It's
October. You getting in the spooky mood yet? We take a look at the
"Poltergeist Curse" and reveal all of the suspect deaths surrounding the
film series.
When your cherubic little daughter
communicates with spirits living inside your TV set, your backyard
becomes a swimming pool of muddy skeletons, there’s a wolf-beast-demon
living in your children’s closet, AND Steven Spielberg's genius gets into the mix—that’s a formula of blockbuster scariness.
And so it was. Released in 1982, the original Poltergeist,
directed by Tobe Hooper and produced by Spielberg, was an instant
success and is considered to be a masterpiece of American horror cinema.
The film focuses on the Freelings, a middle-class family (led by a
youthful, dashing Craig T. Nelson)
whose life is upturned when a number of paranormal and vicious events
occur in their California home and their daughter Carol Anne is abducted
through her bedroom closet by a group of ghosts who are under the
control of a monster demon called the “Beast.”
After
learning that their house sits atop a Native American burial ground,
the Freelings spend their time attempting to retrieve Carol Anne and all
the while stay sane as they get smacked around, terrorized, and
ultimately, “goobered” on in the bathtub.
The original Poltergeist was so successfully horrifying that two other installments followed: Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986) and Poltergeist III (1988)… but if you ask us, the original is the best.
With Poltergeist's success came a creepy mystique that the classic film is shrouded in real-life tragedies that some interpret as a curse.
Cast Deaths: Some Bizarre, Some Not
The majority of the fuel for the alleged curse
stems from the deaths of multiple cast members. In total, four cast
members died during and soon after the filming of the series. Two of
these tragic deaths were highly unexpected and puzzling, leading many
fans to speculate on the trilogy’s eerie implications.
Carol Anne Freeling, the young focal point of the series, was played by Heather O’Rourke. Only six years old when the first Poltergeist
film was released, O’Rourke captivated audiences with her stark blond
hair, doll-like appearance, and big, inquisitive eyes. Sadly, however,
she was misdiagnosed with Crohn’s Disease in 1987. The following year,
O’Rourke fell ill again, and her symptoms were casually attributed to
the flu. A day later, she collapsed and suffered a cardiac arrest. After
being airlifted to a children’s hospital in San Diego, O’Rourke died
during an operation to correct a bowel obstruction, and it was later
believed that she had been suffering from a congenital intestinal
abnormality. She will be, and has been, missed by fans around the world.
Dominique Dunne, who played the original older sister Dana Freeling, met
an equally tragic and unforeseen fate. In 1982 Dunne separated from her
partner, John Sweeney. In November of that year, he showed up at
Dunne’s house, pleading for her to take him back. When she refused,
Sweeney grabbed Dunne’s neck, choked her until she was unconscious, and
left her to die in her Hollywood home’s driveway. Sweeney was sentenced
to six and a half years in prison but was released after three years and
seven months.
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The other two cast member deaths, while unfortunate, were not as unpredictable or mysterious. The evil preacher Kane from Poltergeist II
was played by Julian Beck. In 1983, Beck had been diagnosed with
stomach cancer, which took his life soon after he finished work on the
second installment of the series. The same film was met with further
tragedy, after Will Sampson, who played Taylor the Native American
shaman, died after undergoing a heart-lung transplant, which had a very
slim survival rate.
Other Oddities
Cast deaths were not the only agents of the
curse’s proliferation, as other peculiar and creepy legends surround the
film franchise. JoBeth Williams, who played mom Diane Freeling in the
first two films, claimed that director Steven Spielberg insisted on
using actual human skeletons as props in an attempt to save money (at
the time, they were cheaper than plastic skeletons). Williams’s claim
has never been verified, but it persists to this day in the lore
surrounding the films’ curse.
Finally, in an
effort to further creep out everyone involved, Will Sampson, the
real-life medicine man who passed away due to circumstances mentioned
above, performed an authentic exorcism after shooting wrapped up one
night. One can only imagine how this made the other cast members feel.
Cursed or not, the Poltergeist trilogy is a hallmark of American horror. Do yourself a favor this Halloween. Indulge in one, or all, of the films’ thrills.
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