The Curse Behind Poltergeist (1982)
MGMPoltergeist (1982) directed by Tobe Hooper and produced by Steven Spielberg.
1982’s Poltergeist was an instant success. Directed by Tobe Hooper of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre fame and written and produced by Hollywood legend Steven Spielberg, the film follows the middle-class Freeling family and the paranormal events that turn their lives upside down after the abduction of their daughter Carol Anne.
Like The Exorcist, Poltergeist terrified movie audiences, but its behind-the-scenes production issues and eerie coincidences led many to claim that the production itself was cursed.
Per Biography, these cursed film set allegations stem from several prominent deaths during and shortly after the production of the Poltergeist trilogy.
Perhaps the most tragic and surprising was the death of Heather O’Rourke, who played Carol Anne Freeling in the first Poltergeist film at just five years old. Five years after the film’s release, in 1987, O’Rourke was misdiagnosed with Crohn’s Disease, and a year later she collapsed and suffered a cardiac arrest. She was airlifted to a San Diego children’s hospital, but unfortunately died during an operation.
But O’Rourke was not the only Freeling family member to die unexpectedly. Dominique Dunne, who played older sister Dana Freeling, was brutally murdered by her ex-partner John Sweeney. In November 1982, Sweeney arrived at Dunne’s house and begged her to take him back. She refused, and in response, Sweeney choked her until she was unconscious, leaving her to die in her driveway.
He would only spend three years and seven months in prison.
In addition to O’Rourke and Dunne, two other cast members met untimely ends. The first was Julian Beck, who played the evil preacher Kane in Poltergeist II. Beck was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 1983, and succumbed to it shortly after filming his role in the second film. The other was Will Sampson, who played Taylor the shaman. Sampson died after undergoing a heart-lung transplant, an operation with a fairly low survival rate.
Rumors of a curse further proliferated when actress JoBeth Williams claimed Spielberg insisted on using real human skeletons as props on set, though this has never been proven true. Sampson, a real-life shaman, even performed an authentic exorcism after shooting wrapped one night.
