Why Poltergeist Franchise Fans Think It's Cursed

From "Halloween" to "A Nightmare on Elm Street," there's no shortage of iconic '70s and '80s horror films that launched long-running franchises. Still, "Poltergeist" stands out among the rest because of its cult following - and many of those fans believe the Poltergeist franchise is actually cursed.

A reboot of the classic 1982 horror film "Poltergeist" was released in 2015, but let's be honest: nothing compares to the original. Although no horrific accidents happened on the set of the most recent film (that we know of, anyway), there are plenty of rumors of a curse on the cast of the film's original trilogy.

The film revolves around a suburban family that moves into a new house and begins to notice strange things involving their 5-year-old daughter, Carol Ann. It turns out that ominous spirits haunt the house, and though their interactions seem harmless at first, their true evil nature is soon revealed when Carol Ann goes missing and her desperate parents turn to an exorcist for help.

Read on to learn about the mysterious events that led people to think the Poltergeist movie franchise might be Hollywood's most cursed series.

It all started with human skeletons

One of the most famous scenes features JoBeth Williams' character, Diane, falling into the family pool filled with skeletons. What you might not know is that these skeletons are actually real — at least the "Poltergeist" cast didn't. "In my innocence and naivety, I assumed they weren't real skeletons," Williams said in a 2006 episode of TV Land's "TV Myths and Legends." "I assumed they were plastic or rubber prop skeletons...I found out, as did the crew, that they used real skeletons because it's far too expensive to make fake rubber skeletons."

Months after the release of the first film, a star was murdered

"Poltergeist" was released in June 1982, and in November of the same year, 22-year-old Dominique Dunne, who played Dana (the eldest daughter of the family), was murdered.