Hooper both thought that he was ad-libbing. When Spielberg saw Oliver's face turning purple, he realised that he really was being asphyxiated and ran over to remove the arms from his neck.

More trivia for Poltergeist

Question: What exactly is the red slime on the body of Carol Anne and her mother after they are rescued from the another dimension?

Answer: Ectoplasm.

Phixius

More questions & answers from Poltergeist

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