Remake Director Gil Kenan Talks Legendary Poltergeist Curse
John Squires
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It’s likely that everyone reading this is familiar with the alleged “Poltergeist Curse,” which suggests that an evil force is attached to the franchise. Several stars, including young Heather O’Rourke, lost their lives way too soon, and various on-set occurrences have lent credence to the legend.
Remake director Gil Kenan (Monster House) participated in one of Reddit’s Ask Me Anything sessions earlier this week, and when asked by a fan if any strange activity carried over to the filming of the modern day upgrade, Kenan had some very interesting things to say.
“This is a 2 part answer,” Kenan replied. “The first part is that the location for the house, during shooting, I chose because it had a strange and unnecessary field that the houses of this particular community were built around. And we found – throughout production – that we had persistent and repeatable equipment [failure] only on that strange plot of land. For instance, lights that could turn on anywhere else in the neighborhood would blow out the second you’d try to light them on this plot.”
“Also, I used a lot of aerial drone photography in the film, and the drone-pilots were never able to lock in the GPS signal in this field. We would have to move 10 feet away to launch the craft. I was too afraid to find out what the land used to be. We filmed outside of Toronto, somewhere between Buffalo, New York, and Toronto, Ontario, in a town called Hamilton.”
Related Story: 8 Horror Films Plagued by Real-Life Death Curses
“The second part of that answer is that the house that I rented during filming was straight-up legit haunted by a female spirit dressed in black. And I became aware of her within the first few days of staying in the house. And only after I left did I receive a call from the previous owner, who had moved back in, who was terrified by the goings-on in the house, and wanted to see if I had experienced any of it. So it was an incredible real-life inspiration for filming that followed me home. Well, I mean, she definitely was there. It didn’t follow me back to Los Angeles, but it followed me from set back to where I was sleeping during filming.”
A clever marketing stunt, or does the Poltergeist Curse really exist? We’ll leave that for you to decide.
Poltergeist is set for release on May 22, 2015.
In the film, which is to be released in 3D, Jared Harris plays Carrigan, a larger than life TV personality who left the world of academia behind to become the star host of basic cable TV show “Haunted House Cleaners.” Sam Rockwell, Rosemarie DeWitt, Saxon Sharbino, and Jane Adams also star. Gil Kenan directs.
For more info visit the official Poltergeist website, “like” Poltergeist on Facebook, and follow Poltergeist on Twitter.
Synopsis:
Legendary filmmaker Sam Raimi (producer) reimagines and contemporizes the classic tale about a family whose suburban home is invaded by angry spirits. When the terrifying apparitions escalate their attacks and take the youngest daughter, the family must come together to rescue her.
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