They're
baaaaack – and they're rebooted.
In theaters Friday, May 22, the latest Hollywood horror reboot takes 1982's
Poltergeist – the chilling tale of a suburban family battling evil spirits – and updates it for 2015.
Sam Rockwell and
Rosemarie DeWitt step into the parental roles played in the original films by
Craig T. Nelson and
JoBeth Williams. Although we're excited for the new
Poltergeist, its release has also made us nostalgic for the original movie and its sequels.
If you're also feeling like you could use a catch-up with the
Freeling family, have a read through our list of things you probably
didn't know about the original
Poltergeist trilogy.
1. It was released one week before E.T. hit theaters.
What a week to be a movie lover:
Poltergeist hit theaters on June 4, 1982, and
E.T. on June 11. Can you imagine seeing both for the first time, back-to-back? And can you imagine what it must have been like for
Steven Spielberg, who directed the latter and wrote and produced the former?
2. Unless Steven Spielberg directed Poltergeist too ...
One of the two persistent rumors about
Poltergeist is that Spielberg directed it, not the man credited,
Tobe Hooper of
Texas Chainsaw Massacre fame. It's a long and involved story about Hollywood politics and the intricacies of filmmaking – it's all recapped at length
on this Poltergeist fan site – and nothing anyone says seems to put the matter to rest one way or the other.
3. Drew Barrymore auditioned for the role of Carol Anne.
Of course, the role ended up going to Heather O'Rourke. But
Spielberg saw to it that audiences still got to see Barrymore in all
her moppet-y glory anyway thanks to
E.T.
4. It was nominated for three Oscars.
Poltergeist scored nominations for Best Sound Editing, Best Visual Effects and Best Original Score – but lost all three to
E.T.
5. JoBeth Williams claims the pool scene used real skeletons.
It sounds like an urban legend along the lines of
the Three Men and a Baby ghost, but JoBeth Williams seemed to confirm the longstanding rumor that the skeletons were real when she discussed the scene on
I Love the '80s.
It boggles the mind how that could be the case – where would one even
buy skeletons? – but it's almost notable in itself that Williams is
saying it's true.
6. It's one of the highest-grossing horror movies ever.
Adjusted for inflation,
Poltergeist raked in $209.8 million domestically,
according to Business Insider. The No. 1 fright fest adjusted for inflation?
Jaws.
7. It's only rated PG, in spite of the "raw meat" scene.
The above clip is very much
not PG movie material.
But because the PG-13 rating didn't come about until 1984, the movie's
creators appealed the initial R rating and got it reduced to what was
then the next-lowest, ensuring that a generation of kids would be
forever freaked out by bathroom mirrors.
8. And then there's the curse.
The other rumor surrounding the
Poltergeist movies is that a vaguely defined curse associated with the cast resulted in the deaths of four actors, including
Dominique Dunne and Heather O'Rourke, who played the Freeling daughters. Just try to talk about
Poltergeist
without someone bringing it up, no matter how silly or tacky it is or
how much it diminishes from the real-life tragedies that claimed these
actors' lives.
9. The death of Dominique Dunne:
The daughter of author Dominic Dunne and sister of actor
Griffin Dunne, Dominique played the oldest Freeling daughter, Dana. She
was rehearsing for the miniseries
V with costar David Packer on
Oct. 30, 1982, when her ex-boyfriend John Sweeney came to the house.
Dunne and Sweeney argued, and he strangled her. Dunne, 22, never
regained consciousness and was taken off life support on Nov. 4. Her
character is not mentioned in the sequel.
10. The death of Will Sampson:
In
Poltergeist II: The Other Side, the Freelings are aided by a Native American medicine man, Taylor, played by
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
actor Will Sampson. A year after the sequel hit theaters, Sampson died
of complications from a long-term chronic degenerative condition that
had left his body unable to recover from a heart and lung transplant.
He was 53.
11. The death of Julian Beck:
When people talk about the
Poltergeist curse, they often mention that Julian Beck, who played the big bad in
Poltergeist II,
died during the filming. He did – on Sept. 14, 1985, of stomach cancer.
However, Beck's death wasn't exactly unexpected: He actually signed on
to the film knowing his cancer diagnosis.
12. The death of Heather O'Rourke:
The breakout star of the
Poltergeist movies, O'Rourke
died at age 12
as a result of a heart attack caused by a bowel obstruction that had
been previously misdiagnosed. Her death was an unequivocal tragedy, and
the fact that she died mere months before
Poltergeist III hit theaters made the film difficult to promote.
The L.A. Times
reported that MGM Studios told the film's surviving stars, Nancy Allen
and Tom Skerritt, not to give interviews promoting the movie, just to
avoid the appearance that anyone was trying to capitalize on O'Rourke's
death.
13. The ending sequence for Poltergeist III was re-filmed without Heather O'Rourke.
Plans were in place before O'Rourke's death to reshoot the
finale with different special effects, and when O'Rourke died
unexpectedly stand-ins had to be used for the final cut of the film.
14. O'Rourke was buried in the same cemetery as Dominique Dunne.
The graves for both actresses can be found in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.
15. Dominique Dunne's presence is not completely absent from the third movie, however.
Despite not getting mentioned at all in the second
Poltergeist movie, Dunne's character gets referenced in the third, albeit indirectly.
Lara Flynn Boyle
plays Carol Anne's cousin, and she's a "big sister" type to Carol Anne.
Her character name, Donna, is similar to both Dunne's given name and
the name of her character in the first film, Dana.
16. Siskel and Ebert were not fans of the third movie.
Among their quibbles with
Poltergeist III was a peculiar tendency for characters to
cry out Carol Anne's name incessantly. As this clip demonstrates, yeah, that name gets said
a lot.
17. There's a connection to Disneyland's Haunted Mansion.
After actor Julian Beck died, voice actor Corey Burton stepped in for some of Beck's post-production work. Burton has
an extensive career including many Disney cartoons, but in the context of
Poltergeist,
it's interesting to note that he's now the voice of the Haunted
Mansion's "ghost host" who welcomes Disneyland-goers to the attraction.
Standing in contrast to the illogical "
Poltergeist
is cursed" theory is the fact that it sparked the Hollywood career of
Zelda Rubinstein, who played Tangina the psychic. In this 1981 Huell
Howser interview, Rubinstein was a complete unknown.
Poltergeist was her first major movie, and she acted for more than two decades before her death in 2010 at 76.
19. But Zelda Rubinstein's performance in Poltergeist III was either terrific or decidedly not terrific, apparently.
For her work in the final film, Rubinstein got the unique
honor of being nominated both for a Saturn Award for Best Supporting
Actress and a Razzie for Worst Supporting Actress. So … your call, then?
20. There was a TV show, but it doesn't have anything to do with the movies.
Poltergeist: The Legacy
ran for four seasons. It couldn't have less to do with the Freeling
family and their troubles, however. One episode, "The Reckoning," did
feature Zelda Rubinstein though – but not as Tangina.
