Oct 29th, 2008 | By Lindsay | Category: Movie Locations
A few weeks ago I sent Mike from MovieShotsLA out to do a little Haunted Hollywood stalking for me. I had read online that the house from the original Poltergeist
movie (another horror flick I have yet to see!) is located in Simi
Valley, and since Mike was in the area, I asked him to run by and snap
some pics for me. As you can see from the above screen capture, the home
looks exactly the same today as it did 26 years ago when the movie was
filmed. The house actually looks like an average, everyday home that
could be located on any street in America, and I think that is exactly
why producers chose to use it. In fact, the voiceover in the trailer for the movie
says this: “The house looks just like the one next to it, and the one
next to that, and the one next to that. A couple lives in it with their
three children . . . and something more.” The normalcy of the house
makes the movie all the more scary.
Even though I have never actually seen Poltergeist, the movie has always intrigued me due to the rumored curse that has long been attached to it. Four actors from the Poltergeist trilogy passed away at fairly young ages causing many to believe the movies are cursed. The most tragic of the Poltergeist
deaths were, of course, the deaths of the two young girls who played
the Freeling family daughters. Dominique Dunne, who played Dana Freeling
in the movie and who was the real life daughter of author Dominick
Dunne, was strangled to death by her former boyfriend in the driveway of
her West Hollywood home on November 4, 1982, just a few months after
Poltergeist premiered. She was 22. Child star Heather O’Rourke, who
played younger daughter Carol Anne, passed away on February 1, 1988 due
to complications from cardiopulmonary arrest and intestinal stenosis.
She was 12. Ironically both girls are buried at the Pierce Brothers Westwood Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood. The other two Poltergeist
actors who passed away at fairly young ages both starred in the second
movie in the trilogy. Julian Beck, who played Kane, passed away from
cancer at the age of 60, and Will Sampson, who played Taylor, passed
away at 53 due to complications from surgery. Curse or no curse the
untimely passing of so many of the trilogy’s stars definitely adds an
amount of grim allure to the movie.
Big THANK YOU to Mike for taking the pics and stalking this location for me!
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: The Poltergeist house is located at 4267 Roxbury Street in Simi Valley.
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