My wife passed me one of her magazines the other day. “Read that,” she said pointing at the page. So I did. It was an article about the Poltergeist films. I thought it was very interesting. According to the article there are a lot of people who believe that all three of the films were cursed because five of the cast members have died.
Dominique Dunne, the twenty two-year-old actress who played Dana in the first movie died in 1982 after being choked by her jealous boyfriend.
Julian Beck, who played the very scary minister, Kane, in Poltergeist II died of stomach cancer. He was aged 60.
Will Sampson, who played Taylor, the medicine man who liked the troubled Freeling family’s car so much in Poltergeist II, died of post-op kidney failure and pre-op malnutrition problems in 1987.
Heather O’Rourke, who played Carol Ann in all three movies died in 1988, aged only 12.
Brian Gibson, who directed Poltergeist II died in 2004 from Ewing’s Sarcoma.
Personally, I think it is probably just coincidence. People die all of the time and death is, sadly, a fact of life. But I had never heard anything before about a supposed curse and so I did a few Google searches. Google came up with the goods and there is any amount of information available on the subject. So I guess a lot of people must believe it. On the net, however, it usually just refers to four deaths. Director, Brian Gibson does not seem to be included. Nor, in my opinion should he be, I mean, come on, he died in 2004, 18 years after the release of Poltergeist II (1986). That’s a long time.
Apparently Julian Beck’s condition had been diagnosed in 1983, long before he accepted the role in Poltergeist II, so that would discount him, somewhat, I would think.
There must be a lot of people involved in the production of a film. What with the lighting guys, the make-up assistants, the grips, the stunt men etc it must come to triple figures and so even if you wanted to say that five died; as a percentage, it is rather low. Much to low for any self-respecting curse to lay claim to.
Two of the most interesting online sources I found were Wikipedia (HERE) and Snopes.com (HERE). The Wikipedia article even makes mention of a rumour that the films were cursed because real skeletons were used in the production of the first Poltergeist film. I somehow doubt very much that such a thing could be true. But who knows. Only in Hollywood, as they say.