Thread by @john_murdy

Happy Monday Boils & Ghouls! Playing Zoom bingo to help raise money for my kids Gaelic Football team later (that’s a sentence you could only write during the pandemic) so going to try and take you through 2018’s Poltergeist now...as Zoom Bingo takes a lot of concentration...

The facade for Poltergeist was the Freeling house, which I thought Chris and team did an excellent job of recreating for the maze. The real house where they filmed is in Simi Valley, Ca and still looks pretty much the same (last time I checked). Here’s the house before and after.

Stepping inside the house you encounter that iconic shot of Carol Anne in front of the TV talking to the ghosts in the static. This was the shot on the movie poster for the film so we recreated it as per the film. It’s a slow burn with no other scares. Again here’s before & after

The next scene was an artistic interpretation of the static hand coming through the TV screen, like it tries to grab Carol Anne in the film. This is our stretch screen effect with a performer wearing a dye sublimation printed glove with extended fingers.

When we were building the next scene, the kitchen, I suddenly realized, “I built this whole set just to have a piece of rotten meat travel a few inches across the kitchen counter!” Seemed kind of crazy but there was a lot else going on in the scene...

First there was the stacked kitchen chairs, which foreshadows the paranormal activity going on in the house. Here’s the chairs when were building the scene, under show lighting and the chairs as they improbably scaring two girls during the show!

There was also the TV set on the counter, through which you hear the voice of Carol Anne. In addition to providing plot exposition about Carol Anne trapped in the spirit realm and searching for her mother...it also did a nice job of lighting the crawling meat!

And speaking of the rotten meat, here’s the original sculpt and the finished product. This was a puppeted effect with the performer’s body hidden by the kitchen counter and cabinets. Nifty piece of puppeting!

One of my favorite scenes in the film was where the paranormal researcher Marty rips all the flesh from his face! We designed the scene so you’d see the character from behind with his face reflected in the mirror before he turns and reveals himself to you!

Here’s the original concept art for Marty...

Here’s the make up artists painting the masks...

And here’s the final masks...

This takes you into Robbie and Carol Anne’s bedroom to recreate the moment where the tree branches (looking like a hand) crash through the bedroom window. Here’s some shots of the set I took before we opened...

And here’s the same set under show lighting during the event...the tree was another puppeted effect being controlled by a performer off set.

This scene also featured the first appearance of Robbie’s clown doll in the maze, sitting in the chair. You’d run into him again a little later on...

We exit the kids’s room through the closet and hear Tangina warn us about a malevolent presence she calls “The Beast”...and then we meet The Beast! This was a giant 3D printed fibreglass skull created by Magee FX. Here’s some before and after pics

The closet connects to that weird spirit realm you only get a glimpse of in the film. For the maze we wanted to take you inside it, which was a spray foam environment we created. We decided to have Robbie’s clown be the scare in this scene...because...why not? Clowns are scary!

This meant we had to create a live performer version of the clown as well as the prop doll. Here’s the original sculpt and some final masks.

This connected right back to Robbie’s bedroom with all hell breaking loose, including Carol Anne’s bed moving by itself and another puppeted effect of the clown strangling Robbie popping out from under his bed!

Stepping into the hallway you encounter this beast, my favorite effect in the maze. This like all the creature effects was created by Magee FX and was controlled by a performer behind the door. Here’s the creature being installed and the final product under show lighting

The final sequence in the maze recreated the coffins of the abandoned graveyard bursting through the front lawn of the house. This was a combination of static figures and live performers so you didn’t know who was who or where the scare was coming from!

But there was still the “Final, Final Scare” (more corpses) and the “Final, Final, Final Scare” (another giant Beast head attack) before you reached the end of the maze! Here’s a look at some of those corpse masks.

Poltergeist Trivia - all the voices for the maze were recreated. I did Mr. Freeling, my sound designers son did Robbie, my daughter Izzy did Carol Anne and a talented actress friend perfectly recreated Tangina’s voice. Here’s a little snippet (with some HHN crowd noise).

And here’s me recording my daughter Izzy back in Ireland. She was just 5 years old at the time. What a trooper! Such a demanding director!