The Only Poltergeist Movie Where Anyone Is Actually Killed

The Poltergeist franchise is one of the most well-known in horror, but despite its scare factor, there’s almost no body count to speak of. That fact may surprise some, as the air of death certainly surrounds the Poltergeist series, thanks to the so-called “Poltergeist curse.” Of course, in actuality there’s no real evidence to support the curse, which is centered on the multiple actors who’ve ended up dead after appearing in Poltergeist movies. Two of which were sick before they signed on, which always seems to be conveniently ignored.

Hypothetical curse aside, onscreen, the Poltergeist movies may have the lowest death count of any horror franchise. Despite the presence of a kid-eating tree, an evil clown doll, and “The Beast” stalking around, not a single person actually died in Tobe Hooper’s first Poltergeist movie. That certainly doesn’t stop it from being frightening, but more than any other genre, horror plays on the risk of impending death to drive suspense and tension.

One character technically dies in Poltergeist 2: The Other Side, but it’s not the doing of the evil Reverend Kane. Instead, Carol Anne’s grandmother passes away of natural causes, setting her up to save the supernaturally targeted girl during the afterlife climax. Even the 2015 remake of Poltergeist didn’t see fit to add any casualties, despite Jared Harris’ Carrigan Burke briefly venturing into the light.

The Only Poltergeist Movie Where Anyone Is Actually Killed

The only Poltergeist movie in which anyone actually dies due to ghostly malfeasance is Poltergeist 3, released in 1988. It’s generally regarded as the black sheep of the franchise, moving the action to the big city, and ditching every member of the Freeling family besides Carol Anne. It’s also much more like a 1980s slasher than the prior entries, which makes it appropriate that this one actually has a body count. Two people meet their grisly demise at the hands of Reverend Kane, with one being a welcome death and the other a sad one, were it not so oddly executed.

First there’s Dr. Seaton, played by Richard Fire, Carol Anne’s psychiatrist after she moves to live with her aunt and uncle in Chicago. Seaton is an intensely unlikable character, who sports a condescending manner, and even dismisses Carol Anne’s claims about the supernatural after witnessing supernatural events, insisting she somehow instigated a kind of mass hypnosis. Seaton gets pushed into an elevator shaft by evil mirror images of Carol Anne’s cousin Donna and her boyfriend Scott, as Kane is all about mirror manipulation in Poltergeist 3.

The other death in Poltergeist 3 is popular recurring character Tangina Barrons (Zelda Rubinstein), a psychic who assisted the Freelings in recovering Carol Anne the previous two times. She gets killed in a truly bizarre scene, when Kane – disguised as Carol Anne – reaches through a mirror to grab her shoulder, somehow turning her into a desiccated corpse, through which the faux Donna emerges. It’s a terribly unsatisfying death, but thankfully, her spirit returns later to finally guide Kane into the light, finally freeing Carol Anne.

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