5. Poltergeist - The Super Bowl And The Death Of Heather O'Rourke
In 1982 Steven Spielberg co-wrote and produced the first film in the Poltergeist series. Note the date, 1982. The film spawned two sequels and even its own curse, apparently. The idea behind this stems from four of the trilogy's cast members dying in the six years between the first and third film. One theory suggests that this is because the first two films used real skeletons as props. This incident concerns the fourth death, of the youngest daughter in the first film, Carol Anne Freeling, played by Heather O'Rourke. Now, if you haven't seen Poltergeist then here's the gist. A family moves to a new home which is built upon an old Indian burial ground. The spirits within the ground don't take kindly to being lived on and haunt the family, creating a very spooky and intense film. Heather O'Rourke's character basically acts as the meeting point between our world and the spirit world, she's the little girl clinging to the TV on the promo posters. But perhaps the creepiest part of the film has nothing to do with all of that. In one scene we see a young boy, Robbie Freeling, played by Oliver Robins in bed and is then terrorised by a very creepy clown figure. But pay close attention to the poster behind him. It reads "Super Bowl XXII 1988." I'm not sure why Robbie has a poster pre-dating the super bowl by six years and as far as I know the film wasn't set in the future, it was set in 1982. So why is it there? Some say it's drawn by Robbie himself, imagining the future where he's old enough to play in the game itself. Regardless, fast forward to 1988. January 31st, 1988 in San Diego, California and Superbowl XXII. Somewhere else in San Diego, on the same day 12 year old actress Heather O'Rourke suddenly became ill and rushed to hospital, where she later died. Was it just an innocent set decoration? Or was it a cryptic message by Spielberg and co? Of course, the poster isn't exactly predicting the event, but the date and location is surely spookier than an actual Poltergeist.
Ian is a North Eastern lad who has written across a variety of mediums. An avid tea drinker with a custard cream addiction, Ian is the guardian of five foot tall inflatable penguin called Kevin.
