The Amityville Horror is a 1979 American supernatural horror film directed by Stuart Rosenberg, and starring James Brolin, Margot Kidder, and Rod Steiger. The film follows young couple George and Kathy Lutz who purchase a home haunted by combative supernatural forces. It is based on Jay Anson's 1977 book of the same name, which documented the alleged paranormal experiences of the Lutz family who briefly resided in the Amityville, New York home where Ronald DeFeo Jr. committed the mass murder of his family in 1974. It is the first entry in the long-running Amityville Horror film series, and was remade in 2005.
Executive producer Samuel Z. Arkoff originated the project after purchasing the rights to Anson's book, and it was initially conceived as a television film, which Anson adapted himself. When Arkoff rejected the teleplay, it was reworked by screenwriter Sandor Stern as a feature film. The producers intended to shoot the film in the actual DeFeo residence, but its owners denied them permission. Filming instead began on location in Toms River, New Jersey in October 1978, followed by interior shoots occurring at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer sound stages in Los Angeles, which were completed just before the Christmas holiday.
The Amityville Horror premiered at the Museum of Modern Art on July 24, 1979, before receiving a wide theatrical release three days later. The film was a major commercial success and one of the most profitable films released by its distributor, American International Pictures. It went on to gross over $80 million in North America, becoming one of the highest-grossing independent films of all time, as well as one of the highest-grossing horror films in cinema history. Though met with largely unfavorable critical reviews at the time of its release, composer Lalo Schifrin's musical score earned the film Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations, while Kidder received a Saturn Award nomination for Best Actress.
Critical reception has warmed over time, and some scholars have considered the film a classic of the horror genre, and it is widely regarded as a seminal entry in the sub-genre of the contemporary haunted house film. In his 1981 non-fiction book, Danse Macabre, horror author Stephen King interprets the film as a parable on the anxieties of homeownership and financial ruin, citing the economic crisis of the 1970s and the film's frequent references to financial matters, a reading which has been similarly assessed by other film scholars.
Plot
In the early morning hours on November 13, 1974, Ronald DeFeo Jr. murders his entire family with a rifle at their home of 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York.
One year later, middle-class newlyweds George and Kathy Lutz move into the house with Kathy's three children from a prior marriage: Greg, Matt, and Amy. Despite George's irreligiousness, Kathy, a nominal Roman Catholic, requests Jesuit priest Father Frank Delaney to bless the home. Delaney arrives while the family is out boating. Upon entering the house, Delaney is swarmed by flies upstairs and hears a hostile voice ordering him to leave, causing him to flee. The next day, Kathy's aunt Helena, a nun, visits the house but becomes violently ill and leaves abruptly, confounding Kathy.
The Lutzes' domestic life begins a sharp decline over the ensuing weeks: George becomes uncharacteristically volatile and abusive, and obsesses over keeping the home warm with firewood, despite Kathy's insistence that it is not cold. George recurrently awakens at 3:15 a.m.—the same time the DeFeos were murdered—while Kathy suffers disturbing nightmares. One night before Kathy's brother Jimmy's engagement party, $1,500 in cash, to be paid to the caterer, inexplicably goes missing from the house. Meanwhile, Jackie, the babysitter watching Amy for the evening, is locked inside a bedroom closet by an unseen force. Further unexplained incidents occur: one of the two boys suffers a crushed hand when a sash window falls on it, and Amy has an imaginary friend, Jody, who seems malevolent. One night, Kathy glimpses two red, swine-like eyes outside Amy's second-story bedroom window.
Delaney makes several attempts to intervene that seem to be thwarted by unusual accidents and occurrences: his phone calls to the home are frequently met with static by Kathy, and on one occasion, his car malfunctions en route to the house, nearly causing a fatal crash. Convinced there are demonic forces at work, Delaney grows frustrated by the lack of support from his superiors in the diocese. Meanwhile, George's land surveying business begins to suffer due to his lack of attendance, concerning his business partner, Jeff. Jeff's wife, Carolyn, who has psychic proclivities, is both repelled and intrigued by the feelings she experiences when she is at the house.
In the home's basement, Carolyn is drawn to a brick wall that the family dog, Harry, has repeatedly scratched at, and she begins dismantling it with a hammer. Discovering the damage, George takes down the rest of the wall, uncovering a small room with red walls. Carolyn, in terror, shrieks that they have found "the passage... to Hell!", her voice resembling that of Father Delaney. Later that night, Delaney prays passionately at his pulpit for God to save the family, before he inexplicably loses his sight and falls catatonic.
Kathy visits the library to research the property's history and finds county records suggesting that the house was built atop a Shinnecock burial ground and that a known Satanic worshipper named John Ketchum once lived on the land. She also discovers news clippings about the DeFeo murders and notices Ronald DeFeo's striking resemblance to George.
The paranormal events culminate that night during a rainstorm: blood oozes from the walls and down the staircase; Jody, appearing as a large, red-eyed pig, is seen through a window; and a seemingly possessed George attempts to kill the children with an axe, but regains his wits after Kathy intervenes. After falling through the basement stairs into a pit of black sludge while rescuing Harry, George and the rest of the family drive away, abandoning their home and belongings. A closing intertitle reads: "George and Kathleen Lutz and their family never reclaimed their house or their personal belongings. Today they live in another state."
Cast
Themes
In his 1983 non-fiction book Danse Macabre, horror author Stephen King analyzed The Amityville Horror, identifying its numerous metaphors regarding anxiety over homeownership and financial turmoil, citing the 1973–1975 recession and the energy crisis of the 1970s, interpreting the film as a parable on American financial distress. At the time of the film's release, King had unfavorably reviewed the film for Rolling Stone, in which he deemed it a "simplistic and transparent" story, an assertion he recanted in Danse Macabre, writing that the "canards" who dismissed it "really miss the point, and as a lifelong horror fan, I should have known it. Stupid, simplistic, and transparent are also perfectly good words to describe the tale of The Hook, but that doesn't change the fact that the story is an enduring classic of its kind."
King attributed the film's significant commercial success to audiences identifying with the lead characters George (James Brolin) and Kathy Lutz (Margot Kidder), a middle-class couple who take a large financial risk in purchasing a home, only for it to have dire intrapersonal consequences within the family. Summarizing its thematic core, he wrote: "The Amityville Horror, beneath its ghost-story exterior, is really a financial demolition derby."
Writer Tony Williams echoes King's analysis of the film in his 1996 book Hearths of Darkness: The Family in the American Horror Film, writing that, "despite lapsing into incoherence toward the end," it "contains significant associations between family life, home ownership, and supposedly supernatural horror... [it] is one of the few films that link the economic responsibilities of home ownership to family horror."
Citing King's analysis, literary critic John Kenneth Muir noted in his book Horror Films FAQ: All That's Left to Know About Slashers, Vampires, Zombies, Aliens, and More (2013): "If one follows King's lead, it's easy to contextualize The Amityville Horror as a financial nightmare... Similarly, the movie's dialogue constantly references financial matters. "Bills have to be paid," says one character. "The IRS is calling," warns another. "They'll nickel and dime you to death" is a mantra not just about the bill collectors, perhaps, but a warning about the demons in the house."
Production Development
Producer Samuel Z. Arkoff purchased the rights to The Amityville Horror (1977) by author Jay Anson. Promoted as being based on a true story, Anson's book documents the alleged paranormal events experienced by the Lutz family while they resided in the Amityville, New York home where Ronald DeFeo Jr. committed the mass murder of his parents Ronald Sr. and Louise and his siblings in November 1974.
Anson himself wrote a teleplay based on his work, which was intended to be shot as a made-for-television film for CBS. Samuel Z. Arkoff, an executive producer and head of American International Pictures, contacted CBS asking to produce the film as a theatrical feature, offering CBS the rights to broadcast it on their network in exchange. Arkoff subsequently hired screenwriter Sandor Stern to rework Anson's teleplay as a feature film.
Casting James Brolin was offered the leading role in the film while he was completing Night of the Juggler, but was initially hesitant about the project. At the time of his casting, the script was unfinished, so Brolin obtained a copy of Anson's novel. Brolin read it until two o'clock in the morning. He had hung up a pair of his pants in the room earlier and during an especially tense passage of the book, the pants fell to the floor. Brolin jumped from his chair in fright. Convinced that the material would make an effective film, Brolin agreed to star. He described the project as a challenge for him, as it was a "pure character role" that he had not yet had the opportunity to play: "It 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."
Margot Kidder was cast in the role of Kathy Lutz after her breakthrough performance as Lois Lane in Richard Donner's Superman the year prior. "Basically at that stage you took the jobs you were offered and took the money," Kidder recalled in a later interview. "But [horror films] are fun to make. They make me laugh." In a 2005 interview with the actors, Brolin and Kidder admitted that they clashed in regard to their acting styles, with Brolin remaining committed to closely following the screenplay, while Kidder preferred a more improvisational approach to the material.
Veteran actor Rod Steiger was cast in the role of priest Francis Delaney, and had at the time been experiencing a career slump following his recent open-heart surgery, which left him depressed and made film studios hesitant to hire him due to high insurance costs. Commenting during an interview promoting the film, Steiger said: "This is my last maneuver in letting Hollywood know that I'm in good shape physically."
Natasha Ryan, an eight-year-old experienced child actor, was cast in the role of the Lutz's young daughter, Amy, while K. C. Martel made his feature film debut as one of the family's two sons, Greg.
Filming