Halloween: Michele’s Favorite Holiday

Halloween 2006: The whole gang!

The celebration of Halloween dates back centuries and is a custom very much alive in the United States. The holiday is celebrated the evening of October 31st every year, the day before All Hallow’s Day, more commonly known as All Saint’s Day. Traditional celebrations for Halloween in the USA include trick-or-treating, costume parading and anything involving a haunted theme such as watching horror films and visiting ghostly haunted houses.

Many cultures believe that during the night of Halloween or the Day of the Dead spirits from other realms of existence can cross over into our world as the division between the world of the living and the “otherworld” is blurred. Perhaps the tradition of dressing up to resemble spirits, ghost, ghouls and goblins was started to defuse our fear of meeting these creatures for real!

Halloween as the tradition we know it today is said to have originated in Ireland over a thousand years ago.  It was only introduced in the United States during the 19th century.  At Headworks we all come in costumes on that day and the most original costume wins a prize.  As we prepare for WEFTEC, all of us are thinking about who we will be this year.

They’re back! The Poltergeist trilogy

When it was released in 1982, Steven Spielberg’s “Poltergeist” movie was a massive box office hit, taking in over $77,000,000. This month, 25 years after the world was first introduced to the Freeling family, the film is being re-released at select cinemas across the nation for one night only, October 4th.

The film is famous for several reasons, cutting edge technology (for 1982), gripping suspense and making audiences jump out of their skins! However, it and its sequels are almost more famous for the post-filming deaths of several of their stars, leading to rumors of a Poltergeist curse! Some believe the deaths are the result of a curse while others blame it on mere coincidence.

There have been four deaths amongst the stars of these films. The first death was that of 22-year old Dominique Dunne, who was strangled by her boyfriend just weeks after the release of the first Poltergeist film. John Sweeney choked his ex-girlfriend in her driveway and left her for dead. Dominique Dunne never awoke from her coma and John Sweeney was convicted of voluntary manslaughter.

The next death was that of 12-year old Heather O’Rourke, who died of septic shock on 1st February 1988. The child was seemingly fine, other than what looked like a light case of the flu. However she suffered cardiac arrest and was rushed to a local hospital. She had previously been diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease. As a result of her combined complications, bacterial toxins were released into her bloodstream from her small intestine. Despite being able to restart her heart, the toxins proved too powerful and the child died on the operating table. Heather O’Rourke had appeared in all three Poltergeist movies and at the time of her death, the final film had yet to be released at the cinema.

The other two deaths of people involved in the Poltergeist trilogy are rarely mentioned. Sixty-year old Julian Beck died following an 18-month battle with stomach cancer, and 53-year old Will Sampson died from complications following a heart and lung transplant.

Whatever your conclusions about these deaths, the coincidence factor is undeniably ghoulish.

Synopsis of ‘Poltergeist’, re-released for one day only on 4th October, 2007.

Little Carol Anne Freeling seemingly connects with the supernatural through white noise on a dead television channel. At first the ghosts seem harmless enough, entering the walls of their home and amusing the family by playing tricks on them. The family believes the ghostly beings to be poltergeists, usually mischievous, but not malicious spirits held responsible for otherwise inexplicable noises and movement of objects in the home. As the film progresses, naturally (or should we say “supernaturally”) all this soon changes and the family is scared to out of their wits by angry trees and murderous dolls. Carol Anne is abducted by the beings and taken into her bedroom closet which is apparently an entrance to the other side.

Click here for a list of movies theaters across America who will be showing ‘Poltergeist’ on the 4th October, 2007 to mark the 25th anniversary of its release.

The gang the previous year, Halloween 2005