The Amityville Horror *** (1979, James Brolin, Margot Kidder, Rod Steiger) – Classic Movie Review 2520

The surprise blockbuster 1979 supernatural horror movie The Amityville Horror recycles the old, old haunted house story once more. It has been used over and over again and yet it is popular every time, though rarely as popular as this time.

Director Stuart Rosenberg’s surprise blockbuster 1979 American supernatural horror movie The Amityville Horror recycles the old, old haunted house story once more. It has been used over and over again and yet it is popular every time, though rarely as popular as this time.

James Brolin and Margot Kidder play this movie’s terrorised couple, newlyweds George and Kathy Lutz, who move into a spooky large old lakefront Dutch Colonial house in Amityville on the coast of Long Island, New York, with their three children – sons Matthew (Meeno Peluce) and Gregory (K C Martel) and daughter Amy (Natasha Ryan).

They think that it is their dream home in the ‘deal of a lifetime’ and don’t heed the info the real estate agent tells them about the house’s history: the son of the previous owner shot and killed his parents and four siblings (the real-life 1974 DeFeo murders). Eventually, though, it’s a case of ‘For God’s sake, get out!’

Soon after moving in, George becomes obsessed with having a fire lit in the fireplace and hears noises at night, while Amy acquires an imaginary friend named Jodie.

Shortly after that, grisly things happen at the house and the couple have to call in their local priest, Father Delaney (played by Rod Steiger), who believes that the house is haunted by an evil spirit. He has clearly just seen a rerun of The Exorcist, so he decides to perform an exorcism on the house.

Steiger in an equally grisly wig is entertainingly hammy and the best thing in an enjoyable but somehow pretty poor horror movie, based on the book The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson that claimed to be based on real events, with a screenplay by Sandor Stern. Certain characters and events have been changed from the book supposedly to heighten dramatic effect.

Anson adapted his own book as a teleplay to be shot as a made-for-TV film for CBS. But then American International Pictures’ executive producer Samuel Z Arkoff contacted CBS asking to produce the film as a cinema feature and offering CBS the rights to broadcast it on their network in exchange. Arkoff then hired Canadian screenwriter Sandor Stern to rework Anson’s teleplay as a feature film. Sandor Stern went on to write and direct the fourth film in the series, Amityville Horror: The Evil Escapes (1989).

It is quite a long movie at 118 minutes, whereas the 2005 remake The Amityville Horror is only a taut 90 minutes, though this original does keep motoring eerily along, and Stuart Rosenberg keeps the atmosphere fairly tense. There is distinguished work, though, in Lalo Schifrin’s score, which was both Oscar and Golden Globe nominated. James Brolin and Margot Kidder are both quite good, and Kidder’s performance was recognised when she received a Saturn Award nomination for Best Actress.

Don Stroud, Murray Hamilton, John Larch play Father Bolen, Father Ryan and Father Nuncio. Also in the cast are Michael Sacks, Helen Shaver, Natasha Ryan, Val Avery, Amy Wright, K C Martel, Meeno Peluce, Irene Dailey, Marc Vahanian and James Tolkan.

It had its world premiere at the Museum of Modern Art in New York on 24 July 1979 starting a season of American International Pictures films, and was released in the US on 27 July 1979.

There are eight films in the original series. Three sequels followed: Amityville II: The Possession (1982), Amityville 3-D (1984) and the made-for-TV Amityville Horror: The Evil Escapes (1989), as well as The Amityville Curse (1990), Amityville: It’s About Time (1992), Amityville: A New Generation (1993) and Amityville: Dollhouse (1996).

It was remade as The Amityville Horror in 2005 with Ryan Reynolds.

More followed, starting with The Amityville Haunting (2011). The rebooted Amityville: The Awakening followed in 2017.

It was hoped to shoot the film in the actual DeFeo residence in Amityville, New York, but its owners refused so shooting took place in Toms River, New Jersey in October 1978, followed by interior filming at MGM’s studio in Los Angeles.

The owners of the real house in Amityville have replaced the famous ‘evil eyes’ windows with normal rectangle-shaped windows.

Brolin became friendly with George Lutz and his children, but remained doubtful of their story. Kidder also said she didn’t believe the Amityville story, and she told her friends that she hated the film. Father Ray said his experiences in the house were real. Kathy and George passed a polygraph test, and George stood by his accounts until the day he died.

The reported events in the Amityville house took place over 28 days in December 1975 and January 1976. The Lutzes fled the house on 14 January 1976. They divorced in the late Eighties. George died of heart disease on 8 May 2006 and Kathy died of emphysema on 17 August 2004. Their three children, Daniel, Christopher and Missy, are out of the public eye.

The outdoor scenes were not filmed in Amityville, Long Island, but in Toms River, New Jersey, where police and ambulance workers played extras.

The low-budget film became one of the highest grossing independent films of all time and American International Pictures’ biggest hit. On a budget of $4,700,000, it grossed $86,432,520 in the US. In 1979 it was in the top ten most successful films of all time.

Stephen King reviewed the film unfavourably for Rolling Stone, and later attributed the film’s commercial success to audiences identifying with the lead characters, a middle-class couple who take a large financial risk in buying a home, only for it to have dire consequences within the family.

James Brolin and Barbra Streisand.

Brolin agreed to less money up front but 10 per cent of the gross, sales after its release, which netted him about $17 million back then, worth more than $55 million in 2015. He has been married to Barbra Streisand since July 1 1998.

Brolin said it was a challenge as it was a ‘pure character role that demands a progression of dissipation of personality, so I had to figure out how to portray a man who is losing his sanity during his obsession.’ Kidder, who had just broken through as a star in Richard Donner’s Superman, recalled: ‘Basically at that stage you took the jobs you were offered and took the money.’ In 2005 Brolin and Kidder admitted their acting styles clashed, with Brolin following the screenplay closely and Kidder taking a more improvisational approach.

The film documents the alleged paranormal experiences of the Lutz family after they move into a house at 112 Ocean Avenue, Long Island. In 1974, real-life mass murderer Ronald DeFeo Jr killed six members of his family at the same house in Amityville, New York.

Ronald DeFeo Jr was tried and convicted for the 1974 killings of his father, mother, two brothers, and two sisters. Sentenced to six counts of 25 years to life, DeFeo died in prison on March 12, 2021. The motive for the killings remains unclear.

The cast are James Brolin as George Lutz, Margot Kidder as Kathy Lutz, Rod Steiger as Father Frank Delaney, Don Stroud as Father Bolen, Murray Hamilton as Father Ryan, John Larch as Father Nuncio, Natasha Ryan as Amy Lutz, K C Martel as Greg Lutz, Meeno Peluce as Matt Lutz, Michael Sacks as Jeff, Helen Shaver as Carolyn, Amy Wright as babysitter Jackie, Val Avery as Sergeant Gionfriddo, Elsa Raven as Mrs Townsend, Irene Dailey as Aunt Helena, Marc Vahanian as Jimmy, Ellen Saland as Jimmy’s wife, Eddie Barth as Agucci, James Tolkan as Coroner, and Brian Bruderlin as Ronald DeFeo Jr.

The Amityville Horror films

The Amityville Horror (1979), Amityville II: The Possession, Amityville 3-D, Amityville Horror: The Evil Escapes, The Amityville Curse, Amityville: It’s About Time, Amityville: A New Generation, Amityville Dollhouse, and the reboot The Amityville Horror (2005).

More followed: The Amityville Haunting (2011), The Amityville Asylum, Amityville Death House, The Amityville Playhouse, Amityville: Vanishing Point, The Amityville Legacy, The Amityville Terror, Amityville: No Escape, Amityville Exorcism, Amityville: Evil Never Dies, Amityville: The Awakening (2017), and finally The Amityville Harvest (2020) which seems to be the last film in the series.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2,520

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com