Some of the highest grossing and highly successful movies in Hollywood have had to do with the Supernatural and they have catapulted their stars, writers or directors into Superstardom. As with all movies, there would be little setbacks. Someone would flub a line, the set didn't look right, lights or gear wouldn't work right, etc. But sometimes, as in the cases of the aforementioned motion pictures, things happened that defied explanation.
Many people know by now of the alleged curse that haunted the cast of "Poltergeist". Almost from the beginning of principle photography, strange and unexplained things would happen. Cast and crew on the set at Paramount reported on more than one occassion that the set had a dark and eerie feeling about it. The cast and crew were also plagued by terrifying nightmares! One day on the set, there was almost a tragedy.During the scene where Robbie (Oliver Robbins) is being strangled, the clown's arms became extremely tight and Robbins started to choke. When he screamed out "I can't breathe!", Steven Spielberg and Tobe Hooper thought that the boy was ad-libbing and just instructed him to look at the camera. When Spielberg saw Robbins' face turning purple, he ran over and removed the clown's arms from Robbins' neck. Oh yes, the skeletons in the pool that "attack" Diane while she is searching for help....were real!

Then there is the alledged curse. The truth of it is, that it can't be scientifically proven that there was really an actual curse on the film and the actors and crew involved in it. There were some terrible sequels made of the film, but that's about it. The rest is just terrible misfortune which occassionaly stikes any of us from time to time. Distraught over the break up of their relationship, her estranged and abusive boyfriend, John Thomas Sweeney, a chef at the Ma Maison in LA, went over to her house, dragged her out into the driveway and strangled her. She was declared brain dead and five days later, Life Support was terminated and she died, leaving behind shocked and outraged family and friends. John Thomas Sweeney was charged with murder and gave a full confession. He was found guilty of Voluntary Manslughter instead of Second Degree Murder, basically because of his excellent Defense Attorney, Purgury and a jury that was kept in the dark about Sweeney's violent past. Had he been convicted of Murder, he would have gotten 25 to Life. He got 6 and a half years. After 2 and a half years plus time served, he was released from the Medium Security Prison in Susanville and on June 21, 1986, he returned to LA where he once again got a high paying job as Head Chef at "The Chronicle" in Santa Monica. But the outraged family of Dominique Dunne wouldn't have it. They passed out leaflets to passersby and Guests of the restaurant which in part read, “The hands that prepared your food, strangled Dominique Dunne on October 30, 1982.” He was fired immediately. In 1989, he left Los Angeles and moved to Seattle where he probably still works as a chef (according to some sources, he is employed as an executive chef for a restaurant chain), and he changed his name to 'John Maura'.

Then there was the unfortunate death of Heather Michele O'Rourke, who played Carol Ann in the movies.
What was first thought to be an acute case of the flu, turned out to be "a congenitle shrinking of the bowels". Once she was properly diagnosed, she was taken to a hospital in San Diego and prepped for surgery. By the time they got her on the operating table, it was too late. She went into septic shock and then cardiac arrest and died on February 1, 1988 at the age of 12. She is interred in a wall crypt not far from Marilyn Monroe in Westwood Memorial Park. Only a few yards away, in the central lawn section, lies the girl who played her sister, Dominique Dunne.