Case file · Folklore / legend
The 'Poltergeist curse'
The film 'Poltergeist', shot partly at a house in Simi Valley and released in 1982, gained a curse legend after two of its young stars died: Dominique Dunne, murdered in 1982, and Heather O'Rourke, who died of illness in 1988.
1982 CE · 34.27, -118.73 · status: legend
The account
The fact that real human skeletons were used as props in the swimming-pool scene fed the story.
The sceptical view
The deaths were unrelated and had ordinary causes.