The Amityville Horror (1979) American International/Horror RT: 117 minutes Rated R (violent images, terror, brief nudity and sex, language) Director: Stuart Rosenberg Screenplay: Sandor Stern Music: Lalo Schifrin Cinematography: Fred J. Koenekamp Release date: July 27, 1979 (US) Cast: James Brolin, Margot Kidder, Rod Steiger, Don Stroud, Murray Hamilton, John Larch, Natasha Ryan, K.C. Martel, Meeno Peluce, Michael Sacks, Helen Shaver, Val Avery, Amy Wright, Irene Dailey, Marc Vahanian. Box Office: $86.4M (US)
Rating: ** ½
In the early morning hours of November 13, 1974, Ronald “Butch” DeFeo took a shotgun and killed his entire family inside their home in Amityville, New York. Among his victims were his parents and four siblings. DeFeo confessed to the murders claiming he heard voices commanding him to kill his family. This is fact; DeFeo is currently serving six consecutive life sentences at a maximum-security prison.
What happened after the heinous murders is questionable and the subject of The Amityville Horror, an adaptation of the best-selling book by Jay Anson. About a year after the murders, young newlywed couple George (Brolin, Night of the Juggler) and Kathy (Kidder, Superman) Lutz moved into the house at 112 Ocean Ave with her three children from her first marriage. They stayed in the house for 28 days until fleeing in terror in the middle of the night never to return. The house is obviously cursed.
When they first move in, the Lutzes are a happy family trying to adjust to their new surroundings and domestic situation. It doesn’t take too long for strange things to start happening. Black goo fills the toilet and flies gather in the playroom. When Father Delaney (Steiger, The Pawnbroker) shows up to bless the house, a booming voice commands him to “Get out!” Convinced the house is haunted, he tries to warn the family, but s stopped at every turn by unseen forces. When he tries to get authorization to perform an exorcism, Father Ryan (Hamilton, Jaws) won’t give it to him. He thinks Delaney just needs a leave of absence.
Meanwhile, George starts to change. He becomes increasingly hostile towards his family and friends. He and Kathy start to argue a lot. His business partner Jeff (Sacks, Split Image) notices the change in George and tries to help, only to be met with resistance and hostility. Jeff’s wife Carolyn (Shaver, The Believers) is something of a psychic; she’s the one who locates the source of evil in the house. Apparently, there’s a well in the basement from which demonic forces flow.
The youngest child Amy (Ryan, The Entity) has an imaginary friend she calls Jody. She says Jody tells her things like about the little boy who used to live in her room. Kathy believes Jody is imaginary until she sees a pair of glowing red eyes staring at her from outside Amy’s bedroom window. Greg (Martel, Bloody Birthday) almost gets his hand broken by a window that slams down by itself. The family dog Harry keeps trying to paw his way through a wall in the basement. It’s later revealed a secret room painted bright red lies behind the wall.
It sounds like The Amityville Horror is the ultimate haunted house flick except it’s not really that scary. There are some disturbing images, but the events aren’t unlike anything you’ve already seen in dozens of other similar movies. One of the major problems with The Amityville Horror is that it gets bogged down in a couple of unnecessary subplots, material that was added to the screenplay for increased dramatic effect. Besides all that business about Father Delaney and the proposed exorcism, there’s Sgt. Gionfriddo (Avery, Cobra), the lead detective on the DeFeo case. He sits in his car and watches the house as if he expects something to happen. He even questions Delaney after the priest went blind while saying a prayer for the Lutzes. His character serves no purpose in the movie at all; he’s just excess baggage. It would have been better if director Stuart Rosenberg (Cool Hand Luke) and screenwriter Sandor Stern had done a more faithful adaptation of the book, one of the first horror novels I read as a child denied access to scary movies. The material in the book should have been sufficient for a movie. It would have played well as a docudrama or dramatic re-enactment of the supposedly “true” events.
Brolin is an excellent actor. He’s positively frightening in The Amityville Horror. As the movie progresses, he appears to become possessed by some evil force. What’s especially eerie is his resemblance to Ronald DeFeo, something a local bartender brings to his attention. Kidder is also good as the terrified wife trying to hold her family together in the face of George’s increasingly bizarre behavior. Steiger is another great actor and he does well as the priest who is affected by the evil spirits that reside at 112 Ocean Ave.
I’m sure if I had seen The Amityville Horror when it first came out, it would have scared the living daylights out of me. It doesn’t really hold up too well after all these years. It’s actually quite tame by today’s standards. Yes, it has some genuinely creepy moments, but it lacks momentum due to the unnecessary subplots. It also lacks that “WOW!” factor a horror movie needs to effectively scare the hell out of the audience. This is another movie that would be a good choice for a preteen’s first R-rated horror movie. However, since they’ve probably seen some pretty intense PG-13 fright flicks, it might not make much of an impression.
