THE
AMITYVILLE HORROR (1979)
Starring
James Brolin, Margot Kidder, Rod Steiger, Don
Stroud.
Directed by Stuart Rosenberg. (119 min)
Essay
by D.M. ANDERSONđ
For
a brief time in the late 70s, the
Lutz family was a household name. Their terrifying
account of spending
a
month in their demon-infested new home was the subject of Jay Anson’s
book, The
Amityville Horror,
which scared the living shit out of damn-near everyone and became a
literary
phenomenon
similar to The
Da Vinci Code…the
book everyone just had
to read. While not particularly well-written, what made it
truly terrifying was, unlike The
Shining
or The
Exorcist,
we
were duped into believing the
Lutz’ story was true.
Naturally, Hollywood came calling
and The
Amityville Horror
was adapted into a film in 1979 by American-International Pictures
(one
of their few big-budget attempts to compete with the major studios).
Having
just read a copy of the tattered paperback that was making the rounds
at my high school – resulting in a sleepless night or two – I
just had
to check
it out,
as
did everyone else who read it
because the Southgate Quad was packed
on
opening night. Before the lights went down, I overheard others
talking-up
the scariest sections
of the book with
anticipation in their voices.
Even the friend
I came to
the movie with
– who’d usually rather be caught masturbating than reading a book
– said he nearly
pissed
himself at the part describing a
pair of
hellish
red
eyes peering through the
Lutz’
bedroom
window. Whether
The
Amityville Horror
was true or not, surely the movie would be
scary as fuck.
THIS BOOK MADE ME PEE |
James
Brolin & Margot Kidder play George & Kathy Lutz, who learn the hard way how they got their new home so cheap: the last family who lived there
were all murdered. Worse yet, the evil which possessed one of the
sons to commit this horrible act is still in the house and they don’t
like the Lutz' presence one damn bit. Like the book, The
Amityville Horror isn’t particularly well-made. Unlike
the book, it isn’t particularly scary, either. Those demonic red
eyes that practically jumped from the printed page looked more like lights from a
couple of smoke alarms. American-International may have
opened their wallets a bit wider for this one, but everything still
looked kinda cheap. The film also made enough wholesale changes to
the story – even condensing the timeline – to suggest the
filmmakers were not among its believers. At the showing I attended, no one screamed, jumped or gasped, though I did hear a few chuckles.
"Hey, honey...maybe that's the demon who took your pants." |
Still,
for a movie driven more by profit than passion, The Amityville
Horror was kind of fun, once I accepted that fact it wouldn't depict the book’s most terrifying moments as vividly as
my imagination once did. And in director Stuart Rosenberg’s
defense, Stanley Kubrick couldn’t do it with The Shining
either. Like Meteor and The Island of Dr. Moreau, it
was ultimately another AIP B-movie dolled-up with A-list talent.
Sure, the whole thing was cheesy trash, but at least it wasn’t
boring and Rod Steiger’s histrionic turn as a terrified priest was
comedy gold.
In
ensuing years, the Lutz’ story has pretty-much been declared total
bullshit, but that didn’t stop The Amityville Horror from
spawning a franchise that still has brand name value
four decades later, with 23 (and counting!) films
that have Amityville in the title. Today, the original film is held in fairly high regard by horror fans who were around back then, probably more out of nostalgia than any actual terror they might have felt. It's amusing to recall how easily bamboozled we were.
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