Real-life 'Poltergeist' Scary Video Prank Terrifies These Poor Unsuspecting Brazilian Babysitters

Lets face it, trying to get a convincing scary video prank to work on TV usually turns out pretty lame, probably because of all the health & safety law restrictions that would be broken if, you know, you were out to scare the crap out of your victims.

But thankfully this does not seem to apply at all for TV shows in South America where it seems the scarier the better. It's looks as if their audience has an insatiable appetite for watching people literally scaring themselves to death in some pretty elaborate situations.

Enter stage left Brazilian TV show Programma Silvio Santos who know how to do a scary prank or two—after terrifying people on the subway with a convincing ghost stunt and doing the same with zombies, they've now turned to recreating the movie Poltergeist IRL to petrify unsuspecting babysitters.

This elaborate scary video prank involves an entire living room set being built and hidden cameras installed so they can record the terror they've unleashed. Which means spooking the babysitters by pretending there's some supernatural goings on—flickering lights, trees crashing through windows—when the kid they're looking after disappears into the TV.

It's all very amusing to watch from our perspective, but just think of those poor babysitters.

They'll probably never babysit again. And they definitely won't be able to stare at a static TV screen without lapsing into a paralyzing flashback. Yep, scary video pranks rock!