Poltergeist is one of the scariest and most chillingly effective haunted house movies of all time. It regularly graces list chronicling the scariest films ever made. But what many people don’t actually know is that it eerily predicted certain circumstances surrounding the death of the film’s young lead, Heather O’Rourke.
In Poltergesit, Heather O’Rourke plays Carol Anne Freeling and Oliver Robins plays her brother Robbie. In several scenes, we can see that Robbie has a poster above his bed advertising Super Bowl XXII 1988. But the strange thing about that is that Poltergeist was released in 1982. Things become even more weird when one stops to consider that Heather O’Rourke was hospitalized the day of Super Bowl XXII and died the day after the game. Even stranger, the game was played in San Diego, which is the same city O’Rourke was in when she passed away.
Related: How Poltergeist Destroyed the American Dream (And Why That’s Great)
The poster foreshadowed the day and year that O’Rourke would take ill and the events even occurred in the same city. The most common school of thought is that the poster was created by the production design team to look like it was handmade by Robbie Freeling. A definitive answer does not exist regarding the connection between the poster and O’Rourke’s death. It’s surely nothing more than a coincidence but a staggering one at that.
The poster in question can be seen in this scene where Robbie’s Dad is trying to quell Robbie’s fear of the storm.
