The Amityville Horror (1979)

Newlyweds move into a house where a murder was committed, and experience strange manifestations which drive them away.

Director:

Stuart Rosenberg

Writers:

Sandor Stern (screenplay), Jay Anson (book),

Stars:

James Brolin, Margot Kidder, Rod Steiger

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
James Brolin	...	George Lutz
Margot Kidder	...	Kathy Lutz
Rod Steiger	...	Father Delaney
Don Stroud	...	Father Bolen
Murray Hamilton	...	Father Ryan
John Larch	...	Father Nuncio
Natasha Ryan	...	Amy
K.C. Martel	...	Greg
Meeno Peluce	...	Matt
Michael Sacks	...	Jeff
Helen Shaver	...	Carolyn
Amy Wright	...	Jackie
Val Avery	...	Sgt. Gionfriddo
Irene Dailey	...	Aunt Helena
Marc Vahanian	...	Jimmy

Storyline

Based on a true story that was claimed by writer Jay Anson, The Amityville Horror is about a large house on the coast of Long Island where newly weds George and Kathy Lutz and their three children move into the house that they hope will be their dream house but it ends up in terror. Despite full disclosure by the real estate agent of the home's history, George and Kathy buy the house. George says, "Houses don't have memories," but they turn to their family priest Father Delaney who believes the house is haunted and performs an exorcism on the house. But the evil spirit in the house causes him to become blind and makes him very ill. George and Kathy with the help of another priest Father Bolen and a police detective they face the fears of the house, but not knowing the spirit is planning to possess George and then the children...

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Plot Keywords:

priest | terror | real estate agent | evil | fear | 

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Taglines:

"For God's Sake, Get Out!"

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Genres:

Horror

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

27 July 1979 (USA)

Also Known As:

Amityville Horror

Filming Locations:

18 Brooks Road, Toms River, New Jersey, USA

Box Office

Gross:

$86,432,520 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

American International Pictures (AIP), Cinema 77, Professional Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

117 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Finnish name for the film meant "For God's sake, get out of there!".

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Goofs

In this movie (and all the other sequels), there is a chimney between the quarter eye-like windows. If you see a picture of the real/actual house in Amityville, there is no chimney.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Cop at the House: Jesus Christ, it gets worse all the time.

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Crazy Credits

This motion picture is based on the book "The Amityville Horror." Certain characters and events have been changed to heighten dramatic effect.

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Connections

Referenced in Scream: The Inside Story (2011)

User Reviews

Effective chiller about a strange house located in Long Island that causes creepy goings-on in a family

This is the classic version about the infamous Amityville house with lots of screams and weird deeds in which a family falls into supernatural terror . The story starts with a grisly mass murder ; years later , a family moves to Long Island where is purchased a Victorian home , their house of dreams but they find only devilish horror and full of nightmares . Longtime ago, there occurred a grisly mass killing based on an allegedly real life occurrence in Amityville that turns out to be a haven for demonic forces . And now a possessed father (James Brolin) is plunged by demonic forces into supernatural attitude driving him to mistreat and beat the kiddies . The wife (Margot Kidder) begins experiencing frightening and vivid dreams of killings . Meantime ,the father is attempting to find out the bottom of events by ways of the cellar . While , an exorcist priest (a hysteric Rod Steiger who steals the show as scene-chewing ) tries praying to vanquish the malignant spirit , staggering from room to room with the doors mysteriously slam . And soon the poltergeists make their nasty appearance originating a lot of unusual rattles and creaks before deciding to utilize its powers to possess the father and attack the family .

The film contains restless terror and great loads of gore and blood and usual poltergeists phenomenon caused by the curse and the usual ghastly shenanigans result to be the cracking pipelines , wall ooze icky stuff, flies swarm manifest as attackers, and doors suddenly slam , among others . It is produced with acceptable budget by Samuel Z Arkoff (AIP)and well recreated with high grade special effects that are frightening and horrifying to spectator . It's actually halfway decent terror movie that achieved big success at the box office and it will appeal to ghostly and eerie events fonds. The picture packs a colorful cinematography by Fred Koenekamp and eerie musical score by Lalo Schifrin that will be used in the innumerable sequels . The original ¨Exorcist¨ film (by Friedkin) spawned a wave of demonic possession movies that continues unabated today as ¨Changeling¨ (by Peter Medak), ¨Amytiville ¨(by Stuart Rosemberg) are two further examples of this sub-genre . Following a great number of clumsy, stupid sequels directed by Damiano Damiani , Richard Fleischer ,Sandor Stern ( screenwriter of Amityville), Anthony Hitchcock.. And the bad followings just go on and on attempting to cash in on the success of the first movie . However , recently is made a good new adaptation by Andrew Douglas with Ryan Reynolds (James Brolin role ) , Melissa George ( Margot Kidder character) and Philip Baker Hall (Rod Steiger), though this is a new take on from previous film, it's one of the highest earning horror movie of the last years and like the¨ Amityville ¨ original became a box office biggie . Rating : Aceeptable and passable .