The Amityville Horror (1979)
Selection by Nostromo87 - Oh hey, that's me
Based on a book by the same title published in 1977 by author Jay Anson. George and Kathy Lutz find an ideal colonial-style beautiful home on the river's edge. While the house appears to be a bargain, it stood empty for a long while. For a spell on the forum here, a couple years back, I was fascinated with the film The Shining, also based on a 1977 book, by author Stephen King. The two stories have a lot in common, one featuring a haunted house, the other a haunted hotel, both harboring dark memories and wicked deeds performed inside that torment the families residing there. In this one it's George and Kathy Lutz, in the other it's Jack and Wendy Torrance and their child Danny. Both father figures are tempted into axe-murderers of their own family, only in this one George triumphs over the evil spirits and gets away with his family, while in The Shining Jack Torrance is devoured by the evil of The Overlook Hotel and left frozen in the morning snow of the hedgemaze. Similarly, both the Lutz's daughter Amy and Danny Torrance from The Shining interract with imaginary friends. For Amy it is "Jody," for Danny it is "Tony." Here's a scene between Margot Kidder (Kathy Lutz) and her little daughter Amy,
Mother (Kathy) - What does Jody look like, huh? Is Jody big, or thin, or fat?
Little Girl (Amy) - She's nice.
Mother - Mhmm.
Little Girl - She tells me things too.
Mother - Yea? Like what does she tell ya, huh?
Little Girl - She tells me about the little boy who used to live in my room. He got hurt. And he died.
Mother - And what else does Jody tell you?
Little Girl - She says she wants me to live here forever and ever, so we can all play together.
I actually like this better than The Shining, truthfully. It isn't as long, and I relate more to the lives of the Lutz family, and their home, compared to the more distant and detached hotel from the other story. Another good scene happens with George Lutz getting some advice from his friend to get away from the dark house - "Go home get cleaned up, take Kathy out to dinner. Carolyn and I will babysit the kids. Ya gotta get away from it, George. Even if it's for a couple of hours. And when you get back, we'll add it all up. We'll talk this thing through."
George - Okay.
Friend - Let's go home.
Rod Steiger also delivers a terrific performance as Father Delaney that compares with Donald Pleasance's Dr. Loomis from Halloween, another movie about a killer named Michael and his haunted Myers House. Stepping back from it all, The Amityville Horror doubles as not only a valuable horror movie, but also a purely enjoyable overall film with an engaging cast of talent with James Brolin, Margot Kidder, and Rod Steiger. It's a well-known film but that also did not get good reviews for some reason, 30% approval by Rotten Tomatoes critics, who I don't actually care about anyways. I put the film at #10 in my most recent overall favorite movies list. Also a wildly successful film at the box office when it was released, earning $86,400,000 on a budget of just $4,700,000, multiplying its production budget over 18x's. The movie feels like a classic, yet it is isn't often heralded as such along with the likes of The Exorcist and Psycho and The Shining and all those obvious horror movies. In conclusion, in spite of all the trauma terror and malicious vibes, I enjoy the positive ending of the Lutz family getting away, finally, in one piece.