When I said in my review of The Legacy, I was an eleven year old horror movie fan in 1978, but too young to watch them, the same goes for The Amityville Horror. I would have loved to have seen James Brolin and Margot Kidder trapped in the now iconic house; even the poster was scary. That owners, both before and after the Lutz family, experienced no problems didn't seem to lessen Amityville popularity, as fifteen movies have been made so far off this story.
In December 1975, the Lutz family bought their dream home for a bargain price. It was a house that a man killed his entire family in, so it was a fixer upper. Father Mancuso who came out to bless the house was immediately sick with boils, the Dad gets up at 3:15 every morning - the time of the murders, there are swarms of flies in the playroom, doors and windows are broken, the kids play with the ghost of a pig, the wife levitates, green slime on the stairs. The house needs a little work.
The book is 300 pages and there is something spooky on virtually every page. The Dad explores local history and finds ancient Indians wouldn't even use the land for a burial ground, and one of the first owners was a cast out Salem witch who killed animals in the basement and is still buried on the property. If you think this is the kind of haunted house story that has a disembodied voice booming "Get Out!" - you would be right.
Jay Anson wrote this based on exhaustive recorded interviews with the Lutz's, who wanted to set the record straight. They managed to flee the house after living there just 28 days. The psychic phenomena was interesting, but it was written in semi-documentary style presenting the story as an objective observer that was off putting. George did this, Kathy went upstairs, the door was broken!.
I didn't find it scary, or even really engaging. Is it true? Admissions made during years of lawsuits over the proprietary rights to the story may say otherwise.
Even if it is fictional, it was disappointing.
1977 / Paperback / 300 pages
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