Inside The Haunting Experiences Poltergeist Actors Had At Their Homes

When it comes to paranormal horror flicks, "Poltergeist" is a classic. It has everything: ghosts, ghosts, and some more ghosts. If it weren't for this classic, prospective home buyers wouldn't know to inquire as to whether their new residence was built atop an Indian burial ground. The film was successful enough to prompt sequels, a novelization, and a remake in 2015.

With a horror movie, you can always click the television off if you creep yourself out. You can't do that when the paranormal intrudes on the real world. The film allegedly had some of that going on, to the point where some believe it to be cursed. There were numerous accidents and tragic deaths that followed the actors after the film was released. Possibly because Steven Spielberg, with both writing and producing credit on the film, had the bright idea of using real human skeletons as props, according to Snopes. It could explain the suspected hauntings that followed it as well.

The original may have caused hauntings

JoBeth Williams, who played Diane Freeling in the original 1982 "Poltergeist," had a unique and creepy occurrence while filming the movie. At the time, she was staying in a rented apartment in LA. In her Reddit AMA, Williams reports that every night when she returned home from filming, the pictures on her walls would be crooked. She'd straighten them, only to come back after work and find them crooked once again. She now says it was most likely caused by her slamming the front door when she left. The phenomenon only seemed creepy at the time because the movie required the actors to live in a mild state of fear that kept them "hypersensitive."

Williams wasn't alone. James Kahn, the author who wrote the novel based on the film, had his own experiences as well. As Yahoo! News reports, Kahn says his building was struck by lightning while he was finishing the novel. The face of the AC unit was sent flying across the room and smacked him in the back. That happens.

The remake was just as bad

The 2015 remake of "Poltergeist" had an even creepier situation take place. On his own Reddit AMA, director Gil Kenan says he was legitimately haunted while filming. The plot of land Kenan chose for the film was picked precisely because of unexplained phenomena associated with the property. He claims that electronic equipment would blow or fail only on that spot, while working fine on the surrounding properties. They used drone footage, but the drone couldn't pick up a GPS signal on the property. Lights would blow as soon as they were turned on. But that's not all.

During filming in Toronto, Kenan rented a house that he claims was haunted by the ghost of a woman dressed in black. Within a few days, he knew she was there. Kenan doesn't go into detail about what sort of things this spirit did while he lived there. He does claim that the previous owner of the house (who lives there again) called him. The topic? To discuss the haunting he himself was experiencing, and to ask if Kenan had experienced anything similar while staying there.

Or maybe the job just got to him.