Heather O'Rourke and Dominique Dunne played sisters in the 1982 cult classic movie Poltergeist. O'Rourke played Carol Anne Freeling, while Dunne played her older sister Dana Freeling.
Directed by Tobe Hooper and produced and co-written by Steven Spielberg, Poltergeist follows the Freeling family after supernatural forces invade their suburban California home. Carol Anne becomes the story's central child character, famously communicating with entities through the family's television set. Dana is the eldest daughter and part of the family caught in the haunting.
The film became a landmark of supernatural horror and inspired two sequels. It is also surrounded by the often-discussed “Poltergeist curse,” a label attached after several cast members experienced tragic events. Dunne was murdered in 1982, shortly after the film's release, and O'Rourke died in 1988 while still a child. Those real-life tragedies are separate from the movie's fictional story, but they helped create the film's enduring dark mythology and frequent place in horror-history discussions.