8 Horror Movies With Creepy Urban Legends

3. The Cast Of The Poltergeist Movies Were Doomed

Rumours started to fly around about a curse on the films when, not long after the release of the first in the series, Dominique Dunne (the actress who played the eldest of the children in the film) was murdered. Only months before the release of Poltergeist II: The Other Side, Julian Beck, the actor who played the insane preacher who haunts young Carol Anne in the film, died of stomach cancer. The year after the release of the film, Will Sampson, who played the Native American shaman who was Beck'€™s nemesis in the film, died following a heart and lung transplant operation.

The fourth death was Carol Anne herself, Heather O€™'Rourke, the young heroine of all three of the films. Aged only twelve, poor Heather died during surgery on her bowel in 1988, only a few months before the release of the third and final film. It seems callous to say it,€“ but deaths happen. In the case of Beck and Sampson, neither was a young man.

Beck€™'s cancer was diagnosed before he accepted the role to play the evil spirit, and Sampson was frail and weak before he had the surgery, and was well aware of the risks going into the operation. Meanwhile, Dunne€™'s boyfriend, an abusive and violent man, was responsible for her death, strangling her and being convicted of manslaughter. The timing is certainly coincidental, but there€™'s no more to it than that.