Poltergeist

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)

Revealing mistake: When the father tucks Robbie in and Robbie says "I don't like the tree, dad." the camera shot begins rolling to the left. Robbie flinches when reacting to someone telling him to lean back more so he's not blocking too much of the father's face. The father also improvs a solution by gently pushing Robbie's shoulder back a bit as well. (00:18:55)

Revealing mistake: When Diane bends down under the sink during the famous chairs on the table scene you can see the large potted plant on the other side of the counter shake, obviously one of the crew members trying to get down under the counter before the camera switched back to the table.

jbrbbt

Revealing mistake: Diane runs back from the neighbor's house and falls into the pool. You can see where she is going to fall and she runs right to that spot. It looks like they did multiple takes.

manthabeat

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

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

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.

Revealing mistake: When Diane is on the ceiling, a piece of something white falls right in front of her, landing on the ceiling. This shows the set was upside down and she was actually on the floor. The scene was shot on a rotating stage but the little piece that falls gives away the effect.

manthabeat

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

Sacha

Revealing mistake: When the TV is turned off and Diane insists it's left on, the picture rolls and color bars are visible before the picture stabilises again. The 'static' is a video signal being fed to the TV, not true static.

Continuity mistake: At the start of the film, the dog is seen going from room to room looking for food. Just before he goes into Dana's room, someone can be seen through the crack in the door, moving from left to right.

More mistakes in Poltergeist

Carol Anne Freeling: They're here.

More quotes from Poltergeist

Trivia: The scene where the ghosts stacked the chairs on the kitchen table was filmed in one take with no cuts. As the camera followed Diane Freeling to the kitchen sink, the crew members rushed to the table, put an already built pyramid of chairs on the table and then took away the individual chairs.

More trivia for Poltergeist

Question: What exactly did the ghosts want with Carol Anne?

Answer: They were attracted to her life force. She was such a young child, that it was particularly pure and strong within her.

raywest

Answer: They were partly attracted to Carol Anne because she she was born in her house.

She was not literally born inside the house. She was born while the family was living there.

raywest

The movie literally says she was born IN the house. When Teague asks, "One of your children was born in your house, huh?" and Steve replies, "Carol Anne."

More questions & answers from Poltergeist

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