This film (and this series of films) conjure up a certain amount of sadness, actually. The film is scary, sure, but I knew too much going in to appreciate the full fear factor.
I didn’t see the original movie (or the subsequent sequels) in the theater. So, all three of the movies had already been released by the time I saw them. And I already knew that Heather O’Rourke (the actress portraying Carol Anne) had died recently. And that gave it such a maudlin quality. Remember, I was 8 years old. Death had not really entered my world yet, and I didn’t know what to do with that. And seeing such a young girl progress toward something inevitable, it was an odd feeling.
And then I watched the two sequels, and it became even sadder, especially when you can see the effects of the Crohn’s Disease show themselves in the third film. At the same time, you have to give Heather a lot of credit for persevering despite what was happening to her.
