The Freelings are your normal, average, american family next door with a dog, a pool and 2 1/2 kids. All that is about to change. After Tweety, the family bird, dies (as canaries do), something awakens. A presence which wants to take hold in our world. It’s conduit is young Carol-Anne. Now, the family must bind together and fight to get Carol Anne back from the clutches of the spirits which dwell within the house. They’re not giving her back without a fight.
I first saw this movie in the mid 80’s after it came out on HBO, and it scared the hell out of me, leaving a lasting impression. I really can not explain how well done this movie is. Truly Spielberg at the top of this game. The acting from everyone involved is just excellent.. including James Karen, who is known, primarily for his role in B movies (such as Return of the Living Dead).
Of course, one of the infamous facts surrounding this film.. is the curse.
- JoBeth Williams had a supernatural experience during the making of the film. Whenever she came home from filming, the pictures on the walls of her house were crooked. Everytime she fixed them they would hang crooked again.
- Zelda Rubinstein also had an experience when a vision of her dog came to her and said goodbye to her. Hours later, her mother called her and told Rubinstein that her dog had passed away that very day.
- Dominique Dunne(Dana Freeling) was strangled by her former boyfriend in the driveway of her West Hollywood home on October 30, 1982 and, having been declared brain dead, died five days later at the age of 22
- Heather O’Rourke, who played Carol Anne in all three Poltergeist films, died on February 1, 1988 at the age of 12 during surgery to repair an acute bowel obstruction
