Movies
We Almost Got a ‘Poltergeist’ Prequel All About Reverend Kane?!
“You’re gonna die in there! All of you!”
Whether you revisited Poltergeist 2 on Scream Factory’s brand new Blu-ray this week or you haven’t watched it since you were a kid, I’m willing to bet you have a vivid memory of the film’s antagonist, Reverend Henry Kane. Played by Julian Beck, who was dying at the time the sequel was shot (he was diagnosed with stomach cancer two years before production began), Reverend Kane is undoubtedly one of the most bone-chilling villains in the entire history of the horror genre; and now that he’s in high-def, he’s surely giving the world nightmares all over again.
But did you know that Reverend Kane almost got his own prequel?
As relayed in Poltergeist 2, the backstory of Reverend Kane is nothing if not an interesting one. A reverend/cult leader in the early 19th century, Kane led his followers underground by telling them that the apocalypse was near, but it was all a lie. Kane’s real plan? To kill them all and then himself, allowing him to harvest their souls and, in the process, gain supernatural powers. Sort of like Freddy Krueger, Kane was so evil that in death he did indeed obtain otherworldly powers, transforming into the inhuman “Beast”… the nightmarish apparition in the original Poltergeist.
As it turns out, Kane’s doomsday hideout was directly underneath the Freeling family’s home, which serves to explain why Kane targeted Carol Anne across the three films in the Poltergeist franchise; he sensed her supernatural abilities and planned on using her to draw more souls to himself and become even stronger. Cause ya know, I’m pretty sure that’s how that all works.
It’s all compelling stuff from a storytelling standpoint, and according to an industry insider by the name of Macklin Crux, Kane’s backstory was at one point going to be given its own film.
As relayed by Poltergeist 3: The Website, Crux says it was being developed in the early ’90s:
I was at Universal in the early ’90s and I heard about Poltergeist 4. Someone told me about a new script that was being developed about the pre-story: Kane and his followers. Kane was a healer (like an exorcist), a good-looking man who was a preacher who had fallen and was going to go to California to rid himself of the “demons”. We were on the “western” lot when it came up. I remember “a Psychological thriller with less effects”.
He also notes that Kane’s backstory was going to tie him directly to Carol Anne:
The development would make some sort of connection to the Freeling family of the future. Carol Anne was the great-great grand daughter or something equally ridiculous. I don’t remember if someone suggested it or if it was part of the original story but the “Freeling Family” of the past escaped Kane at the end and were the only survivors. They were protected by an Indian medicine man. Sound Familiar? It should! This was originally part of the original Poltergeist property and elements (Kane, Indian medicine man, Family Clairvoyance, etc) were incorporated into Poltergeist 2.
Horror fans tend to have an aversion to origin stories, as they mostly accomplish the undesirable goal of making villains less scary, but if you’re asking me, a Reverend Kane prequel would’ve been an interesting way to breathe new life into the franchise. The character is the most compelling aspect of Poltergeist 2, and his backstory is certainly meaty enough to warrant its own film.
Alas, the idea seems to have been killed before a script was ever written.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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