Poltergeist curse

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The Poltergeist curse is an urban legend that a supposed curse is/was attached to the Poltergeist motion picture series and its stars.

The idea that the casts of the several movies in the series were in some way cursed is a superstition based on these facts: five of the cast members from these movies died, and two of these five died at a young age (12 and 22). It is not clear that these particular films are atypical in the number or nature of the deaths of their actors.

In Poltergeist's case, those associated with the film who died prematurely include:

• Dominique Dunne, 22-year-old actress who played the oldest sister Dana in the first movie, died after being choked by a jealous boyfriend in 1982. The boyfriend was later convicted and sentenced to six years in prison.
• Heather O'Rourke, 12-year-old actress who played Carol Anne in the three Poltergeist movies, died in 1988 after what doctors initially described as an acute form of influenza but later changed to septic shock after bacterial toxins invaded her bloodstream.
• Julian Beck, 60-year-old who played Kane in Poltergeist II: The Other Side, died of stomach cancer, with which he was diagnosed before he had accepted the role.
• Will Sampson, 53 years old, who played Taylor the Medicine Man in Poltergeist II, died of post-operative kidney failure and pre-operative malnutrition problems.
• Brian Gibson, 59 years old, director of Poltergeist II, died 4 January 2004 from Ewing's Sarcoma.

Other legends surrounding the film have pointed to a potential cause of the curse. The most widely blamed alleges that real human skeletal remains were used as props in the first film, causing the angry spirits of the deceased to wreak havoc. On this theory, also "survivor" actress JoBeth Williams has pointed out in television interviews (most notably the E! True Hollywood Story episode "The Curse of Poltergeist") that she was actually told that the skeletons used in the well-known swimming pool scene in the first Poltergeist film were real.

Other occurrences that have been attributed to the curse include:

• The "Freeling" home in Southern California where the original film was partially shot was damaged by the Northridge earthquake in 1994.
• During a photography session for Poltergeist III, it was discovered that one shot of another "survivor" co-star Zelda Rubenstein had shining light obstructing the view of her face. Rubenstein claims the photo was taken at the moment her real-life mother died.
• During the making of Poltergeist III, a movie set of a parking garage was completely engulfed by fire during shooting of a fire scene, from which only one crew member escaped without a scratch.

The Poltergeist series is just one of a handful of movies and TV series that have been said to have been cursed. Others include Rebel Without a Cause, The Exorcist, Diff'rent Strokes, The Crow, In the Heat of the Night, and various Superman-related series and films.