On Feb. 1, 1988, child star Heather O'Rourke, best known for her role as "Carol Anne Freeling" in Steven Spielberg's classic Poltergeist (1982) and Brian Gibson's mediocre Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986) passed away at the age of 12 from septic shock caused by an undetected bowel obstruction. The previous year, she had spent three months, April through June, in Chicago filming the third chapter in MGM's profitable horror saga. Poltergeist III (or We're Back-Poltergeist Continues as it was known during shooting) was directed and co-written by Gary Sherman, best known for such films as Vice Squad and Wanted: Dead or Alive. At the time of Heather's death, all press reports (and studio PR statements) said that she had completed the film prior to her death. Tabloid stories at the time ghoulishly bantered about the "Poltergeist Curse" rumor, since on each movie at least one actor had passed away sometime after filming. Poltergeist III was released June 10, 1988 to terrible reviews. Although it opened in the box office top five its first weekend, ticket sales shortly thereafter plummeted, and the film became regarded as a box office flop, earning only 14 million dollars (the budget was about 10 million). In contrast, the first film had earned 76 million domestically in 1982, and the second film had pulled in 40 million.

           

That June, I was 8 years old. My mom and I went to an early afternoon Saturday matinee showing at what was then the Plaza Theatre in my hometown of Warner Robins, Georgia. During the showing, there were only four of us in the auditorium-me, my mom, and two teenage guys who sat in the back and made ghost noises during much of the movie. My mother of course ended up falling asleep halfway through it. I, on the other hand, was totally enthralled, and quite unnerved by some scenes.  At the end, after Tangina Barrons (Zelda Rubinstein) sacrificed herself by leading the evil Reverend Kane "into the Light," two lightning bolts struck the high-rise on screen just as the credits started to go up. As Kane's laughter echoed across the Chicago skyline, I thought for sure Poltergeist IV wouldn't be far behind.

           

Poltergeist IV never came, although my interest in all three movies continued. During my freshman year of college, I discovered the power of the Internet search engine in finding web sites started by some of the people who had worked on Poltergeist III. This was late 1998. The first person I contacted was composer Joe Renzetti. During one of our email Q and A sessions, I discovered a fact about the film I'd never known before:

 

 Q: Also, did you score any scenes that ultimately did not end up in the final film? For example, I've always thought the movie ended rather too quickly. At the end, Heather O'Rourke's face is not seen after she comes out of the mirror.  Why is that?

 

The scene in question:

 

 

 Renzetti: No. The ending was a re-shoot and sadly Heather had died by that time. The young girl was a "double."  Very observant on your part.

 

This information surprised me.  After all, I thought I'd known all there was to know about this movie. Upon further questioning, I learned a few more details from Mr. Renzetti:

 

 Q: So the ending was re-shot because something was wrong with the previous footage, or because the ending was actually changed?

 

Renzetti: The first ending just wasn't convincing, so Gary and the studio decided to redo it.

 

Q: Do you recall anything more about the old ending and why it was re-shot?

 

Renzetti: It was a combination of elements. I don't remember the old ending but it was very "dissatisfying" as most  good American endings should not be. The special FX make-up sucked, the characters were supposed to be frozen but they looked as if they just survived an egg processing plant explosion. No, by the time Gary was finished with the movie, if he heard another "Carrol-Ann" he probably would have [gone off the deep end].

           

Thanking Joe for his information, I then sent an email to Gary Sherman telling him what Joe had said, and asking what the original ending was (at the time Gary had his own web site; now he has a blog where he's promoting his newest film 39). On Jan. 3, 1999, Mr. Sherman responded to me with a detailed statement:

Sherman: "The ending was not a re-shoot. The original ending was never shot. Heather died a week before we were scheduled to shoot the ending. There was no way we could (or even wanted to, for that matter) shoot the scenes without her. There were some 17 pages left to shoot, most of  which was to be the ending, a tear jerking scene in which Tangina (Zelda Rubinstein) offers herself as a sacrifice -  that she would go over into the light in exchange for Scott (Kip Wentz), Bruce (Tom Skerritt) and Carol Anne  (Heather) and everyone else. As Carol Anne and Tangina passed from one side to the other, they were to say 'Good- bye' for the last time. It was to be not only to be the end of POLTERGEIST III, but the end of the Poltergeist Trilogy.

           

We weren't even going to finish the film at all, after Heather died. I was not interested, neither was Barry Bernardi or  the studio heads, Alan Ladd, Jr. and Jay Kanter. None of us were. We got together and decided to shelve the project,  at least for the time being. But the MGM board didn't see it that way. They basically said, 'Look, either you finish this  or we'll get somebody to finish it for you.' Since we weren't about to let that happen, I half-heartedly wrote that  pathetic ending where Bruce (Tom) and Patricia (Nancy) carry out a photo double, dressed as Carol Anne, at the end.  People just weren't available anymore for it. We just didn't care about it. Scott (Kip Wentz) couldn't even show up. He  was on the east coast, that's why he's mysteriously missing. But we just didn't care at the end of it all."

           

Gary would go on to tell the E! True Hollywood Story in their "Curse of Poltergeist" special (2002) much the same story, adding that the film went on a four month hiatus in October of 1987 because of a "business obligation" of Sherman's and that the ending was later shot in one day using a double. As a result, the cast and crew "ended up with a completely different film" than what they had intended to make.

[UPDATE: Gary Sherman later admitted

(http://www.killerfilm.com/features/read/late-night-classics-poltergeist-iii-35518) that he only agreed to be interviewed in the E! Special if he had "Final Cut," which possibly explains why his version of events about the ending is the only one presented]

However, actor/director Kipley Wentz, who played Lara Flynn Boyle's boyfriend Scott  (who mysteriously never returns at the end of the film) eventually went on record via postings to the Internet Movie Database in 2005 as strongly differing with Gary's version of events:

 

Compiled from https://web.archive.org/web/20040708014605/http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095889/board/nest/2919809

 

"This is Kipley Wentz writing. I played Scott in the movie. I know Gary said that in an interview a long time ago, but it's not true. I was in Los Angeles when they reshot the  ending. I was at school at USC and was a pall bearer at Heather's funeral. Nobody even told me they had reshot the  ending until I saw it at the premiere. So... I don't know what the thinking was on the production's part. They may very  well have told Gary that I wasn't available. I have no idea. But for the record, I would have gladly done the reshoots if  anyone asked. It's a bit frustrating that almost 20 years later everyone seems to think I was cut from the new ending  because I was not available or something.  The 'original' ending was shot. The movie was wrapped about seven  months before Heather died. After she died, they wanted to reshoot the ending because it obviously featured Heather  prominently and it was all very upsetting for everyone. For the record, I was at USC in Los Angeles, not on the East  Coast. Nobody even told me that they had reshot the ending until I was sitting there at the premiere. It was a very sad  time for everyone involved, and obviously a great source of confusion ever since. Why Gary would say I wasn't  available or we didn't shoot the ending or whatever, I don't understand, but it doesn't really matter. And whether  people believe my account of the story or not, well... there's nothing I can do about that. I flew to New York to work  with the special effects guys. They took a cast of my head to make the 'frozen Scott' that was seen in the original  ending. We shot it. The movie wrapped. There was a big 'wrap party'. We all celebrated finishing the movie.  The  following summer, I was at the premiere in Chicago and saw a totally different ending that nobody had told me about.  I asked the producer what happened to my character at the end, and he made a bad joke saying, 'We're leaving you  out there for Poltergeist IV'. PLEASE don't read more into that than there is... we were all sad and uncomfortable  that evening and he was no doubt just trying to avoid the subject. As I recall, he said that things had been really crazy  and they were just trying to deal with it as quickly as possible.

At this point, it's impossible to imagine the mood at that time. Everyone loved Heather, and when she died, releasing the movie or fixing the ending was the last thing anyone wanted to deal with. It's a sad memory for everyone involved, and excepting those who are in some way profiting by keeping this 'mystery' alive, I would imagine that nobody is too anxious to talk about it. I understand that with conflicting sources it can be confusing. But 17 years later, it's easy to examine this logically. In the midst of tragedy, however, logic sometimes goes out the window."

Later, others I questioned agreed more or less with Kipley. In late May of 2005, I faxed a question about the ending to P3 producer Barry Bernardi at his office on the MGM lot, while he was working on the new Adam Sandler film "Click." On June 2, 2005, he responded with this statement in a return fax: "A long time ago. I recall that Heather died before the re-shoot and that we used a double."

 

Jeanne Bonansinga, who served as an assistant editor on the film to main editor Ross Albert, stated:

 

"I was on the editing team of 'Poltergeist III.' The original ending was shot in Chicago as was the entire film. The ending was later re-shot in  LA because the studio didn't like the original ending. Heather was on her way to the set to film the ending when she suffered the obstruction that took her life. [note: Jeanne is mistaken here; Heather died Feb. 1, 1988. She was about to go to school that morning. There is no mention in any of the press reports at the time that she was about to do any re-shoots] If you watch the ending closely, you  never see her face. We used a body double and shot only from the back. We tried to cut in some shots from the original ending to see her face, but very few were usable. It was quite a  challenge to shoot, and edit. Her death dictated the way the [new] ending was written and created.  There was a time when we thought the film would be scrapped because we couldn't shoot the  ending without the main character! It certainly cast a dark shadow on the film. She was a  darling girl. What a shame. We were all just shocked."

           

In addition, special effects makeup artist Doug Drexler even wrote an article in the September 1988 issue of now defunct "Gorezone" magazine (the one "Fangoria" used to publish) called "Poltergeist III and a half: The Reshoot." In it, he states:

           

"I've been wanting to clue you in on what's shaking with 'Poltergeist III.' While you were gone, MGM shot a new climax to its Spielberg instigated spook show carried on by director Gary Sherman, and we were invited. With only 12 days of prep, it was imperative that we move quickly."

           

So, what is the real story? Was the original ending in fact shot, or not? Was there a re-shoot? The above quotes are provided for the reader to decide. Repeated efforts to contact other people involved with the film (as well as MGM/Sony) for comment/clarification have been unsuccessful. Mr. Sherman clearly does not enjoy talking about the issue. It seems that the original ending was filmed in late June 1987 and that the re-shoot took place in March, 1988, over a month after Heather died. Apparently the initial plan for the re-shoot was to have Kane "go into the Light" by decomposing on camera after touching Tangina's necklace (in the original ending, his face simply "exploded with light" after touching the amulet, an effect that Gary Sherman was not satisfied with). The special makeup effects crew began work on this new sequence. However, after Heather died February 1, 1988, MGM temporarily put the re-shoot plans on hold.  A month later, it was decided to redo the entire ending. This time, the "frozen" bodies of Bruce, Donna, Carol Anne, and Scott were replaced with "decomposed" versions of Bruce and Donna only. The "frozen" Carol Anne was likely left out because the studio understandably felt such a scene could be viewed as "tasteless" in light of Heather's death.

It's unclear why Scott was left out of the new ending altogether. Perhaps MGM execs felt the audience would be confused when he returned with the family in the original version (he had been seen coming back from the "other side" much earlier in the film, but alert viewers would have recognized him as only a "possessed reflection"). The Kane "decomposition" sequence was toned down and changed to Pat slicing off his head with a shovel, after which the head then melts on the floor. To make it more clear that Tangina actually lead him into the Light, the "Light" is visually shown on screen, as Tangina takes Kane by the hand and literally walks him into it. Her line to Pat "Tell Carol Anne I'll always love her-and that her nightmare is over" seems to be a subtle reference to the tragic passing of Heather.

           

One final note: in October of this year [2005], I went to Los Angeles on vacation, and made it to the Margaret Herrick Library in Beverly Hills that Gary had told me about six years ago. I was able to read through his personal copy of Poltergeist III's shooting script. It was fascinating-chock full of notes, sketches, story boards, etc. Also there were pages of the ending that now appears in the film. They were dated REVISED MARCH 14, 1988. As for the mysterious "17 pages" that were supposedly never filmed-I found no trace of them. The original ending featured in the copy of the script I purchased from Heather O'Rourke's sister Tammy ran for about 5 pages max (from the point where Pat falls into the frozen bedroom up through the point where Carol Anne tearfully waves goodbye to Tangina and the camera pulls back as the family embraces).  The ending in this shooting script ran for about the same length. If there really were "17 pages" that still needed to be shot at the time of Heather's death, it's more likely that these were 17 pages of re-shoots and additional scenes.