The Amityville Horror (1979)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

Stuart Rosenberg

Writers:

Sandor Stern (screenplay)
Jay Anson (book)

Release Date:

27 July 1979 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | History | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

"For God's Sake, Get Out!"

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Priest | Evil | Real Estate Agent | Murder | Cult Favorite

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 3 nominations

Cast

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

Runtime:

117 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Netherlands:16 | USA:R (No. 25653) | South Korea:12 | Canada:PG (Canadian Home Video rating) | Italy:VM14 (re-rating) | Italy:VM18 (original rating) | Argentina:18 | Australia:M | Canada:14A | Chile:18 | Finland:K-18 | France:-12 | Iceland:16 | Norway:18 | Singapore:NC-16 | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | UK:X (original rating) | West Germany:16 | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Connecticut, USA

Company:

American International Pictures (AIP)

Trivia:

The film was originally planned to be a made-for-TV production for the CBS network, until executive producer Sam Arkoff bought the rights after reading Jay Anson's book in one sitting.

Goofs:

Plot holes: In the scene where Father Delaney is struck blind, it is never explained why he is randomly offering mass in a completely empty church.

Quotes:

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

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Saturday Night Live: Eddie Murphy/Lionel Richie (#8.9)" (1982)

The House on Ocean Avenue

(Some Spoilers) "The Amityville Horror" would have been an average "Hunted House" movie if it weren't for the fact that a real massacre happened there back in 1974. Young 23 year-old Ronald "Butch" DeFeo quietly went berserk as he calmly took a shotgun and shot to death his entire family, six persons, some time after 3:15AM in the early morning of November 13, 1974. The movie isn't really that much based on the DeFeo killings but on the George Lutz, James Brolin, family who moved into the Defeo home a year later. George and his wife Kathy, Margot Kidder, and their three children lived in the Amityville "Horror" house for just three weeks and then left, taking their pet dog Larry with them, leaving everything behind but the clothes on their back and the van that they drove out of there with and, in the movie at least, were never seen or heard from again. The movie and book on the Lutz's experience at that house was so effective that Ronald DeFeo's lawyer tried to use the unprecedented defense that his client was demoniacally possessed to get DeFeo off by using an insanity defense.

The movie has a number of shocking scenes but all and all it never really takes off and leaves you wondering just what's happening on the screen, is it real or is it the Lutz's imagination. We have the story of the Lutz's little girl calming to see Jody all through the movie and later Kathy even sees "Jody's" eyes in the night window that look like a pair of glowing oranges. Later George actually sees Jody in the window of his daughters room looking like a giant version of Porky Pig but whats the bottom line about "Jody"? Is she real or just an hallucination on the part of the Lutz's?

There are also a number of scenes of blood oozing out of the houses walls and stairway thats so gross that it cause the Lutz's to slip and fall trying to run out of it, is that also real or just their, the Lutz's, imagination? The fact that the movie is said to be based on a "True Story" makes you begin to wonder if these scenes, and many others in the film, really happened.

Were also told later that the Amityville Horror House was built on a sacred Indian burial ground by this Shawn Ketchum who was driven out of Salem back in the 1690's and settled on long Island. It's there where Ketchum used that site, that was a hidden red room in the houses basement, to practice Whichcraft and Satanism and it's that reason that the house was haunted all these years. Still up until the DeFeo murders, some 300 years later, nothing worthwhile or newsworthy seemed to have happened there?

Besides what the Lutz's went through in the movie regarding the "Amityville Horror" poor Father Delaney, Rod Steiger, went through a lot more and he didn't even live there. Going to the house, at Kathy's insistence, to bless it Father Delaney gets attacked, after being locked in a room in the house, by an awful odor from thousands of flies who magically appearer out of nowhere! Getting back to his church Father Delaney tries to call the Lutz's to tell them to leave the house as soon as possible only to have his hand badly burned by the telephone!

Trying to get his superiors in the church to believe him, and have a possible exorcism on the house, Father Delaey is told by Father Ryan, Murray Hamilton, to go take a long vacation and forget to come back. The poor man in a last act of desperation tries to pray for help at his church only to freak out and hallucinate a vision of the church collapsing on top of his head. We last see Father Delaney sitting on a bench in the park, a broken and beaten man, with his assistant Father Bolen, Don Stroud, trying to cheer him up by telling him about how great the sunset is which only will upset him even more since he lost his sight during his traumatic experience in the church where he thought that the world came to an end and in a way it did, for Father Delany.