Hollywood is full of True Horror stories, and they really are true as the scrips are totally horrible! Simply adding the words “bases on true events” attracts a lot of audience. But most of the horror movies are simply works of imagination and the scripts written over a bottle of wine.
However, the Steven Spielberg horror film, Poltergeist does make one wonder if it is all just a coincidence or something really paranormal was happening. The movie is set in a house that is built on an ancient Burial ground, now from an unbiased point of view, this could be just a fake fact that was circulated to hype the film. Okay, we can let that go, for now, continuing with the premise of the story, Carol Anne is the youngest daughter of the family who is gifted with a special ability that connects her to the spiritual world and is haunted by the evil spirits that are buried under the house. There is also a doomsday cult leader named Kane who haunts her in the movie.
All good, a few strange instances during filming but nothing to be taken seriously. The real events start after the movie was released.
Death of Dominique Young
Dominique Young plays the role of Carol’s elder sister, shortly after the release of the movie, she was killed by her boyfriend, named John Thomas Sweeney. John strangled her, leading to a 5-day admission for life support after which she died- As per an article by the New York Times.
John was charged for killing her in 1983, this could’ve been a personal issue that led to such violent results, but the list goes on.
Death of Julian Beck
The role of the doomsday cult leader was played by Julian Beck. He was the second person in the movie to die. Julian did act on in the sequel of the movie but unfortunately, did not survive long enough to watch it after completion. He died at 60 on September 14, 1985, as per New York Times.
Although, Julian did have stomach cancer the timing of his death is a little weird and does make one wonder since as we go further you will find out who else connected to the film died.
Death of Will Sampson
Now, things will start to get weird as we talk about a third death from the crew. Will Sampson played the role of a friendly ghost named Taylor in the sequel of the film. As per The Herald Journal, Sampson died at the age of 53, the cause of his death was an illness aroused by chronic degenerative condition. He passed away on June 3, 1987.
In a very short span of time 3 people related to the film died, now this does start feeling a little paranormal. Or at least a very weird coincidence, but wait for who died next.
Heather O’Rourke’s Death
Adorable blue eyes, a little angel of a child, passes away at 12 suddenly. Who is this child? She’s the lead character who played Carol Anne. Everybody could feel their heart pounding as she says the words, “They’re here”. There are literally stories of people pissing their pants while watching the movie or getting into a shock-like state caused by paranoia.
While officially it is claimed by LA Times that she had Crohn’s disease and passed away during the surgery, but come to think of it. Isn’t it way too much to be a coincidence that 4 people associated with the film died within a span of 6 years?
Heather was pronounced dead on February 1, 1988.
Her death made people feel that there was seriously something cursed about the movie. But it’s not just the audience, even the crew that made a remake of the film in 2015 on the same location felt some paranormal activities.
Poltergeist Remake 2015
Filmmakers tried to take advantage of rumors attached to the cursed film and its location. A remake was done featuring Sam Rockwell and Rosemarie DeWitt.
Director, Gil Kenan wrote on a Reddit AMA, “Lights that could turn on anywhere else in the neighborhood would blow out the second you’d try to light them on (the set). Also, I used a lot of aerial drone photography in the film, and the drone pilots were never able to lock in the GPS signal in this field. We would have to move 10 feet away to launch the craft.”
