Pete
Mr. Eighties
- Apr 29, 2023
- 6,033
- 383
Do any of you avid 80s followers know about the myth of the Poltergeist movie curse? It's pretty messed up and eerie.
The myth of the Poltergeist curse is often tied back to a pivotal scene where Diane Freeling, played by JoBeth Williams, ends up in a pool that's not yet completed, surrounded by human skeletons. Williams has mentioned she was unaware at the time of filming that the skeletons used as props were genuine. "I just thought the prop department created those skeletons," Williams shared with Vanity Fair in 2022. "Years later, I bumped into one of the guys from special effects and mentioned how impressive it was that they made all those skeletons. He corrected me, 'No, we didn't make them; they were real.' I was shocked. He confirmed, 'Yes, real skeletons.'"
During or shortly after the filming of the Poltergeist series, four cast members passed away, including Heather O'Rourke. In 1987, she was incorrectly diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. While working on Poltergeist III, her treatment included cortisone and sulfa, which initially caused her face to swell. By the fall of 1987, her cortisone treatment was gradually reduced. However, when she became ill again in January 1988, nearly a year after her diagnosis, her condition was thought to be flu-like by her doctors. Her illness worsened rapidly, and she experienced a cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital after collapsing at home. Although she was revived by doctors, she went into cardiac arrest again a few hours later during surgery to relieve a bowel obstruction and sadly did not survive. She was only 12 years old. Later reports revealed her actual condition was congenital stenosis of the intestine, further complicated by septic shock, not Crohn’s disease.
