Steven Spielberg decided to write a script for a film about angry spirits after a real nightmare he experienced in his own home, from where he hurried to leave after a personal "acquaintance" with ghosts. However, he could not imagine what his desire to film his own fears would lead to!
Writer James Kahn was assigned to "novelize" the script. And when he, sitting at the table in his office, wrote: "Thunder roared, and a bright lightning tore the night sky," - thunder really roared in the street and a real lightning hit his house!
From her impact on the air conditioner, which was behind Kahn's back, the apparatus shattered into dozens of pieces, and one of them, the largest, hit right in the writer's back. After that, Kahn spent several months in the clinic, talking in a hospital bed about the nature of coincidence.
The next "coincidence" is that the director's chair Spielberg, already as a producer, offered Tobe Hooper, who at that time managed to shoot several bloody horror films about maniacs, including The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Hooper enthusiastically seized on the offer, because he had long dreamed of making a picture based on … his personal experience!
The fact is that, while still a teenager, he was personally convinced of the existence of a poltergeist. After the death of his father, strong knocks on the walls were heard in his house for several weeks, the doors opened and closed by themselves, various pieces of furniture flew through the air, but most often plates of food. Quite a few other paranormal events took place.
The first "Poltergeist", as fans of horror movies know, was released in 1982 and told about the Freilling family living in the suburbs. One day they discover that strange things are happening in their house - the TV turns on at night, furniture moves independently, coffins and a monstrous demon appear in the swimming pool.
One night, a gnarled tree growing in the courtyard kidnaps young Robbie. While the parents are busy rescuing the boy, their youngest daughter, Carol Ann, disappears. She is abducted by supernatural beings from the TV …
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During the filming, it was only by a fluke that the young actor Oliver Robins, who played Robbie Frieling, did not die. In the scene with the clown, when the toy attacks him and begins to strangle him, at the most crucial moment something wedged in the robot, and he squeezed Oliver's throat so tightly that he began to choke for real.
Spielberg and Hooper, who were on the set, at the same time noted that Robinet was playing just fine and even … turned blue for real! At that moment, they finally realized that the actor was already losing consciousness, Spielberg rushed to the rescue and literally wrested Robins from the clutches of death. Already after the incident, the actor, rubbing his throat, suggested that the toy clown took revenge on him, since since childhood he suffered from co-ulrophobia - a fear of clowns.
To the music of death
The film was wildly popular with viewers, surpassing its small budget of $ 10.7 million at the world box office almost twelve times, and the two heroines of the film, the Frilling sisters, played by Dominica Dunn and Heather O'Rourke, all prophesied great a cinematic future.
Inspired by the success, the management of the Metro-GoldwinMayer film company decided to make a sequel to Poltergeist with the same actors. On the evening of October 30, 1982, 22-year-old Dominica Dunn was rehearsing at her Los Angeles home located at 8723 Rangely Drive, one of the scenes of "Poltergeist 2". Actor David Packer helped her. To get a better sense of the plot, a disc with the soundtrack to the first "Poltergeist" by composer Jerry Goldsmith was put on the turntable.
At this time, John Sweeney, the actress's boyfriend, arrived. Dominica had long wanted to break up with him and immediately told him everything she thought about him. A verbal squabble ensued. The girl offered to go out to swear on the street. There, former lovers began to shout loudly at each other. To drown out their screams, David Packer turned on the music at full volume and … did not hear the girl crying for help! Sweeney just strangled her to the terrible music of "Poltergeist"!
The trial was loud and quick. The report from it was conducted live for one of the central US television channels by the father of the deceased actress - the famous journalist Dominic Dunn. By the way, he died of cancer in August 2009.
Spooky final chord
By a strange coincidence, it was on the day of Dominica Dunn's death that the producers announced the start of filming for Poltergeist 2: The Other Side! The death of the actress confused all the cards, and only a few years later the acting group gathered again. This time, the audience was faced with the magic of the American Indians. The Frillings move from California to Arizona after their former home in Costa Verde was blown up by intruders from the other world.
However, the spirits of the dead do not abandon their intentions to get Carol Ann, the Frellings' clairvoyant daughter. Under the leadership of Kane, a demon in the guise of a preacher, evil ghosts again try to lure Carol Ann to the "other side" …
A few months before the end of filming, Julian Beck, who played the demon Kane in the film, died of stomach cancer (which he was diagnosed with immediately after filming the first "Poltergeist"). As a result, the role had to be “played out” by the inanimate double created by the designers. Work on Poltergeist 3 began soon after, although there was a point of view on the sidelines of Metro Goldwyn Meyer that the new film would bring another misfortune and that the idea should have been abandoned.
In the third episode, in order to deceive evil spirits, the parents of the young Carol Ann Frilling decided to hide her with relatives living in one of the skyscrapers of Chicago. Before filming began, during a photo shoot, the face of actress Zelda Rubinstein in one of the pictures turned out to be half exposed. There was no question of hack-work - a professional photographer was engaged in shooting! There were also no complaints about the equipment. How could this have happened? Or was it a sign ?!
It soon became clear that just in the second when the photographer pressed the camera release, Zelda's mother died! After her went to the other world 53-year-old Will Sampson, who played in the second "Poltergeist" Indian shaman Taylor and is also known to everyone as the creator of the image of the leader in Foreman's film "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." He died of kidney failure after heart surgery.
Well, the "final chord" of the completion of the film was the death of twelve-year-old Heather O'Rourke, the main character of all three "Poltergeists". In 1988, she was admitted to San Diego Hospital. It was discovered that the girl suffered from a congenital stomach defect. And no one in the family ever knew anything about it! As soon as the operation began, Heather passed away, four months before the film premiere. They buried her in the same cemetery as Dominica Dunn.
Spielberg put a cross on the film
Steven Spielberg was repeatedly asked to continue the popular franchise, however, shocked in 1988 by the death of young Heather O'Rourke, the director never returned to staging the next "Poltergeists", despite their super-cash success. And, in general, since then he began to treat the paranormal with great respect and extreme caution.
For example, when strange phenomena began to occur in Spielberg's house, the famous director immediately connected them with the film "Supernatural Activity". According to the LA Times, after DreamWorls acquired the rights to a picture shot by a group of enthusiasts for just $ 11,000, Spielberg set out to create a large-budget project based on it.
The film was created in a pseudo-documentary style using recordings from security cameras installed in the house and “home” video based on the personal experience of director Ouren Peli, who was faced with unexplained phenomena in his apartment.
To better understand the content of Supernatural Activity, Spielberg took a copy of the film to watch at his home. However, shortly after the end of the session, I ran into the inexplicable. In particular, the director claims that the door to his bedroom suddenly slammed shut by itself, so much so that he had to call a locksmith to open it.
To avoid further trouble, Spielberg hastened to dispose of the film by sending the disc to work in a trash bag.
