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Poltergeist III has an original ending (before Heather O'Rourke died)

kaiju

Member
P3endingIIxxSmallx.JPG


Poltergeist III. While many fans view the third film of the franchise the worst of the three Poltergeist movies starring Heather O'Rourke, there is the sad fact that Heather tragically passed away before the movie was finished. The original ending was scrapped and re-shot, but the cast and crew were so heartbroken over Heather's passing, that the re-shot ending was hastily put together and included in the final cut. Missing from that final cut was Heather O'Rourke, as a double naturally had to be used for her shots.

There had been rumors that the original ending with Heather O'Rourke indeed actually existed in some form, but Director Gary Sherman consistently denied it.

Here is how Gary Sherman answered such a question:

Question: I discovered you thanks to Poltergeist 3. This has been killing me for years...was the ending re-shot? Cause we never see O'Rourke's face in the last frames. If so, what was the original ending?

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."

But according to actor Kipley Wentz, who played Lara Flynn Boyle's boyfriend Scott in the movie. The original ending had indeed been made:

"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."

More of this story can be found here at poltergeistiii.com

Poltergeist III webmaster David Furtney has aquired stills, storyboards and photos showing what could have been the original ending of Poltergeist III. You can check that out here.

And finally, a very rough cut of the original ending was aquired by Furtney, which was included on Shout Factory's Collector's Edition of Poltergeist III.

poltergeist-iii-scream-factory-blu-ray.jpg


This fan-edit rough cut does not include any audio (you can view this version here). However, thanks to Flowtac Entertainment, an all-new fan-edit was made using footage from both versions of the ending, and utilizes audio from the re-shoot.

Check it out: Original Poltergeist III Ending (Flowtac Re-Cut)

It's beautiful. So much more poltergeisty in it's delivery. Seeing Heather at the end with that original Poltergeist music? Tears.

It's not perfect but is so much better than the ending that was released: Poltergeist III Ending (re-shot after Heather O'Rourke died)

This is likely the closest we'll ever get to an original ending to Poltergeist III with Heather O'Rourke, and is a true tribute to Heather and the Poltergeist franchise.
 

halfbeast

Banned
I'm assuming there's not a lot of P3 love on gaf, lol!

haven't seen it in ages, what's that necklace thing all about?
 

kaiju

Member
I'm assuming there's not a lot of P3 love on gaf, lol!

haven't seen it in ages, what's that necklace thing all about?

Yeah lol totally understood, this movie is a tough watch. That true ending with Heather deserves to be seen though.

That's Tangina's necklace. It has mystical powers of the light, or something.
 

Yaboosh

Super Sleuth
The mirror gimmick in that movie fucked me up when i was a kid. The mirror in the bathroom scared me for months after that.
 
Even as a kid, I couldn't ever bring myself to watch P3 knowing that Heather died while it was being made. I need to just watch the trilogy one night.
 

kunonabi

Member
Watched 3 a few months ago and it was better than i remembered. Not as good as the first two but not nearly as bad as most third movies end up.
 

blahness

Member
The mirror gimmick in that movie fucked me up when i was a kid. The mirror in the bathroom scared me for months after that.

Yeah, that bathroom mirror scene in P1 and the clone under the covers in The Last Starfighter fucked me up for years as a kid.
 

kaiju

Member
It's been a while since I've seen this movie... What was it about the original ending that made it inappropriate after the actress's death and prompted the reshoot?

Kipley Wentz said it best:

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.

Also probably because of this:

lfCUs4Y.jpg
 

cr0w

Old Member
Didn’t several actors from the films die shortly after the movies were made? It has a curse.

The older sister from the first one was killed by her boyfriend shortly after the film released.

Of course, there's Heather O'Rourke.

Two older actors, Will Sampson and Julian Beck from part 2 also died but they weren't in great health to begin with.

Real corpses were used during the pool scene from part 1, which is what people attribute the curse to.
 

Zee-Row

Banned
The older sister from the first one was killed by her boyfriend shortly after the film released.

Of course, there's Heather O'Rourke.

Two older actors, Will Sampson and Julian Beck from part 2 also died but they weren't in great health to begin with.

Real corpses were used during the pool scene from part 1, which is what people attribute the curse to.

I wasn’t sure if the corpse thing was real or not. I didn’t even know it was legal.
 

Ovid

Member
I'm assuming there's not a lot of P3 love on gaf, lol!

haven't seen it in ages, what's that necklace thing all about?
I use to watch this movie all the time when I was younger. If I catch on cable I usually watch it. The cinematography is outstanding.

I never saw the original cut before.
 

cr0w

Old Member
I wasn't sure if the corpse thing was real or not. I didn't even know it was legal.

JoBeth Williams (the mom) said that yeah, they were real skeletons. The types you could buy for medical school and stuff. That's perfectly legal, and cheaper apparently.

EDIT: apparently they used real skeletons for some scenes in part 2 as well. Will Sampson performed a blessing on the set after they figured it out.
 
Thank was an interesting watch.. thank you.

I think I was 8 when the movie came out, so I had no idea the little girl had died for real. I remember watching all those movies a ton as a kid though.

The edited editing seemed good, better.. the only thing that stood out was the weird transition from melting his face to walking with Kane into the light.

In the original version.. wow that was bad. "Oh, you can take me into the light? Well WHY DIDNT YOU SAY SO, LETS GO!"
 

kaiju

Member
Thank was an interesting watch.. thank you.

I think I was 8 when the movie came out, so I had no idea the little girl had died for real. I remember watching all those movies a ton as a kid though.

The edited editing seemed good, better.. the only thing that stood out was the weird transition from melting his face to walking with Kane into the light.

In the original version.. wow that was bad. "Oh, you can take me into the light? Well WHY DIDNT YOU SAY SO, LETS GO!"

You're quite welcome. As a movie buff, I love all this "lost footage" type stuff, especially from 80's movies.

And yes it is indeed a better ending then what was in theaters.
 
It's interesting reading about all the different information relayed to David Furtney as he was trying to figure out what happened. (that dude is persistent)

The director, Gary Sherman, was really weird about it.
 

night814

Member
Just watched the poltergeist trilogy a few months ago, 3 if filled with all sorts of weird stuff. Kane is an awesome villain though.
 
Poltergeist traumatized me as a child, haha. Amazed my parents let me watch it. Benefits of being the youngest sibling, I guess.
The thunderstorm + killer tree, the swimming pool with the corpses, the paranormal guy hallucinating and ripping his face off, the goddamn clown doll!!!

Great film. I don't quite remember- did Spielberg have to basically save the film from Tobe Hooper's incompetence or was that just a film myth?

I actually saw Poltergeist II in the theater as a kid. That fucking tequila worm scene. Stuck with me.
Saw Poltergeist III in the theater, too... but I was heartbroken there was no Craig T Nelson and/or JoBeth Williams (had a crush on her :p). Honestly don't remember shit about it, so it might be time for a rewatch.
 

gforguava

Member
Wow, never knew this was actually filmed. Now having seen it I am quite confused as to why it wasn't used, I mean you could just drop the shot of a frozen Carol Anne if that was a problem. And that Flowtac edit is great, shows just how easy it would've been to cobble something half way decent together instead of the ending we got.
 

Maggiesmama2007

Neo Member
Kipley Wentz said it best:



Also probably because of this:

lfCUs4Y.jpg
Me personally, I liked the 3rd one the best. Also like the reshot ending better. Seeing the frozen Carolanne was a bit morbid (even though it's obviously fake). I'm sure it was very upsetting to her co-stars and fans, but would've been especially upsetting for her family if they were to see it.
 
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