31 Days of Horror…The Amityville Horror (1979) Movie Review!

When newlyweds George and Kathy Lutz first visit 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, the home seems like more than they can handle financially. Knowing the history of the house and the brutal murders that occurred thirteen months prior, they decide to buy the home and move their family in. Almost immediately, the family and their visitors begin experiencing a series of unexplained paranormal events.

Based on the book The Amityville Horror: A True Story by Jay Anson, The Amityville Horror stars James Brolin and Margot Kidder as George and Kathy Lutz respectively. The movie launched several sequels in print and film and a remake of the original movie was released in 2005. Purportedly based on actual events, the validity of the story remains a controversy. I first saw the movie and then read the book many years ago and this movie still wigs me out.

The effects to the family and friends are minor at first; the daughter finds a new imaginary friend named Jodie; George is continually cold and becomes obsessed with chopping wood for the fire; Kathy has nightmares of the murders that happened before they moved in; George wakes up every night at 3:15 am (the time the murders took place). Father Delaney experiences the worst in the beginning when he arrives to perform a house blessing. Hearing children’s voices upstairs, he follows the sound to the spare room where he is locked in. He becomes suddenly ill and is surrounded by flies that seemingly appear out of nowhere before hearing a voice telling him to get out. Unfortunately, leaving the home isn’t the end of the torture the priest undergoes as he tries to warn the Lutz’s of the danger he sense in their home.

Every day the Lutz’s live in the home the events escalate until eventually they can take it no more and move out on the 28^th day leaving their possessions behind them.

Whether you believe the story to be fact or fiction, there is no denying the tension that builds within the movie making this film an effective haunted house movie worthy of watching on a cool autumn evening with the moon high and the lights down low.