‘POLTERGEIST III’ – 35 Years of Terror and Tragedy – Retro Review

Once upon a time, Poltergeist III was my favorite installment of the classic and notorious horror franchise. I absolutely loved some of the imagery, including the lightning over the frighteningly tall John Hancock Center in Chicago, which stands as young Carol Anne Freeling (Heather O’Rourke -may she rest in peace)’s new home, the cracking, and shattering floor-to-ceiling mirrors throughout the building, and the demented, twisted faces of Kane’s victims, as he appears in their image. Poltergeist III is as cozy and nostalgic as 1980’s drive-ins on a stormy, dark night. 

In Poltergeist III, Carol Anne has been sent to Chicago to live with her maternal aunt Pat (Nancy Allen – Carrie 1976), uncle Bruce (Tom Skeritt – Alien 1979), and teenage cousin Donna (Lara Flynn Boyle –Twin Peaks TV series 1989). They live in the sky-high John Hancock Center, which Uncle Bruce also manages. In Chicago, Carol Anne now attends a school for the gifted and is known as “creepy”, with her peers often inquiring if she’s seen any ghosts lately. Carol Anne shrugs them off and has long put the memory of what happened to her and her family behind her, believing that ‘if you talk about things you make them happen’.

One of her teachers, Dr. Seaton, believes Carol Anne to be a troublemaker and manipulator, and goads her into talking about what happened. Through this, Kane is able to find her, and the nightmare begins again. Zelda Rubenstein (Poltergeist I 1982, Poltergeist II 1986) reprises her role as unforgettable Tangina, and Nathan Davis (Flowers in the Attic 1987) stars as Kane. Poltergeist III takes place mainly in the John Hancock Center, and involves a lot of smokey fog, breaking mirrors, Ice, elevator death scenes, and gore gore gore! Just what we all love!

“When you talk about things you make them happen.” ~Carol Anne Freeling

Poltergeist III was written by Gary Sherman and Brian Taggert and released by MGM on June 10th, 1988. Pophorror celebrates this classic, though it did not receive the rave reviews its predecessors had. In fact, the film only earned about $14 million against a $9.5 million dollar budget. Currently, Poltergeist III sits with a lonely 1 Star on rotten tomatoes. I’ve never understood the bad reputation this movie has, even among horror fans, because I found this installment to be absolutely terrifying and exciting! However, there may have been a very good reason Poltergeist III didn’t fare well…

A tragedy that occurred shortly after filming left MGM’s production company to cut marketing, including cast interviews. Sadly, this tragedy was the premature death of the film’s star, Heather O’Rourke. Heather O’Rourke played Carol Anne in all three of the Poltergeist films, and was discovered by Steven Spielberg himself while eating lunch in the cafeteria at MGM studios. Heather had so much star quality, but sadly her life was cut short four months after filming for Poltergeist III wrapped, and her official cause of death was sepsis due to a bowel blockage.

O’Rourke had been wrongly diagnosed with Crohn’s disease and was taking medication for that while filming. One of the side effects of the medications was that her face appeared puffy. This is noticeable in many scenes of Poltergeist III. Heather was 12 when she passed, and is buried in Westwood Memorial, the same small cemetery many other celebrities are buried in, including Marilyn Monroe. Heather may not have lived a long life, but she certainly has become a star that will never fade, and horror fans will remember her forever.

Poltergeist III also brought us a newly-cast Kane (Nathan Davis), as Julian Beck who played Kane in Poltergeist II had passed of stomach cancer. You can read up on what is known as ‘The Poltergeist Curse’ as the franchise is not only known for its quality but its string of deaths and odd accidents. Shudder’s Cursed Films series also covers the tragedy surrounding these films in one of their episodes.

I can’t speak much to whether the ‘curse’ is real or not, but I can say that Poltergeist III brings the scares, brings the gore, and to me, brings a little big city fun to the franchise, – but, shhhh….maybe we should just watch it, and not talk about it….just in case?

If you’re feeling brave, Poltergeist III is streaming free on Tubi, Pluto TV, and the Roku Channel at the time of this writing.