Heather O’Rourke – February 1, 1988
The young actress who played little Carol Anne Freeling died four months before the 1988 release of Poltergeist III. She was misdiagnosed as having Crohn’s Disease in 1987 but actually had congenital stenosis of the intestine. She died during surgery trying to repair an acute bowel obstruction caused by her condition. The film’s director, Gary Sherman, had to use a body double when the studio forced him to re-shoot the film’s ending.
Some people believe that the curse stems from the use of actual human remains during the filming of the infamous pool scene from the first film and some scenes from the second. Add to the fact that JoBeth Williams (the mother in the first two films) claimed that she would go home every day and find the pictures on her walls tampered with. A common belief is that one child actor died after each film shoot (this is not true). Some people may find this curse to be just superstition (or based on one too many coincidences), but you’ve got to admit that some of it is pretty creepy. What say you? Do you believe in curses? Is it odd that a film series that is about the negative ramifications of tampering with the dead actually tampered with the dead? No one will ever really know, but it’s a fascinating case nonetheless.
