Apparently the new Shout Factory Blu Ray is going to have the original ending they shot with Heather on it - I'm pretty shocked at this because last I heard the director, Gary Sherman denied it was ever filmed, Gary himself is apparently contributing to the Blu by recording a new commentary - anyone know anything about all this?
shareSherman denied it for years and kept saying it was never filmed and what not despite many proof over the years saying Heather had died after filming had wrapped up but then a reshot ending with a double was made into the final cut of the film.
A friend of mine who has a very devoted and informative Poltergeist site contacted various crew who worked on the film, came across photos, storyboards and even got confirmation from many people that indeed confirmed that the original ending was filmed and featured Heather. Though Sherman later referred to said friend as a pest or bother. His history about coming across information is documented on this site below.
He posted via Facebook group that he and Scream Factory did come across said ending but unfortunately the soundtrack has been lost and minus some scenes is complete with FX and is the original ending in some capacity featuring Heather in her last moments on film and the family along with Scott whom is missing in the theatrical cut.
Visit his site for more information.
http://www.poltergeistiii.com/index.html
Thanks for the info, David's site is a fantastic resource for all things Poltergeist, it's great that he is involved with the scream factory special edition - do you know if MGM were the ones to ok the use of the alternate ending footage on the new blu? Did Gary Sherman have any say in it at all? I find it odd that he did a commentary for this
shareIm not sure if mgm gave the OK, but I can confirm that the original ending is on the new scream factory bluray, & if you are a fan of this film and the 2nd, i could not recommend these releases more...........
the bonus materials, PQ/AQ are pretty much as good as it will get.
It's not per say the original ending, it's one of the few shot. The original ending had Kane's head exploding with a shot of light cracking it to pieces and some key shots referenced in story boards are missing. The shot of frozen Scott, Kane touching the necklace, the final shot of Tangina waving to Carol Anne at the end of the film. It's sort of an intermediate ending which covers the majority of what originally scheduled to be the ending before the powers that be ordered a reshoot.
Here's a fanedit from a devoted Poltergeist fan who rescored and re-edited bits from both the remastered Blu-ray transfer of III and the alternate ending found on the disc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_vdAWuBT94
whoaa! sweet, thanks for this......watching now.
shareI love this fanedit better just for the fact we see a smiling Carol Anne in the final shot. That would've been a touching tribute to Heather O'Rourke.
shareEven though it's still terrible- it's a lot better than what we got.
share