It Came From the ‘80s is a series that pays homage to the monstrous, deadly, and often slimy creatures that made the ‘80s such a fantastic decade in horror.
The Poltergeist series is one of diminishing returns, at least in terms of narrative. By the third entry, the premise is that poor Carol Anne’s parents could no longer stomach the paranormal trouble that came with raising her and sent her off to live with Diane’s sister Pat (Nancy Allen) and her husband Bruce (Tom Skerritt). Or at least that’s what Pat surmises, though they have no awareness of the events of the previous films. While the backdrop has shifted dramatically from California suburbs to Chicago high-rises, Reverend Kane, now played by Nathan Davis, has no trouble acclimating in his continued pursuit of Carol Anne (Heather O’Rourke). While the overarching story might have waned, the series never wavers in its dedication to special effects. Poltergeist III impressively achieves a lot on a reduced budget.
After Poltergeist II, MGM approached Gary Sherman (Dead & Buried, Raw Meat) to tackle the sequel. There was no story in place, and the only criteria was that it centered around Carol Anne in an entirely new environment. Sherman brought in Brian Taggert (Visiting Hours, Of Unknown Origin) to co-write the script. From the writing stage, Sherman planned out the visuals and effects. All of the special effects were handled during production; there were nearly no VFX done during post-production, a first in this series. Handling the effects live like this made the production extremely complicated.
That doesn’t even touch upon the troubled production this franchise had developed a reputation for, dubbed the “Poltergeist curse,” that began with the death of actress Dominique Dunne after the release of the first film. As for Poltergeist III, the arduous shoot proved extra tricky due to a fire that broke out in the parking garage, Zelda Rubinstein suffered a death in her family, and Sherman had to navigate his duties from the confines of a wheelchair after breaking his foot. Then there’s the tragic passing of lead star Heather O’Rourke, who died not even a month after her twelfth birthday.
Her death came a few months into post-production, after Sherman and the studio had decided to reshoot the ending with a different special effects sequence. The news made Sherman extremely reluctant to continue, though studio pressures overruled his hesitance. For the new conclusion, they used a stand-in for O’Rourke, and special makeup effects designers John Caglione Jr. (C.H.U.D., Dick Tracy) and Doug Drexler (C.H.U.D., Battlestar Galactica) had only twelve days to prep. That gave them just under two weeks to create two desiccated corpses and a plan to handle the on-screen mummification of Kane’s head after Pat knocks it off his shoulders with a shovel. Sherman was adamant that it be handled live without any stop-motion.
For the effect, the special makeup effects team layered thin wax over actor Davis’s (fake) face, which in turn was layered upon a corpse-like articulated face that had been sculpted by legendary effects artist Dick Smith. Once the cameras were rolling, the layers were melted away under severe heat blasts. A re-edited cut of the film with the new ending was submitted to the MPAA, who bumped the film from a PG to a PG-13 rating.
In the end, Poltergeist III proved to be a box office and critical failure. Whether you’re a fan of the direction the sequel took or not, it’s hard not to marvel at its ambition. Sherman’s dedication to handling the effects live and all of the hurdles that came with that is nothing short of impressive.
