A Classic '80s Horror Movie Utilized Real Skeletons In Shooting Multiple Scenes

For many years, Tobe Hooper's 1982 horror film "Poltergeist" was said to be cursed, largely because of the number of cast members who died close either to its release or the release of the "Poltergeist" sequels. Young star Heather O'Rourke died of stenosis at the age of 12 in 1988, shortly after finishing her work on "Poltergeist III." Dominique Dunne, who played the older sister Dana, was murdered by her boyfriend in 1982, only five months after the first film was released. Julian Beck, who played the ghostly villain in "Poltergeist II: The Other Side," died of stomach cancer seven months before the movie's release. Finally, Will Sampson, who also starred in "Poltergeist II," died in 1987 after surgery complications. 

Foremost, these deaths are sad, and these actors should all be respected and properly mourned. O'Rourke, Dunne, Beck, and Sampson are real people, not a ghost story. Details of their relationship to the "Poltergeist" movies are explored tastefully and in great detail in the excellent Shudder documentary series "Cursed Films." 

That series pointed out the widespread "curse" beset the production of "Poltergeist" specifically because it used real human bones during a skeleton attack sequence late in the movie. During the film's scary, intense climax, JoBeth Williams' character, Diane Freeling, falls into a muddy, unfinished swimming pool in a rainstorm and finds skeletal human remains floating up in the muddy water beside her. The skeletons appear to be alive, briefly, and have flesh still clinging to them. They're also real skeletons

Indeed, Williams has long maintained that the skeletons were real, something she once repeated on an episode of "TV Myths and Legends." The film's makeup artist, Craig Reardon, further testified under oath that they were, in fact, real human bones. 

It seems, though, that real human skeletons have been common on horror movie sets throughout cinema history. Why? Because it's cheaper to get real human bones than to build fake ones.

Speaking on "TV Myths and Legends," Williams said that the pool sequence in "Poltergeist" took five days to film, adding that it was quite an arduous experience. She also, at the time, had assumed that the skeletons were props made out of plastic or rubber, adding:

"I later found out, as did the whole crew, that they were using real skeletons. Because it's far too expensive to make skeletons out of rubber and stuff. And I think everybody goy very creeped out by the idea of that."

Of course, most of the "Poltergeist" special effects and makeup technicians were aware they were real skeletons. Furthermore, as Reardon points out in "Cursed Films," real skeletons have been in common usage since the early days of cinema. He added that the idea of the skeletons being linked to the tragic deaths of two of the movie's stars is "personally offensive" and went on the record to correct the online contingent of people who think the skeletons instigated a "curse," saying:

"Here's something I guess they don't know: That's the fact that human skeletons have been used in movies for years and years. William Castle, who's kind of a beloved figure, he makes a film called 'House on Haunted Hill,' and at the end of that movie, Vincent Price makes a skeleton emerge from a vat of (supposedly) acid. The skeleton wobbles toward his virago of a wife. That was a real skeleton, too. It was a skeleton rigged up like a marionette."

And yet, no one accuses the "House on Haunted Hill" franchise of being cursed, even though one of the original film's stars, Alan Marshal, died of a heart attack two years after making it, while another cast member, Carolyn Craig, died by suicide in 1970. These are just tragic and very personal stories.

Reardon also mentioned another classic example of a real skeleton being on camera. Specifically, there's a scene at the beginning of James Whale's 1931 "Frankenstein" film adaptation where the character Fritz (Dwight Frye) steals a brain from a lab and bumps into a mounted skeleton behind him, causing it to bounce on a spring. As Reardon put it:

"I hate to disillusion you, those real human skeletons. Because no low-budget B-film is going to pay anybody to sculpt a human skeleton when all you had to do was go to a biological supply house and get a human skeleton. Wake up and smell the budget. that's really the way it worked. The idea of having a few on the set of 'Poltergeist' and killing two lovely young girls is a pretty pernicious idea."

Reardon added that blaming skeletons for O'Rourke's death was pretty gross and doubly so for Dunne whose death, he noted, "had f***-all to do with skeletons." Also, "Frankenstein" isn't "cursed." Co-star Colin Clive passed away in 1937 of tuberculosis, but it was due to his alcoholism. Actors die. We should mourn them. Skeletons are just movie props and can typically be found at supply stores that provide biological samples for doctor's offices. Heck, the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland once included real skeletons (and possibly still does).

That said, there may be some ethical complications over where those skeletons originate. As a 2023 piece by HuffPo pointed out, there are no laws in the United States concerning the acquiring and selling of human remains for educational purposes. And if the educational supply companies can make a few bucks on the side selling bones to movie studios, they will. So, chances are, if you've seen a realistic skeleton in a film, it once belonged to someone.