A 'Poltergeist' Curse?

The three films of the Poltergeist series have been plagued by rumors of curses since the release of the original Poltergeist in 1982. In fact, it was the focus of an E! True Hollywood Story.

Among some of the eerie facts from the E! True Hollywood story, JoBeth Williams stated that producers told her the skeletons used in the famous swimming pool scene were, in fact, real skeletons.

Will Sampson was told that the skeletons used in Poltergeist II were also real. So Sampson performed an exorcism to cleanse the set.

Sounds to me like the producers just liked to mess with their actors.

But the main urban legend is that four of the stars of the series died of strange deaths. But in reality, two of the deaths were not all that strange. The website Snopes has explored the deaths and discovered that not much is out of the ordinary. They were just tragic.

Julian Beck, (creepy preacher Kane from Poltergeist II, pictured) died of stomach cancer on September 14,1985. He was 60. Ohhh spooky!

Will Sampson, (Indian spirit specialist Taylor from Poltergeist II) died on June 3, 1987, from heart/lung transplant surgery complications – severe pre-operative malnutrition and post-operative kidney failure along with a fungal infection. He was 53.

While both of the aforementioned older gentlemen’s deaths could easily be coincidences, it’s the deaths of the two young female stars that are somewhat ominous.

At the age of 22, Dominique Dunne (Dana from Poltergeist) was choked to death by her obsessive boyfriend, John Sweeney. Sweeney was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to only six years in prison. He was out in two and a half years.

Heather O'Rourke (Carol Anne from all three films) died near the end of filming Poltergeist III. In fact, a body double was used during the final scene of the film. (You only see said double from the back.) O’Rourke was diagnosed with what doctors thought was the flu, but turned out to be a bowel obstruction which caused toxins to enter her system. (The unoriginal misdiagnosis reeks of The Exorcist.) She died during an emergency procedure to remove said obstruction. She was only 12.

O’Rourke and Dunne are buried near each other in the Westwood Memorial Park cemetery in Los Angeles.

There are other “curse” related urban legends that revolve around Poltergeist ranging from first hand accounts to the utterly absurd.

JoBeth Williams (Diane Freeling) claimed that every day when she returned home from filming, pictures on her wall were always crooked. She would straighten them, only to find them crooked again the next day.

During the scariest Poltergeist scene, where Oliver Robins (Robbie Freeling) was choked by the creepy clown, Robins was reported to have been actually choked. Steven Spielberg even praised the young actor for his authenticity until he realized he was in real trouble.

One of the absurd theories involves a parking lot used to film a scene in Poltergeist III – the same space where the Utah Jazz basketball team plays their games. The “curse” apparently explains why the Jazz suck so much.

In you're interested, this website offers up a whole bunch of fun Poltergeist facts.

So, is there really a Poltergeist curse or are the events just a series of unfortunate coincidences? I would lean towards the latter.